Planning Breaks into a Busy Working Day

Breaks tend to be the first thing to go when a working day fills up. They are also easier to keep when they are planned in advance than when they depend on finding a quiet moment. This piece works through the questions people most often have about breaks at work: what they are entitled to, how long a break needs to be, what counts, and what to do when the day has no gaps.

Am I entitled to a break?

That depends on the country you work in, your contract and sometimes your sector. Two examples show how different the rules can be.

In the UK, government guidance says adult workers who work more than six hours a day have the right to one uninterrupted 20-minute rest break during the day. Whether it is paid depends on the contract, and a contract may give more. The same guidance sets out 11 hours of rest between working days. Some groups have different rules.

In the United States, the Department of Labor states that federal law does not require employers to provide lunch or coffee breaks. Where an employer does offer short breaks, usually of about 5 to 20 minutes, federal law counts them as paid working time. Some states set their own rules: the Department’s Wage and Hour Division publishes a table of state laws that require meal periods for adult employees.

Other countries have their own laws. If you are unsure, your contract, staff handbook, union representative or national labour authority is the place to check. Nothing here is legal advice.

Is screen work treated differently?

In Great Britain it is. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says employers must plan work so that people who regularly use display screen equipment have breaks or changes of activity. The law does not fix the timing. HSE’s guidance is that short, frequent breaks are better than occasional long ones, and gives the example that 5 to 10 minutes every hour is better than 20 minutes every two hours. Ideally, it adds, people should be able to choose when to take them.

HSE also points out that a change of activity can do the same job as a break. A phone call taken standing up, a meeting in another room or a trip to the printer all interrupt screen work. Where a job has no such natural variety, HSE says the employer should build rest breaks in.

How long does a break need to be?

No single number is backed by official guidance for everyone. The useful distinction is between three sizes of pause, which do different jobs.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) includes micro-breaks or recovery pauses in its checklist for computer workstations, alongside varying tasks and alternating between sitting and standing. HSE’s advice is that a break from screen work should let you get up and move, or at least stretch and change posture. For the eyes specifically, see our guide to taking screen breaks.

What counts as a break, and what does not?

A break is a change from what you were doing. If the work is at a screen, switching to a phone screen is a change of content but not of posture or focus distance. If the work is physical, sitting down may be the right break. If the work is with people all day, ten quiet minutes may be worth more than a chat.

A simple test: has your body position changed, and has your attention gone somewhere else? Two yeses is a break. Answering messages while eating at the desk scores none.

How do I fit breaks into a day that has no gaps?

Plan them before the day starts, in the same place you plan everything else.

1. Find the fixed points. Look at tomorrow’s calendar and mark what cannot move.
2. Place the meal break first. Put it in the calendar as an appointment, even if it has to be early or late.
3. Add two short breaks. One mid-morning, one mid-afternoon. Attach each to something that already happens, such as the end of a regular meeting.
4. Use the joins. Finishing a meeting five minutes early gives a pause before the next one starts.
5. Decide what each break is. “Walk to the kitchen and back” is easier to do than “take a break”.

Break-reminder software can help. HSE notes that such tools are only a prompt, and that in Great Britain the responsibility for planning work so breaks can happen stays with the employer. Preparing food ahead is its own small project; planning simple meals when time is limited has ideas. And if most of your day is seated, breaking up long periods of sitting lists ways to combine a break with a little movement.

What if the problem is the workload, not my planning?

Sometimes it is. The World Health Organization lists excessive workloads or work pace, understaffing, and long or inflexible hours among the risks to mental health at work, and recommends that employers reduce those risks through changes to working conditions. A person cannot schedule their way out of a job that has no room in it.

If breaks are regularly impossible, it is reasonable to raise it. Specific examples help: which days, which tasks, and what would make a break workable. A line manager, a health and safety representative, a union or an occupational health service are the usual routes, depending on where you work.