If you like your colleagues, the lunch hour is probably a highlight of your working day. But fewer and fewer of us are actually using it to, well, lunch. Since flexible working has become the norm, people have increasingly ‘banked’ their lunch hour, and spent their break time running errands, exercising, or seeing their kids. Stanford university professor Nick Bloom tells host Isabel Berwick. But is something lost if we don’t break bread with our colleagues? Is eating ‘al desko’ really so bad? And what’s the secret to a great homemade lunch? FT Magazine Food and Drink editor Harriet Fitch Little also joins to discuss. Want more? Free links: Sour-and-hot silken tofu with avocado — a Fuchsia Dunlop recipe Recipe: The smacked cucumber salad chefs are obsessed with Bring back the business lunch Who picks up the bill for a business lunch? FT subscriber? Sign up to get Isabel’s free Working It newsletter in your inbox every Wednesday: ft.com/newsletters Credits: Presented by Isabel Berwick, produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval, mixed by Jake Fielding. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s head of audio. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.