Lonely lunches the new norm

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This article was published 20/06/2018 (2130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Luke Annand was sitting on a bench snacking on fries with his mom by a strip of food trucks on Broadway Wednesday afternoon — a rare occasion for the film production assistant who said he eats lunch by himself “99.9 per cent of the time” when he’s working.

Annand said his busy job requires it; he’s often out scouting locations for movie and TV shows in Winnipeg and has to watch over the set to make sure nothing gets stolen while the cast eats.

“Sometimes, it’s spaghetti. Sometimes, it’s sausages and sometimes, I don’t even have lunch,” he said. “I just drink lots of water.”

It can be lonely, but the grab-and-go approach is necessary for his job, Annand said.

Around six out of 10 working Canadians agree eating lunch alone at work is the new norm, according to a new President’s Choice survey. The online survey, which was commissioned by the company, asked more than 1,500 random Canadian adults about their eating habits at work.

While 64 per cent of respondents said the workday is more enjoyable when they eat lunch with a colleague, 42 per cent said they eat lunch alone every day at work, Monday through Friday.

“Spending time together over food has the power to bring families closer, to connect colleagues and to bring together diverse communities,” said Galen G. Weston, CEO at Loblaw Companies Ltd., in a press release that announced the survey results and PC’s Eat Together campaign.

As part of the campaign, select Loblaw retailers — including eight Real Canadian Superstore locations and five No Frills grocery stores in Winnipeg — will be hosting free barbecues on Friday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

There will be free drinks, hotdogs, chips and ice-cream treats for Winnipeggers at the Real Canadian Superstore location on St. Anne’s Road, store manager John Davidson said Wednesday. He said he expects around 500 people to show up.

Dean Turman had just finished up a smokie, bag of chips and a water with a colleague Wednesday afternoon around the corner from his office building on Broadway.

“I’m a sociable person and I like to socialize with people,” the systems architect said, adding he almost always eats lunch with someone.

There are a number of reasons why people don’t share a lunch at work, said Katherine Breward, an assistant professor who teaches business at the University of Winnipeg and studies ways to eliminate barriers to full participation in the Canadian workforce.

She said employees might be overloaded with work, so they can’t spare any time for a break, might not want to leave their desk because they don’t want to be perceived as “less dedicated” workers or might feel isolated in the workplace. There might not even be a physical space for employees to eat, such as a workplace cafeteria, Breward added.

“(People) must be lonely, or way too busy,” said Denise Vallee, an insurance broker liaison who was out for lunch with a colleague Wednesday when she heard the survey statistics. Between bites of her perogies, Vallee said she eats with a friend about 50 per cent of the time and was shocked to hear so many Canadians don’t do the same.

Not everyone thinks eating alone is a bad thing though.

Registered dietitian Susan Watson said she recommends her clients leave their cubicle and take a lunch break alone in the fresh air. Watson, who owns Winnipeg-based nutrition counselling company A Little Nutrition, said employees can be negatively influenced by social pressures from their colleagues at lunchtime.

Eating with colleagues can pressure you to eat a certain way, she said, whether that means you overeat because you’re preoccupied by conversation or tempted by your colleague’s unhealthy meals — it’s not always easy to say no to a trip to McDonald’s.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie