Napoleon Bonaparte must’ve annoyed his compatriots because of his predisposition for speedy meals—the Emperor General of France was purportedly an erratic eater who rarely spent more than 15 minutes eating usually simple dishes.
This means that in addition to being one of the most famed leaders of all time, this attribute would’ve also made him perfectly suited to life as an employee forced to scarf down their lunch during a 30-minute break.
TikToker Jaz (@jazmean10) doesn’t seem like she would be too chill with Napoleon’s approach to scarfing down meals in such a quick manner, as she posted a viral TikTok clip lampooning half-hour lunch breaks. She drove the point home further with a caption on the video that reads, “Every workplace should give an hour minimum.”
The social media user’s video garnered over 442,000 views as of Saturday and shows her eating her lunch in fast-forward.
@jazmean10 Every workplace should give an hour minimum 😭
♬ vamos misamore – Yoqwq_0
She moves back and forth from taking bites of what looks like sliced fruit, to a baggie of chips she lifts up and shovels into her mouth.
TikTokers had varying opinions on 30-minute lunch breaks. Some folks told Jaz that she didn’t have it so bad as their break times were much shorter. One user wrote, “Try 15 LMAOOOO.”
Another echoed the sentiment, writing, “Nah srsly try a 15, u don’t even want to eat but then you will starve.”
But others said they’d much rather take a break for 30 minutes and go home earlier than have an hour lunch break and leave at a later time.
“I’d still rather go home 30 minutes earlier than have an hour lunch,” they wrote.
Overall though, it seemed like more folks were on board for a longer lunch time.
“Wait…i thought an hr was standard,” one TikToker wrote. “No way im working for a 30 mins break.”
Someone else shared that they’re so intent on having a longer lunch break that they will clock in 20 minutes earlier. “I be taking an extra 20 and clock in early, bye,” they said.
Depending on the state you’re working in, breaks may or may not be mandatory. In New Jersey, for instance, until someone hits their 18th birthday, they must be given a 30-minute break for every five hours of work they perform.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, businesses are not obligated to give employees lunch or coffee breaks: “Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the workweek and considered in determining if overtime was worked.”
The idea of finagling one’s hours to skip lunch entirely is one that’s been discussed in various forum discussion posts, like in this Reddit thread where a user asked if they thought it would reflect poorly on them if they asked their boss to skip lunch to leave work an hour early.
Lunch breaks seem to be a hot topic of conversation, as a number of trending social media posts dedicated to this issue have popped off, with folks giving very opinionated takes on break time.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Jaz via email for further comment.
