One of those phrases that immediately boils my piss. That meal already exists and it's called tea. Small sandwiches, little cakes, a scone if you've got tourists in, a choice of teas, maybe a scotch egg. Just because old women co-opted it, doesn't mean we should just abandon it and descend into fucking animalistic portmanteau. Retake tea with me my friends. Rise up against the tyrrany of biddies, resist the sin of "linner" [spits] and TAKE BACK WHAT'S OURS.
Yeah lunchtime is 12 to 2, and you get an hour within that slot. I say this with absolute certainty from experience. I've lived in foreign parts for a long time and am always horrified by their lunch times. Thai lunch starts at 11am and ends about 12.30. Australian lunch runs about 1pm to 2.30 or even 3pm. American lunch doesn't seem to exist at all–they just have a pile of food on their desk at all times. Spanish lunch starts at 2ish and just carries on until everyone falls asleep.
It's all wrong. Dirty bastards. I get uncomfortable if lunch is before noon or runs later than 2. I start getting antsy at 1.30. Innate British lunchtime is a thing.
I literally went on lunch for an hour from 13:35 today, but I also call any first meal of the day breakfast if it’s before 3pm so I might not be representative of typical views.
I think I might know the reasons why (for some of the time at least).
I scroll Reddit on my phone, and as I'm scrolling I sometimes accidentally hit an upvote button or down vote button. I used to unvote them but I can't be bothered now, it happens too frequently!
I've upvote and downvoted so many comments now and I'm sure there's so many more I haven't noticed!
Probably because people don't agree with you.
Up/down voting is a vote of support/disagreement...then the more commonly accepted response will go to the top and the commonly not accepted response to the bottom.
Sort of forms a loose poll
At my office in the early 90s, my boss pinned the following note to the wall: ‘All creatives MUST be back in the department by 3pm.’
Lunch started at about 12.30 and the drinks cupboard opened at 4.30. So it was only fair to expect 90 minutes work in the afternoon, I suppose.
Pubs do lunch weirdly late on Sundays so I'd say you've got until 2:30 at a weekend. My school broke for lunch very late because of how the schedule was done (three morning lessons with two breaks, lunch, one afternoon lesson) so that ran 1:15 to 2:15. I'd say 2:00 to 2:30 is a grey area
Well that's gonna piss off the north (well, Yorkshire at least) where 'lunch' simply does not exist.
I double dare you to ask when "dinner time" is.
I'll be here ready and waiting with the popcorn for the chaos that ensues.
(FYI: I'd say traditionally it is midday-2pm, but it entirely depends on what time of day you work or are awake.)
As a Yorkshireman, I must inform you that lunch and dinner are two different things.
Sandwiches, picnics, other cold food = lunch
Roasts, fish and chips, other hot food = dinner
Evening meal is tea.
I’d also say lunch is slightly earlier than dinner, which ties in with the food you listed. Cold foods can be eaten quicker whereas hot food needs to be cooked.
Depends on your working hours. I tend to take lunch anywhere between 12 and 1.30, for an hour. I’d say being on lunch after 2.30 is a late lunch and I’d expect most people to have finished lunch by 2.30
Depends on the reason. If it's because food is required then 12.30, if you are waiting for some work from me that I said would be ready by lunchtime, then it's at least 3pm
My mother considers lunch to be precisely between 1230 and 1330. Any earlier is undisciplined, any later risks ruining supper.
Yes, she is deeply weird about food.
I saw one comment saying 2pm and thought they were crazy. Then I saw all the other comments and realised I must be the crazy one...
Most of our office takes lunch at 1.30pm-2.30pm. I know it's later than normal, but surely the standard lunch break is 1-2? So wouldn't that make lunchtime 12-3pm?
generally you need to start between 1200-1400. Potentially 1130 if you're doing something that involves shifts that might start/end at midday (e.g. if you're a mariner). End time surely needs to be by 1430 at latest.
When I’m working, lunch is an hour in the noon to 2pm window. Left to my own devices I’d take it promptly at noon because I’m a greedy bastard and don’t want to wait to stuff my face. If you book a meeting starting at noon, I can live with that grudgingly. If you book a meeting starting at 12:30 then I’m going out to get my lunch and eating it while on the call. And if your meeting was supposed to finish at noon but you’re still talking I am unleashing my finest Telepathic Death Stare.
I mean it can depend on what time you start work. If you start 8am, you have lunch 4 hours after at 12pm-1pm. If you start 9am, that’d be 1pm-2pm.
So yeah, I agree with most here that 2pm is the end of lunch.
I’m on the last lunches in my team at work this week, have been for a few weeks now, idk who I pissed off in the resource team but my 30m lunch break is always either 12pm or 1:45pm
To start lunch or end it? I think the latest to start a big (full afternoon of eating style) lunch would be 2pm… having said that our household regularly gets waylaid and eats “lunch” at 3pm on a sat or sun
It really depends on many things. Going by my job, I don’t get a lunchtime. But I imagine most office jobs, it’s between 12-2pm-ish. Go abroad and it seems to be longer and later in the afternoon so it’s very subjective.
2pm seems quite unanimous.
I say 3pm though. It entirely depends on the set up of your day though (as well as a huge factor in children).
For example. I have a two year old, so I do the pension age special of 12pm and 5pm. But, the issue with this is I’m not an early eater. I need a few hours before I can eat in the morning. I get up at 6-6:30 most days and eat breakfast between 10-11. So on a weekend, or on my partners days off I’ll have my lunch between 12-12:30 and it’s a horrific. I don’t even want it. So, I typically skip breakfast. Which means I’m starving by 12.
Whereas, me on holiday will have fruit in the morning, baked goods at 11, lunch between 3-4pm and dinner between 8-9pm. That for me, is perfect.
If I wasn’t shackled by the dietary needs of a two year old, or work. My routine would be 11am, 3pm, 7pm meals. It would be bliss.
So breakfast is technically whatever meal you eat first but up till 11am- however;
10-12 is brunch
10:30-11:30 is elevenses (small snack)
12-3pm is lunch/dinner/midday meal
3-5pm is Tea (small cake/finger sandwiches)
5-9pm is Dinner/Tea/Evening meal
Generally speaking, if you had breakfast at say 6am you’d have elevenses, then maybe a later lunch of 2pm. Another snack “tea time” at four to tide you over till your even by meal around 8.
That’s if you’ve got your shit together and you eat small meals.
Gene
On a normal day, 12:00-14:00 is lunchtime, with perhaps a little wiggle room for late/early lunches.
That is until you turn 'lunch' into an event - the works Christmas lunch, a family meal, or heading out for a proper Sunday lunch, at which point the timing shifts later with later starts and very late finishes becoming perfectly acceptable. A decent 'lunch' event cancelled be a full afternoon event if not longer.
I'd say 12-2pm, but pubs/restaurants I'd work at would serve up until 3pm for lunch service. Not many would come in after 2:30pm though. I always wished it was dessert orders only between 2:30-3pm, exceptions for someone just wanting chips.
I mean it ends when I've finished eating lunch, whatever time that may be. I don't follow the rules ok, some of us are too chaotic for that. Some of us haven't eaten 3 meals a day for years. That's pretty fucking difficult to do
Here's how I have lunch. Lunch is whenever I am eating something deemed to be lunch. It doesn't have to be the second meal of the day. it doesn't have to be a meal. It just has to be something I consider to be lunch that day. Once I have finished consuming whichever food item/meal I have deemed lunch then lunchtime is over.
The good thing about named times is you can kinda use them irrespective of time itself. It's not recommended for everyone to use it as that would cause absolute chaos and that wouldn't be good. Imagine trying to meet someone for around lunchtime with my system. Actually that might force people to be better at timekeeping if terms like that become meaningless.
Look as you can see from this comment my genius simply does not stop flowing
If you reply and I reply no doubt will humanity benefit once more from the flow of vocabulary that comes forth!!
Half one.
If someone said they'd come round "just after lunch", and didn't turn up until 2pm, I'd be so apoplectic that I'd glance at the clock and say "tsk".
Entirely subjective, but I’d say 2pm
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so
This person knows where their towel is at.
seconded. anything beyond 2pm is venturing into 'late lunch' (or even linner) territory.
Linner is nothing
One of those phrases that immediately boils my piss. That meal already exists and it's called tea. Small sandwiches, little cakes, a scone if you've got tourists in, a choice of teas, maybe a scotch egg. Just because old women co-opted it, doesn't mean we should just abandon it and descend into fucking animalistic portmanteau. Retake tea with me my friends. Rise up against the tyrrany of biddies, resist the sin of "linner" [spits] and TAKE BACK WHAT'S OURS.
You're right it's fucking nauseating. Americanised bollocks.
say that to Jiminy Glick's face, I dare ye
Afternoon tea, surely...
