How Eating Lunch with Your Employees Boosts Productivity

Did you know that you can unlock super employee engagement powers during your lunch break? That’s right! Having lunch with your coworkers and employees can help increase overall workplace engagement.

Wondering how?

When you are ready to take a break, instead of closing your office door and eating at your desk, use your lunch hour to cultivate relationships with your employees. Here are some reasons you should be having lunch with your coworkers and employees.


Strengthens Teamwork

Consider the example of a team of firefighters. They work together, train together, spend time at the fire station together, and prepare and eat meals together. When it comes time to fight fires in life-or-death situations, they support each other and ensure that each member of the team makes it home alive. They form a brotherhood as a result of spending time together.

A 2015 study published by Human Performance determined that bonding over food can create feelings of cohesiveness and closeness among team members. The intimacy surrounding sharing food and drink with someone helps to build camaraderie, foster relationships, and boost mutual concern for one and other.

As members of a team, they perform better and have each other’s backs. By eating lunch with your employees, you are encouraging that team to bond and strengthen their loyalty to each other and their job assignments. Projects are less likely to slip through the cracks when everyone in the company feels like you and their other coworkers are there to catch them if they begin to fall.


Boosting Productivity

Spending four or five hours straight at your desk can be tiresome. It can lead to midday sleepiness and creativity block. A lack of communication with others throughout the day can have a significant impact on your productivity. By setting aside at least 30 minutes a day to grab lunch away from your desk, you can recharge your brain and gain a much-needed energy boost.

By setting time aside to eat lunch with a coworker or employee, you are more likely to have even more positive results. Not only do you ward off the midday slump, but you are also taking the opportunity to help a team member do the same. Taking time off away from your desk to switch gears and refocus during the workday can help you to come back to work refreshed and energetic. You’ll be surprised at how easily new ideas begin to form and how quickly you can get stuff done when your brain is switched back on and ready to work.


Building Relationships

As a leader in the company, it is important to maintain a culture of trust and inclusiveness. To do so, you will need to create positive relationships with your employees. When you eat lunch with your employees, you are creating a closer relationship with them.

Those of us who don’t fight fires can still learn a thing or two from the firehouse culture. Coworkers who eat together share a special relationship that fosters teamwork and helps them to get to know each other on a personal level. This, in turn, creates a more open, friendly, and approachable image for company leaders. By having lunch with employees, you are showing them that you are accessible and transparent.  Quality time with employees can create more room for candid discussions and encourage employees to speak up about their ideas and concerns.

Take time to get away from your desk and enjoy a meal break with your employees or coworker. You will be amazed at how refreshed and happier you feel having done so. On top of that, you’ll be strengthening relationships, fostering teamwork, and improving employee engagement, and the only thing you had to lift was a fork.

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