Does Breakfast Increase Your Worker's Productivity? No, It Doesn’t!

Along with old classics like ‘carrots give you night vision’ one of the most well-worn phrases in the arsenal of tired parents is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Many of us grow up believing that skipping breakfast is a dietary travesty.  

The clue for why breakfast is supposed to be important is in its name: we are advised to eat it to break our overnight fast. “The body uses a lot of energy stores for growth and repair through the night,” explains dietician Sarah Elder. “Eating a balanced breakfast helps to up our energy, as well as protein and calcium used throughout the night.”

 

Will He Be More Effective Now That He's Eaten?

Health benefits aside, does breakfast increase productivity at work? No, it doesn’t. In the 70s mum’s and dad’s didn’t have to wake up in the dead of the night to have breakfast in order to get into work on time for then, there no morning traffic rush.

Because of the traffic rush that we experience today, most people don’t have breakfast at home as they have to be on the road as early as 5:00am to drop off the kids at school then, rush to get to work for the start time of 8:30am.

So breakfast is eaten at work. In just about every office in Uganda, there is always a woman who pops by selling bread, mandazi, chapatti or samosas. If it’s not a woman popping by, then Tea Girl, to supplement her income always has breakfast for sale in the pantry.

One thing about Ugandan’s – well at least in my observations, is that without breakfast, they are unable to function. When they get to work, their thoughts are not on that all too important e-mail they should have responded to the day before or the notes they have to arrange for the 9:00am meeting. Their thoughts are firmly fixed on breakfast.

 

Fighting For That Last Slice Of Meat Does Not Increase Productivity

When they arrive at work with no passion, they hit the biometric, dump their bags on the desk and head straight for the kitchen or back out to look for breakfast.  There is no turning on the computer to see if there is anything urgent that requires immediate attention. In the kitchen they huddle and watch Tea Girl as she boils the water and milk – their oversized mugs placed neatly in a line waiting to be filled.

From a full mug of extremely milky tea, it’s deciding what to eat. “How many slices of bread should I have” so they ponder. “It’s Tuesday so I will have four slices of bread, three samosas, two chapatis and oba two kindazi’s for saawa nya.” Though they’ve been served, they won’t leave the kitchen. The men have to analyze last night’s football results and whether Jorgen Klop’s Liverpool will win the Premiership. The ladies on the other hand, have to admire their colleagues’ new hairstyle – how long it took to do, which salon they went to and their own experiences at a particular salon. If it’s not a hair discussion, then it’s about the maid, how their child is teething or the increase in the price of beans.

 

Even The Women Eat As Much As The Men

Just after 9:00am, out of the kitchen they slither, over-sized mug that’s filled to the brim in one hand and spilling over that it leaves a trail from kitchen to desk. In the other hand they have a serviette laden with     four slices of bread, three samosas, two chapatis and two kindazi’s for saawa nya.

Computers turned on, it’s not e-mails that they check first. For the men, it straight to a football related website while the women, it’s to Facebook to update their status. Remember, they have a new hairstyle they want the rest of the world to see.

Oh, they also need 45 minutes to eat breakfast before they can start work.