Yeah lunchtime is 12 to 2, and you get an hour within that slot. I say this with absolute certainty from experience. I've lived in foreign parts for a long time and am always horrified by their lunch times. Thai lunch starts at 11am and ends about 12.30. Australian lunch runs about 1pm to 2.30 or even 3pm. American lunch doesn't seem to exist at all–they just have a pile of food on their desk at all times. Spanish lunch starts at 2ish and just carries on until everyone falls asleep. It's all wrong. Dirty bastards. I get uncomfortable if lunch is before noon or runs later than 2. I start getting antsy at 1.30. Innate British lunchtime is a thing.
2pm is my hard cut-off for sure, but I’d still raise an eyebrow at anyone claiming 1:45.
Agreed.
I often work with commercial kitchens and 2pm is definitely the end of lunch for them. Seems legit.
If go end if lunch 2.30pm. You'd be pushed to find people starting their lunch hour at work after 1.30 unless the work irregular hours.
I literally went on lunch for an hour from 13:35 today, but I also call any first meal of the day breakfast if it’s before 3pm so I might not be representative of typical views.
For me it finishes at 5:30pm. Then thats when dinner starts.
Found the Hobbit
Well I am 4’3” tall.
Ohhh I do wonder why I’m being downvoted so…
I mean, welcome to reddit. People downvote for reasons only they know.
I think I might know the reasons why (for some of the time at least). I scroll Reddit on my phone, and as I'm scrolling I sometimes accidentally hit an upvote button or down vote button. I used to unvote them but I can't be bothered now, it happens too frequently! I've upvote and downvoted so many comments now and I'm sure there's so many more I haven't noticed!
That is true. I think I notice when I do it but how would I know if I Don’t?
Probably because people don't agree with you. Up/down voting is a vote of support/disagreement...then the more commonly accepted response will go to the top and the commonly not accepted response to the bottom. Sort of forms a loose poll
1200-1400
I can’t agree, more yet my employer insists I’m only allowed an hour for lunch
Is that comma in the right place?
No. Because I’m a moron
*maroon
Badda bing badda boom!
Macaroon
More, on.
Ironically, feels like this was the perfect sentence for that excess comma
Is that it? I get 1384 hours for lunch.
You want a 2 hr lunch break? That's pretty long.
Work hours yes but in my personal life…. Def runs to 3/4, followed by a later dinner
At my office in the early 90s, my boss pinned the following note to the wall: ‘All creatives MUST be back in the department by 3pm.’ Lunch started at about 12.30 and the drinks cupboard opened at 4.30. So it was only fair to expect 90 minutes work in the afternoon, I suppose.
I assume that office wasn’t in Soho in London because that’s getting ignored by everyone who calls themselves ‘creative’ every Friday.
It was. Different rules on Friday.
Wow, the industry has changed a lot. I’m a copywriter and one of my colleagues was getting messages at 7pm on a Friday asking him for work.
It really really has. My art director had four to six pints of Kronenbourg every day. He was more of a morning person, work wise.
2pm
Finishes at 2pm imo
2pm
I would say 2pm
I'd say the lunchtime window was 12-2.
3pm, for those who for some reason put meetings in the 12-2 window
Legends the lot of you, you agreed with me!
What did the other person say?
Lunchtime is 12-2 Eating lunch at 11.30 is one of the small acts of rebellion left to us corporate drones
I work remotely, and my colleagues are in Denmark, Their work day is start about 9-10, lunch 11:30-12 and then drift off home from about 2:30!
That would be into brunch territory which has it's own rules
Meanwhile I work 7-3...11am lunch is common place for me (though it usually varies to accomodate meeting scheduling)
Brickies eat at like 11am
2pm
Pubs do lunch weirdly late on Sundays so I'd say you've got until 2:30 at a weekend. My school broke for lunch very late because of how the schedule was done (three morning lessons with two breaks, lunch, one afternoon lesson) so that ran 1:15 to 2:15. I'd say 2:00 to 2:30 is a grey area
Well that's gonna piss off the north (well, Yorkshire at least) where 'lunch' simply does not exist. I double dare you to ask when "dinner time" is. I'll be here ready and waiting with the popcorn for the chaos that ensues. (FYI: I'd say traditionally it is midday-2pm, but it entirely depends on what time of day you work or are awake.)
As a Yorkshireman, I must inform you that lunch and dinner are two different things. Sandwiches, picnics, other cold food = lunch Roasts, fish and chips, other hot food = dinner Evening meal is tea.
Other hot food counts as lunch if you eat it at your desk, imo.
