Taking a break – out of sight
In the back room, in the warehouse, on crates in the back yard: breaks are part of the working day – and often happen out of sight. Quiet, unremarkable, indispensable.
By Lucas Tuan-Anh Nguyen (text), Laura Rößiger (photos)
Breaks are a key part of a healthy working day. Yet they are often pushed aside or played down. In sectors such as hospitality, construction and entertainment in particular, there is often hardly any time for a break: a cigarette at the back door, a quick moment backstage, or simply a quiet breather outside.
In her photo project, Laura Rößiger documented where and how people spend their breaks. She turns her lens on seemingly invisible moments of rest – and on the quiet significance they have for many people.
Öhningen-Wangen on Lake Constance, March 2024
Harald Leissner, hotel owner and head chef of a four-star hotel, on his lunch break between the early and late shifts.
Harald Leissner, hotel owner and head chef of a four-star hotel in Öhningen-Wangen on Lake Constance, knows the stress of the hotel business: looking after guests, cooking, organising. The 64-year-old considers breaks indispensable. He proudly points out that a sign at the hotel entrance makes his position clear: ‘Please be nice to our staff. Waiting staff are still harder to find than guests.’
Everyday life in the hotel business is demanding and exhausting. Some days he is on the move all day, other days he’s doing manual work or repairs – year after year, and summer is often even more stressful than winter. When Mr Leissner can’t find time to spend his breaks in the woods with his dog or out on the water on his stand-up paddleboard, he sometimes relaxes on a sofa in the back building of the hotel – always with a view of the lake. Despite the stress, he sticks to his discipline. He explains that even during his training he learned to do without cigarettes, alcohol and his phone on his breaks. Really switching off and doing nothing – that’s what matters to him. With every passing year, breaks become more important to him: as you get older, he says, you can’t just work – you have to take breaks consciously too.
I don’t need a cigarette, alcohol or my phone. ‘Really switching off’ and ‘doing nothing’ are very important to me.
Harald Leissner
Wuppertal, January 2024
Susann Ketley during the interval of the musical ‘Cinderella’ at Wuppertal’s municipal theatre, in which she plays the title role.
For Susann Ketley, a musical theatre performer, things look a little different. There are clear differences between breaks during rehearsals and on performance nights. Depending on the production, she may work almost non-stop from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. In other productions the day is split: from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and, after a break, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Performance nights are often so exhausting, she says, that she uses most of her free time to recover. After a show she usually sleeps in and spends the day at home before heading to the next performance. During breaks in a show, she often has to go back to make-up, drinks water, chats to colleagues or messages her boyfriend. How she spends her breaks depends on the situation.
She sees bathrobes as a special luxury. The moment she slips into a bathrobe backstage is one of the best of the evening – that’s when it really feels like a break.
But amid the glitter and theatre magic, Ketley would like more structure and more awareness of breaks. During rehearsals in particular, little importance is often attached to them. Because of time pressure, breaks are sometimes forgotten or cut. She finds it particularly ironic that breaks are officially considered important but in reality are often treated as expendable.
Everyone says breaks are important, and yet they’re the first thing to be forgotten or cut.
Susann Ketley
Radolfzell on Lake Constance, March 2024
Two chefs from a four-star superior design and wellness hotel in Radolfzell on Lake Constance.
For Laura Rößiger, the subject is personal: as a former supermarket employee, she knows from her own experience what it’s like to take breaks next to pallets or on the loading dock. That perspective shapes her work: with respect and sensitivity, she portrays other people’s breaks – quiet moments of rest in the middle of the working day. She could easily imagine continuing the project. ‘Breaks,’ she says, ‘will always be with me.’
Laura Rößiger’s project makes these quiet moments visible – and reminds us how essential they are for all of us. Because one thing is clear: wherever we work and whatever we do, we all need breaks.
