Fifty-five percent of American office workers said they engage in other activities besides eating during their lunch hour in a typical work week, according to a Steelcase Workplace Index, a semi-annual survey that gauges workplace trends in the United States. And of those, nearly 40 percent said they have exchanged their traditional lunch hour for some extra time to catch up on their work.

Office workers take, on average, only 36 minutes for lunch each day, with 14 percent not taking any time for lunch in the average work week, according to the survey. Office workers in the Northeast and those in the highest income bracket ($50,000+ household income) are most inclined to skip lunch altogether (each at 20 percent). The survey also showed that men and women are almost equally inclined to skip their lunch entirely, with 15 percent and 14 percent respectively passing on the mid-day intermission.

According to the Workplace Index, Americans try to accomplish a great deal during their lunch hour, as they selected one or more activities accomplished during this time period. Aside from eating, socializing with friends (53 percent), running errands (44 percent), having a working lunch with colleagues (38 percent) and reading (37 percent) are among the most common activities. Still, 28 percent call friends or family members on the telephone, 27 percent go shopping, 14 percent exercise, nine percent use the time to go to the doctor, six percent check in on the kids in day care and one percent use that time to go on job interviews.

During their lunch hours, women are more than twice as likely as men to go shopping (37 percent versus 17 percent). However, men are only slightly more inclined to take clients to lunch than women (21 percent versus 16 percent) and typically take 10 percent longer for lunch than women.

Interestingly, despite the change in work ethic, 84 percent of the 298 office workers surveyed said they feel no guilt whatsoever about taking a full lunch hour. In fact, Northeast and West Coast workers are especially active in engaging in lunch hour activities, with about 40 percent of each taking a full lunch hour five days a week.

The Steelcase Workplace Index survey was conducted by Bruskin Goldring Research among 1,000 men and women 18 years of age or older.

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