Eat, drink and be merry, but don't stop working

Every generation believes it works harder than the previous one. In the Western world, workers - particularly white-collar professionals - say repeatedly that life is more stressful than it was three years ago. They have been saying that since the Second World War. Year on year the pressure on everyone who has a job increases.

Back in the 1960s, when new technology promised to replace manual labour in an HG Wells-vision-turned-reality sort of way, there was talk of "increased leisure time for all". This implied a shorter working week and longer holidays. Bit na‹ve, really. What's actually happened is that the working week has been eroded in theory (due in part to legislation) and annual leave allocation has increased but, in reality, workloads have not diminished. If anything, they have intensified, as there is now less time to accomplish given tasks.

Pressure comes from many directions. Communication is easier, but brings with it a need to react faster. E-mails demand an instant response, mobile telephones make everyone available all the time, even when officially "off duty" and travel is faster, meaning that business trips that once took two days are now allocated one. Excursions to mainland Europe from the UK are now completed on a day-return basis, and it's not unusual for businessmen to cross the Atlantic and return inside 24 hours.

Added to this demand to get things done quickly is the growing need to improve productivity. Every company now measures work rate per employee in one way or another. More for less is the code. And when times are tough, it's inevitable that staff numbers will decrease while the pressure mounts to deliver more productivity.

I could go on, but you get the picture. If you've got a job these days, you jolly well know about it.

So what's the impact for hospitality? It's obvious from the Eurest Lunchtime Report that one of the effects is shorter lunch breaks. The average time spent on a non-working lunch in the UK is now 27 minutes, nine minutes less than two years ago. This means that service standards provided by food operators - both in-house and outside - need to keep pace.

At the same time, customers have greater purchasing power (longer hours can mean higher salaries) and so their expectations about choice, value-for-money and quality are higher. It matters more that "the product" (whatever it is) is right, and disappointment is more likely to be met by vigorous complaint, adding to the stress of the eating-in or -out experience on both sides of the counter.

There is also a greater general interest in compensating for stress by investigating healthier food options and creating a better balanced lifestyle. Again, operators need to be aware of these requirements.

Life has intensified, there's no doubt about it, and the trend is likely to continue. If the findings of Eurest's research are projected, in five years' time the average lunch break will be four-and-a-half minutes long. What are caterers going to offer then?

Seriously, it is a short-sighted lunch provider which does not take note of the trends identified in Eurest's report. Like everything, meeting customer expectations is going to get tougher. Perhaps it's time for a European "lunchtime regulation" that stipulates a two-hour break in the pub? And who knows, that may be the next step - government-controlled eating habits.

by Forbes Mutch