A Brief History of the 'Sad Desk Lunch'

The “sad desk lunch” seems peculiarly modern, both a byproduct of today’s hyper-connected, 24/7 work culture, and a memeified record of it. It’s rushed, it’s vaguely undignified, and, perhaps saddest of all, it’s solitary—even if you’re sitting near your coworkers as you do it. In fact, if you’re at work and picking at a Tupperware salad as you read this, you’re in good company: One recent industry study found that 46 percent of “adult eating occasions” in 2014 took place alone.

But there’s nothing new about wolfing down a sandwich at your desk and calling it lunch. The practice is, according to the annals of Good Housekeeping, at least a century old. In the magazine’s September 1904 issue, one man wrote in with this homemade, presumably novel answer to the “lunch question”: