If your shop is anything like Business Publications Corp., you probably see a variety of approaches to the lunch hour. We encourage everyone to take a break, and some do — to have lunch with a friend or business contact, or maybe run over the YMCA for a swim, or to walk. But some of our colleagues stay at their desk, to work, catch up on the news, or perhaps send a few emails.

Robert Half and OfficeTeam are here to tell us we are generally lousy at taking lunch breaks, at least full ones. A new OfficeTeam survey found that Des Moines workers had the second-shortest lunches among the 28 cities surveyed. Salt Lake City workers took the least time off, but our friends in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami took the longest lunches, perhaps due to traffic. 

Overall, the survey found:
— The average lunch break lasts 39 minutes, down from 43 minutes in 2014.
— More than half — 56 percent — of workers said they usually take a half hour or less for lunch, up from 48 percent in 2014.
— A tad over half of workers said they eat and surf the web during their break.
— Fewer than a third — 29 percent — said they work during their break.