Accounting for leaving the break room: Work obligations as a resource in transitions from one activity to another at the workplace

Abstract We approach break taking at work as social activity and examine break closings as a type of transition from one activity to another. Using conversation analysis, we draw on video data from five work communities in Finnish institutions of higher education and focus on a linguistic practice that the participants frequently utilize in the break closings: accounts to end the break citing work obligations. Our data show that in addition to multimodally adjusting their leaving to the ongoing break activity, the participants may present the resumption of work as a necessary obligation and use this conventionalized practice to leave the company of others legitimately. Thus, they display their orientation to the significance of co-presence and social solidarity between colleagues and to the leave taking as a somewhat accountable action.