During the working day, there may be certain breaks or pauses that we must take into account if we want to evaluate the performance of a worker in his or her job. There are breaks that are required by law, others that are beneficial for the worker's occupational health and productivity, but in other cases they can also cause a loss of time. We are going to look at a series of key points about breaks during the working day to try to clarify some aspects.
Within each organization and the employment relationship between employees and the company, it is always possible to be flexible when it comes to demanding that both parties comply with the legal provisions established regarding breaks during the work day . Ideally, there should be an agreement between both parties and there should be no abuse, either by the workers taking more time than necessary or by the company denying the possibility of a break.
Regular breaks during the work day
The snack break is one of the most common breaks during the working day. Here we have to distinguish between whether it is a continuous working day of more than eight hours, where the snack break is considered part of our working time and usually lasts between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the agreement and the number of hours of the working day, as long as it exceeds 6 hours.
If we have a split shift and a lunch break, the snack time small business email list would not be part of the working day and would have to be deducted from the lunch time or made up for before or after the shift . The same would apply to the coffee break, provided that we go outside the company facilities. A different issue is if we have a small office where we prepare our coffee and then drink it at the workplace while we organize our tasks.
Lunchtime does not count as effective working time and gives rise to split shifts. In this way, the workday is extended by nine hours if there is one hour for lunch or ten if the lunch break is two hours. In these cases, this break belongs to the worker, who can use it as he or she considers appropriate, whether it is to eat during this break or to go shopping, run an errand, etc.
Breaks during the work day to be more productive
But we also have a series of breaks that are recommended to improve the productivity of our work. These are breaks that we have to take from time to time if we are carrying out a repetitive or continuous task. In each sector it is important to take into account the current legislation. If we work in front of a computer displaying data on a screen, we should take a five-minute break every hour to relax our eyes and, if possible, do some stretching .