Most full-time travel agents never take their full lunch hour and almost 15% work through without a break, according to research.
A survey of 400 agents, by Personnel Today’s sister publication Travel Weekly, shows that 62.5% of full-time respondents took less than an hour for lunch, with 22% taking 15 minutes to half an hour and 13.7% less than 15 minutes.
Only 22% of full-timers took their full one-hour entitlement. The figure for part-time staff was 14%.
Even then, many staff admitted they do not take a lunch hour every day. Out of the full-time staff, only 37% took a lunch break five times a week. The biggest reason cited was being too busy, blamed by 68% of full-timers, with pressure at work next, blamed by 17%.
One respondent to the survey said: “Customer service is of prime importance but how can this be delivered to a high standard when staff are not getting proper breaks to leave the store for 10 minutes let alone half an hour? We are human beings not robots.”
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In the survey, 34% of full-time staff said, compared to last year, they were under more pressure to work through lunch and 38% to work late.
A Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association spokeswoman said: “The industry needs to tackle this. Our concern is the impact on employees’ health.”
