I hate when I have to punch out for lunch (even if I am not eating) for more or less similar reasons. I try to bring a book to read literally any amount as I really need to read the books I have (getting to feel like my Steam library). But I find myself too engaged in my “fix things” (I work on peoples’ PCs) headspace/momentum. So I end up still just answering questions my co-workers that are customer facing are trying to deal with.

This is not something I expect from them or anyone under 96% of situations and try to not bother them when they are on lunch/break or on a day off. I even make sure that they know I give consent to hit me up and have even been able to help give the correct fix while drunk on vacation lol. I don’t think bad of them if they don’t do the same and even tell them to not be like me in that regard as I am just what I am. Only exception is if managers or higher try to bother me without some really really serious reasons (though they also tend to tell me to manually adjust my punches). I only donate my time/mind to people that are in the shit with me.

But I just feel more tense while on lunch and hate losing momentum or feeling “heavy” after eating. When I do eat it tends to be in small chunks over the course of the second half of my shift. So just spread out my paid 15min breaks. Just enough time to eat, but not enough time to lose whatever focus I have.