Click image for enlargement. Illustration by David Stroud.

When it comes to taking lunch, Cynthia Dobek does what many American workers do: she doesn't.

Not that she skips the meal, she simply eats it while she's working.

"I like to keep active and busy while I'm eating. Generally what I try to do is leave answering e-mails for my lunchtime period. So I'm not talking to people on the phone but I'm still able to get some extra work done," said Dobek, the business director for Nevada Public Radio.

She's not alone. According to a pair of surveys of American office workers, more than half say they eat at their desks. The most recent survey, conducted by KFC, found that 58 percent of workers don't leave the office for lunch and those that do aren't just eating. They're shopping, reading e-mail, running errands and doing other things.

Steelcase, an office furniture maker, surveyed workers and found that the traditional lunch hour has been cut nearly in half, to 31 minutes. The survey also found that women take shorter lunch breaks than men.

Dobek, who said she's not the only employee at the station who skips the traditional lunch hour, has been eating lunch at her desk for so long that going out has become a treat. Her job requires her to juggle several tasks -- she also serves as NPR's human resource administrator -- and the extra time helps her stay caught up on work. It also enables her to leave at a reasonable hour, most days.

"What I've found, is I am a busy person," Dobek said. "No pun intended but my plate is very full. Sometimes it stresses me more to leave the building."

With traffic and wait times at restaurants, leaving the building to eat lunch isn't all that appealing. But if she sees a co-worker skipping lunch to work, Dobek said she often urges them to take the break.

"We encourage people to take their lunches (because) it's good for them. I know that would seem hypocritical, telling someone you look really stressed, you need to get out of the building. But my motto is, 'Do as I say, not as I do,' " Dobek said.

This trend of a "disappearing lunch hour" doesn't surprise Andy Katz, the president of Manpower Las Vegas, a staffing agency.

"They say the most valuable thing in a person's life is time," Katz said, adding that Nevada law requires employers to provide a 30-minute lunch break for hourly employees who work at least five hours. "A majority of workers consider the 60-minute lunch a myth, because they're making that choice to do errands or other things."

Katz is witnessing the office lunch hour from a new perspective, that of a restaurant owner. He recently opened a cafe downtown, the Coffee Co., and is more aware of a worker's time than before. People who do venture out of the office for lunch often are looking for something reasonably quick that can be ordered and eaten within a few minutes, he said. When the cafe first opened, he noticed that the salad bar caused a wait during the prime lunchtime of 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; would-be diners sometimes saw the crowd and left.

"There is a finite period of time people have and we're trying to make lunch as easy as possible," Katz explained. "We're aware of the crunch time."

He removed the salad bar to streamline the ordering and eating process, reducing it to signature salads on the menu.

"It's working out well for us," he noted.

Eating lunch serves several purposes for workers, that many aren't aware of, said Gail Sammons, who heads the hotel management department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

It's good for the physical and emotional health of employees to walk away from their work areas for an extended period and eat, she said. Labor laws for allowing meal breaks were put into effect for that very reason, she added.

"Companies often allow employees to build up comp time, so they do it with the lunch hour," Sammons said. "That's not necessarily good. I think for those who don't take lunch, by the end of the day it's going to affect productivity. When you're not taking breaks, you're not refreshing yourself."

Working through lunch doesn't only affect an employee's productivity, it also can cause problems with compensation. Workers are compiling more than 40 hours a week by skipping lunch breaks, she said.

"Companies get in trouble all the time because they allow people to work and say they can build up comp time but it's supposed to be time and half," she explained.

Some companies are beginning to promote the lunch hour and insist that employees get away from their desks because they view the break as necessary for productivity.

Local business owner Solveig Thorsud recently implemented a policy banning food at employees' desks; that way, workers must take a break to eat.

"We work a crazy schedule so we want to encourage people to get away from their computer, go to the lunchroom and eat their lunch," said Thorsud, the owner of The Firm, a public relations company. "I don't think (working through lunch) is that productive. I think even if it's 30 minutes, you're better off taking that break."

Donna Vela, human resources administrator for Travelworm, an online travel wholesaler, recognized about five years ago that lunch plays an important role in maintaining morale. The company, which employs about 60 people, offers monthly potlucks; department heads take their employees out to lunch once a month; and the employee of the month often is honored with a lunch.

"It's to increase morale and also to give people a chance to get to know each other," Vela said.

When she sees people eating at their desks, she encourages them to go into the breakroom

"They think that extra 30 minutes will help them get ahead, but if you take a break and walk away from work you come back with a fresh perspective," Vela said.

With that said, guess where you can find Vela often eating lunch?

At her desk.