Men's lunches are longer and more expensive

Most researchers say it's beneficial to get out from your workplace during your lunch break. 

  • Stepping out for lunch? In Sweden more men than women do so, and in fact men take longer and more expensive lunch breaks. The famous photo above is titled “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” and was taken on September 20, 1932. It shows construction workers seated on a girder with their feet dangling 840 feet above New York City, during the construction of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center. There have been claims that several of these workers are of Swedish descent.
  • Men sure are better at enjoying lunch than women. At least in Sweden. Men take time for lunch in a way women do not, and they oftentimes enjoy it away from their workplace. This according to a new survey from Edenred.

  • The classic photo by Charles C. Ebbets: Lunch atop a Skyscraper [Rockefeller Center, New York] (1932)
  • 51% of the men take an over 30 minute long lunch break. Only 38% of the women do the same. One reason may be, that women oftentimes work part time.
    “They may cut their lunch shorter so that they can go home earlier,” says Maria Lennernäs, meal- and public health researcher. “That means they get a gigantically long day without food. It’s crazy.” Every four Swedish man says he typically lunches at a restaurant (compare that to less than every 10th Swedish woman). Women’s lower salaries may contribute to this. Lennernäs says that it’s important to get out from your workplace during your lunch break especially if you are doing intellectual work, rather than physical work.

  • “Then it’s best to take a longer lunch, get outside, get some sun, and get your brain to recover a bit. It counteracts stress-related diseases.” In general it seems as if men have a less complicated relationship to their lunch food than women. They want to be full and they prefer cheap food, while women, according to the survey, put more emphasis on the food being nutritious and healthy. The survey was done through 1,263 interviews by Edenred in collaboration with Sifo.

  • (Edenred is the supplier of corporate prepaid services that invented the Ticket Restaurant® meal voucher.