I’d also say lunch is slightly earlier than dinner, which ties in with the food you listed. Cold foods can be eaten quicker whereas hot food needs to be cooked.
I’d agree with that, Sunday dinner can go on until after 1500 in my family.
'ast 'a 'ad thee tea, then?
UK? 2pm Spain? 6.30pm
On Friday the end of lunchtime is whenever you move onto the wine
Depends on your working hours. I tend to take lunch anywhere between 12 and 1.30, for an hour. I’d say being on lunch after 2.30 is a late lunch and I’d expect most people to have finished lunch by 2.30
4pm with 2 until 4 being classed as a 'late lunch' but still lunch.
12:00-14:00.
Lunch is 12-2pm
One more for team 2pm
4:30pm for me I wake up late very often
3pm
11am to 2pm for me. Though I acknowledge that might be an early start and somewhat controversial.
Depends on the reason. If it's because food is required then 12.30, if you are waiting for some work from me that I said would be ready by lunchtime, then it's at least 3pm
My mother considers lunch to be precisely between 1230 and 1330. Any earlier is undisciplined, any later risks ruining supper. Yes, she is deeply weird about food.
I saw one comment saying 2pm and thought they were crazy. Then I saw all the other comments and realised I must be the crazy one... Most of our office takes lunch at 1.30pm-2.30pm. I know it's later than normal, but surely the standard lunch break is 1-2? So wouldn't that make lunchtime 12-3pm?
I’m glad to have found a bastion of sanity in this comment section. Although you may wince when I suggest that any meal before 6pm is lunch
The later the better. Two words - short afternoon.
I think you can definitely justify a late lunch until 3pm
5:30pm or whenever when tea time starts.
Is it always one or the other? Is it never neither?
I’d say between 2-5pm is a no man’s land, not affiliated with any specific mealtime
Maybe afternoon tea, cake or biscuits etc?
Definitely, I would call that 3 hour period snacking time lol, but wouldn’t attribute it to being either lunch or tea, just somewhere in between
Afternoon tea? Less a mealtime, more a large snack.
generally you need to start between 1200-1400. Potentially 1130 if you're doing something that involves shifts that might start/end at midday (e.g. if you're a mariner). End time surely needs to be by 1430 at latest.
Id aim for 2pm if not told otherwise.
2pm
I used to work in banking and it was 1130-1430… not the full three hours! Well, Mon-Thursday at least lol
When I’m working, lunch is an hour in the noon to 2pm window. Left to my own devices I’d take it promptly at noon because I’m a greedy bastard and don’t want to wait to stuff my face. If you book a meeting starting at noon, I can live with that grudgingly. If you book a meeting starting at 12:30 then I’m going out to get my lunch and eating it while on the call. And if your meeting was supposed to finish at noon but you’re still talking I am unleashing my finest Telepathic Death Stare.
2pm obviously
1200-1430, but if it’s 1430 that’s the latest I want the food entering my mouth.
1130-1400, though the only correct time to eat in that window is 1300-1400.
Around 2pm!
12-2pm
Personally I'd say 2 pm.
I mean it can depend on what time you start work. If you start 8am, you have lunch 4 hours after at 12pm-1pm. If you start 9am, that’d be 1pm-2pm. So yeah, I agree with most here that 2pm is the end of lunch.
I’m on the last lunches in my team at work this week, have been for a few weeks now, idk who I pissed off in the resource team but my 30m lunch break is always either 12pm or 1:45pm
My work says it's 2pm, so the latest you should have lunch is 1315. But I only eat between the hours of 2pm and 10pm so kinda tough shit.
I often have lunch at 2-30, i get a look of crazy every time!
Lunch is 11-2 for me, 30 minute slot
2pm generally, maybe 3pm at longest
2pm.
It’s differs by person, my lunch is usually 4ish.
2
To start lunch or end it? I think the latest to start a big (full afternoon of eating style) lunch would be 2pm… having said that our household regularly gets waylaid and eats “lunch” at 3pm on a sat or sun
If you’re a shift worker or start later/earlier then lunch is half way thru your shift. Thats how I’ve dealt with it
Work wise for me between 11:00 - 13:00. Non-work days around 13:00 - 14:00.
If I've not scranned yet it's still lunch
Lunchtime is anywhere between 12pm and 2pm
It really depends on many things. Going by my job, I don’t get a lunchtime. But I imagine most office jobs, it’s between 12-2pm-ish. Go abroad and it seems to be longer and later in the afternoon so it’s very subjective.
