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Tracy Henderson counts on a sandwich at her desk for sustenance during the typical work day. Enisa Boardwine often skips the meal.

Once a week, the two mental health case workers make it a point to get out of their offices at the Zepf Center for lunch together, trying to recapture some of the shrinking
traditional lunch time.

The average break is now 35 minutes — seven minutes shorter than it was five years ago — according to a survey released this month by OfficeTeam, a national temporary staffing agency. It surveyed 150 executives from 1,000 of the nation’s largest companies.

Similarly, a 2005 survey by Steelcase, an office furniture maker, found that 55 percent of workers now take a half-hour or less for lunch. A typical lunch break is now 31 minutes, compared with 36 minutes in 1996, the survey showed.

About 35 percent of respondents to the Steelcase survey blamed shrinking lunch breaks on a changing work environment, and 22 percent said they are under increased job-performance pressure.

Ms. Boardwine said she and Ms. Henderson, ‘see clients through lunch; it’s the most convenient time.’ They took half an hour yesterday for a sitdown lunch at Focaccia’s Delicatessen on North Summit Street downtown.

Cheryl Riggs, a research coordinator for the Employers’ Association in Sylvania, said workers probably feel rushed because for many, lunch breaks cut into their paychecks.

Lunch is an unpaid break for 85 percent of employers in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, according to an Employers’ Association survey of 158 regional companies, Ms. Riggs said.

The stormy economy has made workers more willing to make sacrifices like skipping lunch, said Jennifer Schramm, manager of trends and forecasting for the Society for Human Resource Management, an industry trade group in Alexandria, Va.

‘People need … to be seen at their desks throughout the day,’ she said.

Restaurants have long recognized the need for speedy service with time-conscious lunch crowds.

Ed Beczynski, who serves as many as 400 people daily at Focaccia’s, estimated that the average lunch-time customer is served within 20 minutes.

Ferdos Mediterranean Restaurant, near the University of Toledo on West Bancroft Street, tries to move lunch customers in and out in less than 30 minutes, owner Maher Barazi said.

But the growing time demands of the lunch crunch can be tough, said Shirley Crabtree, manager of Madison Bistro downtown.

‘We do the very best we can. But it’s very hard, if you’re in a hurry and the table next to you is in a hurry,’ she said.

Contact Bridget Tharp at: btharp@theblade.com or 419-724-6061.

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