by West African horrified by sad desk salads and isolated eating
The Saddest Meal in the World’s Richest Country
CHICAGO, IL – Kwame Mensah witnessed something he considered criminal on his third day at his American office job: his coworker eating lunch alone at her desk, hunched over a computer, typing with one hand while stabbing a sad salad with the other. “Are you being punished?” he asked genuinely. She looked confused. “No, just catching up on emails during lunch.” Mensah, a 28-year-old from Ghana, realized he’d discovered America’s most dystopian workplace practice: eating alone, at desks, while working, like human productivity machines who occasionally need fuel but dare not stop producing.
In Accra, lunch meant leaving the office, gathering with colleagues, eating actual food, talking, laughing, existing as humans for at least an hour. In Chicago, lunch means 23 minutes eating over a keyboard while attending a Zoom meeting on mute. “You don’t even taste your food,” Mensah observed while watching his coworker inhale a wrap without looking at it once. “You’re consuming calories, not eating lunch. This isn’t a mealit’s refueling, like you’re a car. Except cars get better maintenance than you give yourself.”
When Productivity Culture Eliminates the Last Human Moment
According to a Right Management survey, 62% of American workers eat lunch at their desksnot because they want to, but because workplace culture makes taking actual lunch breaks feel like laziness. Mensah watched his entire office eat at their desks for a week straight. “Nobody leaves,” he marveled. “You have a cafeteria. You have restaurants nearby. You have weather that’s not currently trying to kill you. But you choose to eat sad meals in front of screens. Why? Who are you trying to impress? Your boss who’s also eating alone at his desk?”
Jim Gaffigan said, “I know I’m out of shape when I’m excited about eating.” Americans are so out of practice at eating like humans that they’re excited about 23 minutes alone with lukewarm food they’re not even tasting. Mensah’s coworker explained she’s “too busy” to take a real lunch. “Busy doing what?” he asked. “Responding to emails that could wait an hour? Everyone else is also eating at their desk. Who are you emailing? Other people eating at their desks? You’re all too busy to eat properly, so you send each other emails during lunch creating more work that makes you too busy to eat properly. This is a death spiral of bad sandwiches and declining mental health.”
The Lunch Break That Isn’t a Break
Mensah discovered Americans are entitled to 30-minute lunch breaks but most take 15-20 minutes because taking the full 30 “looks bad.” To whom, nobody can explain. “You’re worried about looking lazy by eating food for 30 minutes?” Mensah asked. “You know what looks lazy? Being exhausted all the time because you never actually rest. You know what looks crazy? Working through lunch and wondering why you’re burned out by 3pm.”
Dave Chappelle said, “Modern problems require modern solutions.” America’s modern problem is they’ve eliminated rest and called it productivity. The modern solution is working through lunch, burning out faster, quitting jobs, and then repeating the cycle at new jobs with the same sad desk lunch culture. Mensah’s traditional solutionactually taking lunch breaks with other humansis considered radical, possibly European, definitely suspicious.
His manager praised him for “dedication” after seeing him at his desk during lunch. Mensah clarified: “I wasn’t working. I was eating. I just stayed at my desk because everyone else does and I didn’t want to eat alone in the cafeteria like a loser.” The manager nodded approvingly, misunderstanding completely. Mensah had been eating, not working. But in America, being at your desk is indistinguishable from productivity because location matters more than activity.
When Breaking Bread Breaks Productivity Metrics
Mensah tried organizing group lunches. His coworkers loved the idea in theory. In practice, everyone was “too swamped” to leave their desks for 45 minutes. “You’re not too swamped,” Mensah protested. “You’re afraid. Afraid of looking unproductive. Afraid of falling behind. Afraid that 45 minutes of being human will somehow destroy your career. Meanwhile, you’re destroying your health, relationships, and sanity for companies that would replace you in a week if you quit.”
Chris Rock said, “You know you’re getting old when you’re more excited about a new dishwasher than going out.” Americans know work culture is broken when they’re more excited about eating at their desk than taking an actual lunch break because desk-eating means not falling behind. Falling behind what? The imaginary productivity race everyone’s running that nobody can win because there’s no finish linejust burnout, resignation, and the next job where you’ll also eat sad lunches alone.
The $15 Salad Eaten in 8 Minutes Without Tasting
Mensah watched his coworker spend $15 on a “healthy” salad and eat it in 8 minutes while on a conference call where she was muted. “You spent $15 on food you didn’t taste,” he calculated. “You could’ve eaten a bag of chips with the same nutritional awareness. Why spend money on quality food if you’re going to treat it like gasoline? Just drink a protein shake and admit you’ve given up on eating like a human.” His coworker admitted she doesn’t even remember what her lunch tastes like most days. Mensah mourns for her and her salad.
Bill Burr said, “I’m not going to apologize for being right.” Mensah’s not apologizing for thinking American lunch culture is punishment disguised as professionalism. “You’re eating alone, quickly, joylessly, while working, and calling it normal. Back home, if someone ate lunch alone at their desk every day, we’d assume they were being shunned or had severe social problems. Here, it’s standard. You’ve normalized isolation and sadness and called it ‘getting stuff done.'”
