Warning: saw a guy working through lunch at a Panera in Columbus and it hit too close | Beat Burnout - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Warning: saw a guy working through lunch at a Panera in Columbus and it hit too close
Stopped at the Panera on Bethel Rd last Tuesday around 1pm and the guy at the table next to me had two laptops going, a half eaten sandwich, and a call he never hung up from. He kept rubbing his eyes and typing, and I sat there thinking, that was me in March. I did the 11 hour desk days for about 8 months before my back and my sleep fell apart. Nothing about that setup works, and nobody was telling him to stop. How do you all break the lunch-at-the-desk habit when deadlines pile up?
Two laptops and a call he never hung up from is the tell, because the real problem is nobody around him says anything. If one person at that Panera had said hey, close it for 20 minutes, he might have actually done it, since most of us just need someone to give us permission to stop. So the fix is being that guy for someone else, and once you say it out loud to a stranger it gets a lot easier to hear it yourself.