You smoke? You're fired!

[Leetahkin]

I stumbled across this article. Even though I don't smoke, and prefer not to be around smokers, I don't agree with companies firing for something a person does on their own time - that is legal.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-05-11-smoke-usat_x.htm

[GSLeloo]

We discussed this in business class.. they also don't hire smokers. Basically the justification is that they save money in health insurance by not hiring a smoker. I know even at my job our boss Debbie takes 10 minute smoke breaks ALL the time and then claims she never had a break. Dumb bitch.

[fallenSaint]

Heh, I wasnt a big smoker until I started my job ... go figure.

[Back]

What about car accidents? What about obesity? Bad trend.

[Wezas]

That's about as dumb as a Chrysler plant towing away any employee's non-Chrysler car that parks in the "Chrysler Vehicle Only" section of the parking lot. (http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3327826)

And the "Chrysler Vehicle Only" section is 80% of the parking for employees.

[Leetahkin]

That's great that the tow companies even thinks it's bs. :lol:

[Doyle Hargraves]

"The main goal is to elevate the health status of our employees," says Gary Climes, chief financial officer.

That is such bullshit. They couldn't give two shits about the health status of their employees, they just want to save money on health insurance.


I know even at my job our boss Debbie takes 10 minute smoke breaks ALL the time and then claims she never had a break. Dumb bitch.

Sounds like she's just being smart to me. God forbid she might get FIRED if the higher-ups found out she smokes.

I don't blame her one bit. Fuck corporations.

Canada is looking better and better everyday.

For the record, I'm not a smoker but I still think this is a huge load of shit.

If someone was smoking in an office or even a stairwell, I could understand some beef with this situation.

[DeV]

It's unfair to regulate a policy such as that.

My company doesn't regulate employee smoke breaks, so they're usually out there 40+ minutes a day puffing away, paid time.

It's been proven that peoplpe don't work the full 8 hours they are at work anyway. SO SAD TOO BAD for the corporations.

- Arkans

[Gan]

Originally posted by Arkans
It's been proven that peoplpe don't work the full 8 hours they are at work anyway. SO SAD TOO BAD for the corporations.

- Arkans


Actually its so sad too bad for the consumers who wind up paying for those inefficiencies through higher prices for goods and services.

Cigarette Smoke is unpleasant to be around, makes people's breath stink (even with brushing teeth and mints etc.), and for some reason some smokers who hang out in designated areas still cant manage to put used cig buts in waste receptacles and would rather just smoosh them onto the ground instead(wonder if they do that with used toilette paper as well). I'll not even go into the health effects of second hand smoke on non-smokers who have to walk through the smoking areas or the health effects of smoking itself.

I have no issue with regulation and legislation that addresses this oral fixation habit that affects more than just the person indulging in it.

Oh, kissing someone who just finished a cig is like kissing an ashtray. Bleh.

[SnatchWrangler]

I was a smoker, but always took only 1 or 2, very quick smoke breaks a day at my old job. (I'd feel guilty if I was out for more than 5 minutes).

I've since quit about 8 months ago. The woman that sits next to me smokes, and goes out for 3-5 25 minute smoke breaks a day. It pisses me off to no end, because she already comes across as lazy, nevermind the fact she's not at her desk 2 hours a day because she had to walk downstairs to have a smoke.

It's all about efficiency. If a company had no smokers, there are less breaks taken, less favortism-type claims (ie, "He takes breaks all the time to smoke, I'm taking one now."), lower health, disability, and group Long Term Care costs, less sick days taken (allegedly), less overhead/maintenence fees, and less a-million-and-one other micromanagment details.

Even if you're not working at your desk, the management definately prefers the appearance that you are, as opposed to a few empty cubicles every 1-2hours when people go out for a smoke break.


[Edited on 5-12-2005 by SnatchWrangler]

[Leetahkin]

But the article also says that if you smoke while not at work, lets say at home, that it is grounds for firing. Some companies want to have a say in what you do off company time/off company property.

Which I think is totally wrong.