The most American moment came when Mensah’s coworker scheduled a “working lunch”a meeting during lunch where everyone eats at the conference table while discussing Q3 projections. “This isn’t lunch,” Mensah protested. “This is work with sandwiches. Lunch requires not working. That’s the entire point. Food, rest, conversation about non-work things, being humans briefly. You’ve eliminated all of that and kept only the eating part, which you’re doing badly while being productive. This is the same energy as sleeping at your desk and calling it ‘rest.'”
When Community Becomes a Scheduling Conflict
In Ghana, Mensah ate lunch with colleagues every day. They talked about families, politics, football, lifeeverything except work. Lunch was the break from work, not a different form of work. “We were building relationships,” he explained. “Trust, friendship, community. You people skip all that and then complain your workplace culture is toxic. Maybe it’s toxic because you never spend non-work time together. You’re just coworkers, never colleagues. There’s a difference.”
Amy Schumer said, “I’m not saying I’m lazy, I’m saying I’m energy efficient.” American workers aren’t energy efficientthey’re relationship-deficient. They save 15 minutes by eating at their desks and lose the chance to build workplace friendships that make jobs bearable. They’re efficient at eliminating joy and calling it productivity. Then they wonder why they hate Mondays.
The Microwave Lunch That Smells Like Regret
Mensah brought jollof rice for lunchdelicious, aromatic, prepared with care. He heated it in the office microwave. The smell filled the floor. Three coworkers complained it was “too strong.” Mensah looked at their meals: sad sandwiches, plain salads, beige wraps. “Your food has no smell because it has no flavor,” he observed. “You’re eating punishment food that offends nobody and satisfies nobody. My food smells because it’s real food cooked with spices and love. Your problem isn’t my food’s smellit’s that you’ve forgotten food should have smell, taste, and joy. You’ve accepted that lunch is supposed to be joyless fuel. I refuse.”
Kevin Hart said, “Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work.” Everybody wants good workplace culture, but nobody wants to do the work of building communitywhich starts with eating meals together like humans instead of separately like suspicious animals. Mensah’s jollof rice became controversial not because it smelled bad but because it smelled too good, reminded people what real food was, and highlighted how depressing their desk salads were in comparison.
His coworker defended her plain turkey sandwich: “It’s healthy and doesn’t smell.” Mensah’s response: “Cardboard is also healthy and doesn’t smell. That doesn’t mean it’s food. You’re eating joylessly because you work joylessly. Everything about your lunchthe what, the where, the howcommunicates that you don’t deserve pleasure or rest. Just efficiency. You’re productivity machines that occasionally need fuel. That’s not livingthat’s functioning. There’s a difference.”
When Taking Lunch Breaks Becomes Revolutionary
Mensah started taking full lunch breaksleaving the building, sitting outside, eating slowly, enjoying food. His coworkers watched him leave like he was abandoning ship. He returned energized, happy, ready for the afternoon. They were exhausted by 2pm from never actually resting. “You’re more productive than me,” his coworker admitted. “You take longer lunches, yet somehow get more done.” Mensah’s explanation: “Because I rest. My brain gets breaks. I return refreshed, not depleted. You grind through lunch and wonder why you can’t focus by 3pm. You’re running on fumes. I’m running on fuel and rest. We’re not the same.”
Trevor Noah said, “In Africa, we understand that work is part of life, not life itself.” Americans understand that work is lifethey eat at desks, check emails at dinner, answer Slack messages at midnight. They’ve eliminated boundaries and called it dedication. The result is burnout, resentment, and sad desk lunches eaten alone while pretending to be productive.
When asked if he’ll adopt American desk lunch culture, Mensah laughed while preparing to leave the building for his full lunch hour. “Never,” he said. “I’ll eat like a humanslowly, with others when possible, away from work. I’ll take my full break because I’m entitled to it and my health requires it. You people have confused suffering with dedication. You think eating sad meals alone while working proves you care about your job. It doesn’t. It proves you don’t care about yourself. And companies that encourage this culture don’t care about you either. They care about productivity. You’re humans, not machines. Start eating like it. Take your breaks. Leave your desk. Taste your food. Talk to colleagues. Build community. Or keep eating alone in front of screens and wonder why you’re anxious, isolated, and burned out by 35.”
He paused, then added: “Back home, refusing to eat lunch with others would be considered antisocial, possibly rude. Here, it’s standard. You’ve normalized the saddest part of work culture and forgotten what meals are supposed to becommunity, rest, pleasure, humanity. Your desk lunch isn’t productivity. It’s surrender. You’ve surrendered your lunch break, your community time, your rest, your joy. And for what? To answer emails that could wait? To look busy to people who are also eating sadly alone? You’re all losing together, racing to burnout, calling it career dedication. Meanwhile, I’m eating my jollof rice in the sun, talking to actual humans, and somehow still getting all my work done. The difference isn’t work ethic. It’s that I remember I’m human. And humans need more than 8 minutes alone with a salad to survive the workday.”
SOURCE: Bohiney Magazine (Aisha Muharrar)
DATE: 11/14/2025
