Lunching Lawyers beware

Lunching at your desk is disgusting... says Anna Soubry, the minister for public health.

From the Telegraph 24/01/13:

Office workers should take a proper lunch break rather than engaging in the "disgusting" habit of eating a sandwich at their desk, a minister has said.

She disclosed that she had banned her daughters from using the word “fat” at home because she did not want them to become “obsessed with their weight”.

What a great idea.  Ahem...  If only all the world’s problems were so easy to solve, eh?

“Today, people don’t get paid for their lunch. It’s mad and it’s wrong,” she said. “Also, it’s disgusting eating over a keyboard.”

Please don’t give me all that crap about office desks and keyboards containing more bacteria than a toilet seat.  I have alcohol hand gel at my desk (which I use like an OCD sufferer), but quite frankly, we could all do with a bit more exposure to germs, bacteria and dirt.  No wonder we’re all breaking out in allergies and other conditions.

However, Miss Soubry confessed that she did eat lunch in her own office, which her officials would help provide.

“One of the things that freaked me out when I came in here was, they said, ‘minister, we’ll get your food.’ I thought, ‘how kind’. It was to keep me at my desk so I can’t escape,” she said.

Hmmm... the words “pot” and “kettle” spring to mind.

Modern life seems to centre on rushing around like a proverbial blue-bummed fly, with no time dedicated to the present. Since Christmas, I’ve been dwelling more and more on the nightmare we all seem trapped in; the confines of an office-bound job in which I, along with millions of others, trot about day to day totally wrapped-up in our miserable, pointless little lives in which we’re busy being busy.  

I can sense an early mid-life crisis coming on...

Anyhow.  I honestly believe the vast majority of lawyers out there eat lunch at their desks either everyday or on a fairly regular basis.  Given the ridiculous workloads that have become the norm, fee earners are generally grateful for lunch of any description.  .

I always make a point of going for a walk at lunchtime, either 20 minutes around the blog block or a 40 minute round trip down to town (60 occasionally if I nip into the local supermarket ... cheeky!!).  I generally then eat lunch when I come back to the office.   Yeah, I’m not above taking the odd liberty.  

I really feel that escaping the drudgery of the office is vital.  I’m much more productive in the afternoons when I’ve got some fresh air at lunchtime and it seems to free up my brain for a bit of creative legal thinking.  Sadly, I’m not much use to anyone unless I get that lunchtime escape (I probably shouldn’t be admitting this).

Anyway, before I veer too far off piste, let me wrap up by saying that lunch at your desk is fine (bacteria and other nasties notwithstanding) providing you also take the time to treat your lungs to that increasingly alien substance - fresh air.

And don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.