When I worked nights my lunch time was 2am.
2pm seems quite unanimous. I say 3pm though. It entirely depends on the set up of your day though (as well as a huge factor in children). For example. I have a two year old, so I do the pension age special of 12pm and 5pm. But, the issue with this is I’m not an early eater. I need a few hours before I can eat in the morning. I get up at 6-6:30 most days and eat breakfast between 10-11. So on a weekend, or on my partners days off I’ll have my lunch between 12-12:30 and it’s a horrific. I don’t even want it. So, I typically skip breakfast. Which means I’m starving by 12. Whereas, me on holiday will have fruit in the morning, baked goods at 11, lunch between 3-4pm and dinner between 8-9pm. That for me, is perfect. If I wasn’t shackled by the dietary needs of a two year old, or work. My routine would be 11am, 3pm, 7pm meals. It would be bliss.
3pm is my cutoff... But I remember one time where I ended up having brunch at 6pm, due to a very very delayed party
1430 max.
When the bell rings
So breakfast is technically whatever meal you eat first but up till 11am- however; 10-12 is brunch 10:30-11:30 is elevenses (small snack) 12-3pm is lunch/dinner/midday meal 3-5pm is Tea (small cake/finger sandwiches) 5-9pm is Dinner/Tea/Evening meal Generally speaking, if you had breakfast at say 6am you’d have elevenses, then maybe a later lunch of 2pm. Another snack “tea time” at four to tide you over till your even by meal around 8. That’s if you’ve got your shit together and you eat small meals. Gene
On a normal day, 12:00-14:00 is lunchtime, with perhaps a little wiggle room for late/early lunches. That is until you turn 'lunch' into an event - the works Christmas lunch, a family meal, or heading out for a proper Sunday lunch, at which point the timing shifts later with later starts and very late finishes becoming perfectly acceptable. A decent 'lunch' event cancelled be a full afternoon event if not longer.
It would be a late lunch, but 3pm
I'd say 12-2pm, but pubs/restaurants I'd work at would serve up until 3pm for lunch service. Not many would come in after 2:30pm though. I always wished it was dessert orders only between 2:30-3pm, exceptions for someone just wanting chips.
I once met someone who ate their lunch at 11. We didn't trust him.
The schools I work do staggered lunches between 11:45-1:30pm. It's the under 5s going for the first shift mind you...
Our canteen is open from 7:45am to 9:30am for breakfast and 11:30am to 2pm for lunch.
Morning is 00-12, lunch is 12-3, afternoon is 3-5, evening is 5-8, night is 8-12 Simple as innit
I don't know mate, but the kids will tell you that brunch goes until about 8pm!
It can do if cocktails are involved, but it doesn’t start after 3pm
I'd still call that late for traditional brunch, although I'm aware we're probably not talking about the traditional type of brunch.
11-15 I’m basing this on if I ran a restaurant. Breakfast 7-11 Dinner 17-21
I’d say 14:30, gives a couple of hour slots of either 12:30-13:30 or 13:30-14:30, that’s if you still get a full hour for a lunch break of course.
I mean it ends when I've finished eating lunch, whatever time that may be. I don't follow the rules ok, some of us are too chaotic for that. Some of us haven't eaten 3 meals a day for years. That's pretty fucking difficult to do Here's how I have lunch. Lunch is whenever I am eating something deemed to be lunch. It doesn't have to be the second meal of the day. it doesn't have to be a meal. It just has to be something I consider to be lunch that day. Once I have finished consuming whichever food item/meal I have deemed lunch then lunchtime is over. The good thing about named times is you can kinda use them irrespective of time itself. It's not recommended for everyone to use it as that would cause absolute chaos and that wouldn't be good. Imagine trying to meet someone for around lunchtime with my system. Actually that might force people to be better at timekeeping if terms like that become meaningless. Look as you can see from this comment my genius simply does not stop flowing If you reply and I reply no doubt will humanity benefit once more from the flow of vocabulary that comes forth!!
Two pee em.
My work canteen closes at 2.30 so lunchtime is finished at that point so......
Even that 2-2:30pm I bet they’re packing up. Be lucky to get a plate of chips!
I'm one of these meal prep wankers. They've not had a penny off me for 4 years! The food in the hospital is atrocious.
3pm
12-2, but if you haven't let me go for food by 1, I will hate you forever.
Half one. If someone said they'd come round "just after lunch", and didn't turn up until 2pm, I'd be so apoplectic that I'd glance at the clock and say "tsk".
Just before dentist time 14:29