NEIL WARREN CONSIDERS TAX, LUNCH AND THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF ONE TO THE OTHER
The working week is getting tougher for tax professionals. Deadlines to meet, customers to see, reports to finalise, new legislation to learn about, queries to resolve, fee bills to raise. How do we ever find the time to juggle so many important tasks?
A method used by many tax professionals to keep on top of the in-tray (or e-mail inbox to be very modern) is to skip their lunch hours. But is this really wise?
Is there an argument that productivity will be much improved in the afternoon session of a working day if a full lunch hour is taken? Or should we be a bit more realistic and say that at least a full three-quarters of an hour lunch break should be taken? Or a full half-hour? No, I?m not going any lower than 30 minutes.
When I did a ?google? search on ?benefits of a lunch break? (how did we ever survive without search engines), I came up with a number of interesting opinions. Dr Sklare (that?s Sklare, not Scare!) of lifescript.com feels that taking a lunch break should be part of everybody?s wellness programme.
?The lunch break provides you with time to get away from the cognitive demands of your job, relax a bit and recharge your emotional batteries?. Sounds good!
But are we getting enough? Apparently, American and British workers only take 25 to 30 minutes on average, while even the French are getting a bit stressed lately and are taking shorter breaks compared to previous years. Does that mean they are now down to three hours? (Only joking!)
Another survey compared different professions and their lunchtimes, and found that ?bankers are most likely to take the full hour?.
A taxing lunch
But enough of bankers, how good are our leading tax professionals when it comes to taking a lunch break?
Tax barrister Keith Gordon was recently crowned as CTA (Chartered Tax Adviser) of the Year at the Taxation Awards dinner in May and has a very hectic work schedule. He supports the concept of a full midday break.
?I have always worked on the basis that a clear head is an efficient head. Working without any respite might clock up the chargeable hours, but does not necessarily save time at the end of the day. I try to give myself a proper break in the middle of each day to ensure I am fully refreshed for the afternoon.?
Keith admits there are times when work pressures prevent a proper break, but aims to ensure these occasions are not the norm.
?Provided these are the exceptions, the body can usually cope with going into overdrive when it is absolutely necessary.?
Chris Jones is the director of tax and accountancy at LexisNexis and another energetic worker. He is not as successful as Keith when it comes to removing his tax hat in the middle of the day.
?Lunch hour, what lunch hour! I rarely take more than 15 minutes, but I know I ought to?, he said.
Long lunch, short day
One of the potential problems of taking a full lunch break is that it will merely serve to add the same amount of working time at the end of the day, so is the solution to consider some ideas about more effective working practices? Perhaps saying no to a few more projects or turning down some requests to attend meetings?
Chris proposed one possible solution: ?Eating lunch with a colleague or team member is a good way of using the lunch hour productively ? and is often more useful than a formal meeting.?
The comments of Chris and Keith made me think about my own working practices and I realised that in the three days a week on average that I am in my office, I tend to gear my working days to a finish time of 5pm so that I can get on the treadmill at my local gym in time to watch Anne Robinson on The Weakest Link.
I find this is an important target because her caustic wit and humour takes my mind away from the arduous challenge of a 30-minute run. So if I can get my daily tasks finished easily before 5pm, then a lunch break is achieved; if not, it is all hands to the pump throughout the day. Perhaps I should ask the BBC to put The Weakest Link back by half an hour to ease my schedule?
Walk, don?t run
Annie Bailey has enjoyed a busy year serving as president of the Association of Taxation Technicians, and recommends the positive benefits of a short walk.
?I make sure I have a break at some stage every day for a short walk. It enables me to see the wood from the trees and think of a way of dealing with something that I have been struggling to find a solution on. But I rarely take a formal lunch break.?
On the subject of relaxation, the final word goes to Nick Simons, the ?Dear doctor? expert on the gazette website, who comments that lunch hours should be filled with ?relaxing or taking exercise, which is probably most helpful in terms of mental alertness?.
He recommends this approach for people with jobs that are ?particularly stressful or require intense concentration? ? that list will obviously include VAT consultants.
