I worked through lunch for two years straight, while everyone else in my office took their full hour breaks. I\u2019d eat at my desk, answer emails, take calls\u2014whatever needed to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My boss constantly praised me in meetings, calling me \u201ca model employee\u201d and saying I had \u201creal dedication to the company.\u201d I didn\u2019t mind at first because I thought it would lead somewhere, maybe a promotion or raise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then one day, I was completely exhausted and decided to actually take my lunch break. I went to a nearby caf\u00e9, turned off my phone, and sat outside for an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I got back, my boss was waiting at my desk. \u201cWhere were you? Where\u2019s your commitment?\u201d he snapped in front of half the office. I could feel everyone staring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I looked at him calmly and said, \u201cRead my contract. I\u2019m entitled to a one-hour lunch break.\u201d His face went red, but he didn\u2019t say anything else and walked away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day at lunch, we all got the same email from him with the subject line \u201cReminder: Lunch Break Policy.\u201d The email stated that effective immediately, all employees were required to take their full lunch breaks away from their desks, and anyone found working through lunch would receive a formal warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He claimed it was about \u201cemployee wellness\u201d and \u201ccompliance with labor standards.\u201d Everyone was shocked\u2014suddenly the thing I\u2019d been doing for two years that made me \u201cdedicated\u201d was now against the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now my coworkers are thanking me because they finally feel like they can take breaks without guilt, but I\u2019m nervous about how my boss really feels about me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did I handle this right? Should I have approached it differently? And how do I deal with work now that everyone knows I called out something that shouldn\u2019t have been happening in the first place?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I worked through lunch for two years straight, while everyone else in my office took their full hour breaks. I\u2019d eat at my desk, answer emails, take… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":317,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12329,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12327\/revisions\/12329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}