10:45am UK, Wednesday May 14, 2008

Lunch hours are now virtually alien to the British worker, according to a new study.

180 computer sandwich office work lunch break

Chained to the desk?

Research by Visa has found that almost eight out of 10 (78%) no longer take advantage of a full lunch hour - while 15% have no break at all.

A third of those surveyed said they had to forego lunch entirely at least once a week.

The study also discovered that those who did venture out at lunchtime were getting their fill of time-wasting inconveniences.

Some 79% of this group wait for up to 10 minutes in a cash point queue.

The survey found 57% of people asked admitted they never took advantage of a lunch break to leave the office, meet friends, exercise or go shopping.

Instead, they were likely to be found either continuing to work (22%) or having a quick scan through a newspaper (30%).

A mere 5% take advantage of the internet for paying bills or shopping online.

Surprisingly, 10% have happily waited for up to 20 minutes for cash and 3% have queued for up to 40 minutes at a lunch visit.

The average person will spend 12 hours a year in a queue for an ATM, the equivalent amount of time it would take to fly to South Africa.