That’s not how it works in most places, working hours are fixed and breaks are typically mandated by law anyway, so you don’t get to go home early just because you skipped lunch.
Plus, a healthy and tasty meal, subsidized by the employer, certainly beats me shopping for the ingredients and cooking when it comes to price and time invested. An actual problem is rather having access to a place that provides food like that.
What I mean is workers who leave for lunch are more likely to come back later. Coming back late from lunch happens all the time and no one is fired from Accounting for taking 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes.
Workers taking lunch with other workers in the office are also more likely to talk about work as compared to meeting friends outside of work for lunch. If you are talking about work during lunch with coworkers, that’s like having an office meeting during lunch.
