WORLD OF WORK

Released 03/10/2008

British workers confess lunchtime sins

From the saintly to the shameful and the side splitting, Britain's workers have been bearing all this month by writing to office suppliers, Esselte, with their ‘Ultimate Lunchtime Confessions' at www.ultimateconfession.com, launched on 18 August to celebrate its new range of ‘Ultimate File' suspension files .

We all know what we should be doing on our lunch breaks: eating healthy salads, perhaps taking a brisk walk around the block or visiting the gym, and there were many exemplary confessions, including Kathryn's: "I'm trying to lose weight with WeightWatchers so I have a jacket potato with half a tin of ratatouille for four points, and then an apple for one point. How boring am I?!" Unfortunately not everyone's as controlled as her, with Claire confessing: "If I haven't got any lunch I'll have a good look through the fridge and pinch the best lunch that belongs to one of my colleagues," and Michelle revealing that her lunch consists of "Haribos, mainly!"

Using work resources for unusual purposes was a common theme amongst confessors, with Louise admitting she uses the company's fax, phone and internet to plan a career break and round-the-world trip, while Nicola even told us she "took the bosses' new car out for a spin whilst he was in a meeting!"

Many see their lunch hour as a good way to get back at "evil" managers, as Nick shared: "I usually spend my lunch hour preparing a ‘body hair' salad for my boss. Everyday I listen to him telling me I'm not good enough, but then when he thinks I'm being nice by fetching his lunch I flavour it with my body hair. Now who's boss?!"

Catching a moment alone can be difficult in a busy office as Wendy discovered: "As an office junior I used to eat my lunch in the meeting room, just to get a bit of peace and read my Just 17 magazine. One day I had a phone call and had to go back to my desk, and in the meantime several important clients arrived to see the MD and were ushered into the meeting room. Not realising, I barged into the room to finish my lunch and was greeted by the MD and his guests reading aloud from the problem page of my mag. Not only that, but I'd left a banana skin and crisp packet in the middle of the table...very, very embarrassing."

Most of us have heard tales of office romances, and lunchtime rendezvous can be exciting but tricky as Amy found out: "I've been out working at a client's office for the past three weeks but I haven't quite got around to telling my boyfriend I've met someone new there. During lunch we started by just nipping out for a sandwich but his flat isn't far from the office so once or twice we've gone back there instead...I don't know what I'm going to do when this job is over and I have to go back to my own office."

From lusting over the local barman to working shifts in the local lap dancing club to playing football in the office, plenty of British workers are up to no good in their lunch hours. Luckily though there are plenty of you out there to redeem them - Esselte's read confessions from checkout girls studying hard at lunch for a better career, caring mothers going home to walk their children's dogs, and fitness fanatics taking a 30-minute speed walk to burn 200 calories.

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