But I also wholeheartedly agree that smoking is nasty, and I will never ever kiss someone who had smoked just prior to the pucker. Disgusting. :barf:

[DeV]

Originally posted by Arkans
It's been proven that peoplpe don't work the full 8 hours they are at work anyway. SO SAD TOO BAD for the corporations.

- Arkans No, it is too bad, so sad for the other employees that are left to pick up the slack of those who are taking between 4-8 smoking breaks a day. The corporations rarely suffer because of this.

[Back]

Originally posted by DeV

Originally posted by Arkans
It's been proven that peoplpe don't work the full 8 hours they are at work anyway. SO SAD TOO BAD for the corporations.

- Arkans No, it is too bad, so sad for the other employees that are left to pick up the slack of those who are taking between 4-8 smoking breaks a day. The corporations rarely suffer because of this.

I don’t buy it. If your company lets people walk around smoking for an hour or more a day, then your company is not running efficiently.

Not all smokers are fuck-offs and not all fuck-offs are smokers.

[DeV]

I wasn't sure if Arkans reply was regarding the article or my post, but in any case my second reply was in reference to his comment. My company IS run less than efficiently, and I've felt that way for a long time. I can't top the salary so it's something I've learned to deal with, although it's become more of a recognizable issue over the past year.

It's not even that they are lazy or fuck-offs, because they do their jobs when they're in the office. I'm one of only 2 people in my department that doesn't smoke, so it's much easier for me to recognize the inefficiency of un-regulated smoke breaks, and the higher cost of insurance among other things.

Inefficient yes, however profit over employee related matters so you know how that goes. When I say left to pick up the slack it could mean something as minor as assisting a co-worker's client while they are out smoking to waiting for an answer to a pending inquiry.

My point is that while it is unfair for this company to regulate smoking in the manner applied, it's equally unfair when companies don't regulate smoking, more specifically smoking breaks at all.

[Bobmuhthol]

There was such a huge thread on this before.

And if I remember correctly, I was the only person who disagreed with it...

[Asha]

If it wasn't for the fact I don't have a break unless I'm going for a cig, I wouldn't smoke either.
But those in our office who don't smoke, basicly stay at their computers and drink OJ.

It's ridiculous.

[Latrinsorm]

Originally posted by Nobody Cares
Some companies want to have a say in what you do off company time/off company property.If it infringes upon your ability to do your job, why shouldn't they have a say in it? Tons of athletes have clauses in their contracts that forbid dangerous activities (Aaron Boone - Basketball, that guy that used to be on the Bulls - motorcycles). If one wants to kill himself or herself, why should one's employer have to pay for it? I'd be more concerned about the following if I was a prospective employee:
They must also agree to searches of briefcases, purses or other belongings if company officials suspect tobacco or other banned substances have been brought on-site.Doing the same thing with high cholesterol or whatever is a bit much, as high cholesterol isn't necessarily controllable; by which I mean smoking is a choice while genetics aren't.

[ElanthianSiren]

I used to take smoke breaks last time I worked a commercial job. I didn't smoke on them, (really enjoying a clove cigarette in 10 minutes isn't going to happen), but everyone else there took them, so I did too.

The last job I worked allotted for them also though in their handbook -- every 3 hours you worked, you were entitled to a 10 minute paid break by law. I don't see why it's impossible to go three hours without a cigarette -- In some cases, I think it's just an excuse not to work.

I used to work 9 hours and take a 30 minute break paid. In some cases, it's great for people who DON'T smoke.

-Melissa

[Hulkein]

I used to love taking smoke breaks at the age of 14 when I worked at McDonalds.

The bosses loved that.

[ElanthianSiren]

Originally posted by Latrinsorm


They must also agree to searches of briefcases, purses or other belongings if company officials suspect tobacco or other banned substances have been brought on-site.Doing the same thing with high cholesterol or whatever is a bit much, as high cholesterol isn't necessarily controllable; by which I mean smoking is a choice while genetics aren't.

