The influence of lunch breaks on afternoon productivity

Recently, intellectual productivity has been considered important for working in offices. The factors that affect intellectual productivity during work include the indoor environment, tiredness, and job motivation. Activities such as social communication or refreshing oneself that lead to recovery from tiredness or increased motivation often take place during the lunch break. In this study, a questionnaire survey as well as physical environmental measurements and visual inspections were conducted to capture the effect of lunch breaks on office workers’ intellectual productivity in the afternoon. Workers tended to be satisfied with the space when the room temperature or CO₂ concentration was lower. Workers who took naps, used the cafeteria or a relaxation space, or had high expectations of recovering from fatigue tended to report that their work efficiency increased. Further, there was tendency that the number of actions to recover from fatigue in the afternoon decreased as compared with those in the morning for those who had better satisfaction with the space where they spent most of their time during the lunch break. This suggests that how workers spend their lunch break has a positive impact on their afternoon productivity.