Flexibility in work time impacts workers’ lunch habits

Abstract

Abstract Background: Workplaces have been highlighted as a promising p lace to promote healthy food choices because of the recurrence of eati ng occasions (Wanjek, 2005). Beyond interventional research promoting healthier food choices in workplace restaurants, much remains to be un derstood regarding the specificities of eating choices of individuals during their worktime. Specifically, although working conditions seem likely to play a key role in workers’ eating choices (Raulio et al., 2 007), the nature and extent of this association are unclear. Worktime organisation and workers’ control over their own schedule have been pr oposed to account for differences in the way workers interact with the ir workplace food environment (Massey & Saulais, in press; Raulio et a l., 2012). Objectives: The objective of this research is to investigat e the relationships between two time-related working conditions, sched ule flexibility and control over one's schedule, and workers’ lunch ha bits. Methodology: An ad-hoc online questionnaire was developed partly after the French Working Conditions survey. 1,139 French wage-earning workers, recruited from an online survey panel, were asked about thei r time-related working conditions, their behavior during lunch breaks over a two-week period (including non-food related behaviors such as t aking care of personal matters during break) and their subjective expe rience of these lunch breaks in relation with time (such as feeling ru shed during lunch break). Results: Workers with more flexibility in th eir schedule were more likely to report using lunch breaks as an adjus ting variable in their workday, either by reducing it to compensate fo r their workload (p = .0001) or to attend to personal matters (p = .04 ). Perceived control over worktime organization also affected eating s trategies during lunchtime. Conclusion: This research is one of the fi rst to investigate possible relationships between working conditions a nd workers’ lunch habits. Although results provide support to a link b etween time-related working conditions and lunch behaviors, socioecono mic status (SES), which have been shown to impact workers’ behaviors, could be a confounding factor (Massey & Saulais, in press), whose effe ct needs to be further investigated in controlled conditions.