Not to mention it forces you to sign away your right to be free of illegal search and seizure -- drug tests do the same.

-Melissa

[Apotheosis]

Yeah, we need to nail this stuff down cause, like, if business can legally get away with this, it opens up doors to a whole world of bullshit that people should not be subjected to.

They have enough of it as there is, without needing more of it coming from some ridiculous obsession with how people choose to live.

[Doyle Hargraves]

Tons of athletes have clauses in their contracts that forbid dangerous activities (Aaron Boone - Basketball, that guy that used to be on the Bulls - motorcycles)

I'm sure the 7-8 figure incomes they're receiving have something to do with them being willing to accept that.

But some schmo making cubicle wages? I think not.

[GSLeloo]

Sounds like she's just being smart to me. God forbid she might get FIRED if the higher-ups found out she smokes.

I don't blame her one bit. Fuck corporations.


Oh no, they know she smokes. They couldn't care that she smokes. It's just annoying that she harasses anyone who goes a minute over their fifteen minute break and yet she takes twenty minutes probably the entire day in smoking breaks and says she never had ANY break.

[Back]

Originally posted by GSLeloo



Sounds like she's just being smart to me. God forbid she might get FIRED if the higher-ups found out she smokes.

I don't blame her one bit. Fuck corporations.


Oh no, they know she smokes. They couldn't care that she smokes. It's just annoying that she harasses anyone who goes a minute over their fifteen minute break and yet she takes twenty minutes probably the entire day in smoking breaks and says she never had ANY break.

This is going to sound like bullshit, but just the other day a smoker from another department and I shared a smoke break talking about a project we are working on together, so technically, it was work.

[TheRoseLady]

I used to take way more breaks when I smoked. Now I could go until lunch and not even care, except now I walk on my breaks.

I used to have a horrible nasty cold/sinusitis/bronchitis something flare up every year, at least one. Ironically, I've had one cold and that was a few days before I got married (talk bout horrendous timing) because my best friend gave it to me! :rant: Other than that, nothing. I think that a company should be permitted to decide if they want to take on the smokers or not.

[GSLeloo]

lol Backlash. Slightly like bullshit but that could actually be seen as work. Like say... working on a research and eating dinner or something. Debbie is outside on her own. Her job is to be inside watching the front end. (There's a lot of issues with her like she'll leave the keys and the phone for the front end in the hands of a part timer and vanish for an hour and then claim she never had a break)

[Doyle Hargraves]

It's just annoying that she harasses anyone who goes a minute over their fifteen minute break and yet she takes twenty minutes probably the entire day in smoking breaks and says she never had ANY break.

Ah, I see.

In that case, she needs to be run over.

[GSLeloo]

Are you voluntering to? Because we'd ALL love you to! Every person underneath her (Cashiers, baggers, cart boys) hate her cause she's a nasty bitch. Even some of her superiors and equals hate her.. yet somehow she's protected by the store manager.

[Tsa`ah]

Unless said corporations are paying me while not at work, no policy (unless agreed to upon hiring) is going to prevent them from losing big time in a number of wrongful termination cases.

There were a few local companies that tried to impose a "no imbibing of alcohol 6 hours before work" bs clause in their policies. I believe two companies ended up firing close to 20 people in one shot. Apparently the group decided to go have a beer 5 hours before their 11pm shift started. 1 beer, 5 hours before work, 20 people. Each were sent to the hospital for a breathalyzer, and told not to report for work before they were contacted. 1 week later each were told (over the phone) they no longer had jobs. Each filed wrongful termination claims, each claim was settled and said policy is now unheard of in this neck of Illinois.

The only way this policy is enforceable is if it agreed to upon the date of hire or the employer begins paying employees for any and all activities outside of work. Outside of that, good fucking luck.

I avoid the heavy smokers because it makes me feen'.

I also tended to be real paranoid whenever I'd smoke in public because I thought people were ice grilling me.

[TheRoseLady]

Originally posted by Doyle Hargraves
In that case, she needs to be run over.


:rofl: