Get ahead on your break
By Rebecca Martin | smh.com.au | 23 January
What do you plan to do for lunch today? If you're like many busy people, chances are you'll grab a sandwich and scoff it at your desk while you catch up on your reading or answer a few emails.
While it's possible your work ethic will impress your boss, letting your lunch hour slip by could mean you're missing out on some outstanding opportunities to get ahead.
Experts agree the average lunch-hour break can provide a range of career-furthering possibilities, from networking to learning new skills to re-energising yourself through exercise or meditation.
Dr Anthony Grant, director of coaching psychology at the University of Sydney, says you may be kidding yourself if you think soldiering on through lunch is helping your career.
"Everyone has their own pattern of work. A typical one is to come in, start with mundane tasks as a warm-up, then get into the real work."
He says "flow" is when you work hard and find it rewarding. When you start to flag, you become low on energy and disengage. Rather than pushing through and fiddling on our computers to appear "present" to co-workers, Grant says one option would be having a calming lunch.
"The thought processes that we are aware of are the tip of the iceberg," he says. " Ideas are ruminating and percolating all the time. Many of us have great ideas on a weekend when we're putting the laundry out. Having a break from thinking facilitates it. To think better, stop thinking."
If you feel you have more energy to burn, developing your skills and padding your CV through lunchtime classes may be a great way of furthering your career. A range of institutions provide hour-long education sessions in the middle of the day aimed at busy professionals.
The Australian Stock Exchange, for example, runs lunchtime seminars aimed at teaching the public how to invest better.
Public speaking group Toastmasters has midday sessions aimed at developing leadership skills, and some executive training schools provide lunch-hour courses.
Your employer may have lunchtime courses in areas relevant to your work, such as computer skills. Another career-effective way to spend lunch is to get up off the chair and get your heart pumping. City gyms and centres cater to office clientele, with lunch classes available in disciplines from yoga and pilates to body pump and swimming.
Yvette Flacke, national group fitness manager for Fitness First, says an energetic lunch means an afternoon of hormonal happiness.
"Hormones are released by the exertion and you get adrenaline, so you get an upper," she says. "You walk out of class feeling ready for a new day." It could also help you resist the career-damaging urge to tell an annoying colleague or client what you really think.
"You could have had a hell of a morning and need to get rid of the aggression, so you get on a [spin class] bike and are motivated by the instructor and the music," Flacke says.
For opportunists, exercise can be tied in with networking. Career-improving contacts can be found by pounding the pavement in the Domain.
Recruiter Darren Tenkel of the Michael Page International banking division says he runs with a corporate group in the city. "[There are] people from law firms, investment banks and recruiters," he says. "It's the chance to network with colleagues."
Lunchtime networking need not be random. Mary Berkopec of Career Coaching Solutions says she tells clients to name somebody whose career they want to emulate, and then use their lunch to try to meet them. "Talk to people in the industry about how they did it and what skills you need," she says.
Lunch could also be spent getting direction by indulging in career navel-gazing with a career coach or recruiter.
Berkopec suggests turning lunch into a session of positive thinking. "Update your resume to where you want to be," she says. "If you want to be an account director, tailor your resume. This helps you gain clarity."
First published by Smh.com.au on January 23 2008
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