Prohibition on the hiring of any new employees who smoke

Well then what percentage of the country does that exclude? Picky, picky, picky!

I think we should rename this country to Nazi-America. Then the government and society can outlaw fat people from visiting beaches and all doorways to made smaller so they cannot fit into most establishments, smokers from living at all (why not just shoot them in the head now and be done with it?), nose-pickers to be operated on so none of their fingers can now fit up their nostrils, gay people to be mummified so they cannot indulge, unattractive people to be forced to wear bags over their heads so that the pretty people are not forced to throw up, cell-phone users to be decapitated if their voice decibel reaches above a whisper, disabled/retarded people made sterile so they cannot have any offspring (wasn't there a court-case once about something like this?), old people euthanized once they reach a certain age, and on and on and on ....

Oh and when we are done with all that, we really will have to legalize marijuana because, down the road, we will need a new item to piss all over because we just can't handle everything being perfect anyways.

I agree, Heeven. Fat people should not be allowed on beaches. They take up all my sun.

I think it is silly and unfair to prohibit the hiring of people who smoke.

Now if they burst into flames -- that is a different thing.

Should meat production firms not be allowed to employ vegetarians.

Where do you draw the line about what people can or can't do. The Nanny State & their cohorts the Politicaly Correct Police want to reduce us all to a common likeness. Their mantra is ------ "we know what's good for you & you don't"

Re: Prohibition on the hiring of any new employees who smoke


Do you have a link for that we can read ?

You need to have a spokesmanreview.com
account.

That sounds expensive.

The head chef here at Birks in Santa Clara, a meat lovers restaurant and bar that attracts Silicon Valley's movers and shakers, is a vegetarian.

That is just wrong. Eat the flesh.

Everywhere is freaks and hairies
Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor
Till there are no rich no more

I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you

And the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply.

Being a smoker myself I can see where employers would have a problem. I have worked at large corporations wherein the smoking area is filled with people just looking to get more breaks, or longer breaks, and it doesnt go unnoticed. I personally dont have to smoke that much. I have even been told that I dont take long enough breaks, even with the smoking thing so, I suppose Im one of the few. Someone making an assumption regarding my duties because I am a smoker though-its just wrong.
As for the insurance part of it, well, an employer doesnt need to offer insurance to its employess, and neither does it have to pay all of the premium for the insurance if they do wish to offer it. I dont think thats the issue.

I am a smoker too but when I tell colleagues they are astonished, since I don't bring my cigarettes to work and I don't take smoking breaks (I'm too frickin busy to take a loo-break nevermind a lunch-break!). Anyhoo I never got into the habit of smoking while at work and I have no intention of going down 30+ flights into gale-force winds or snow-storms for a ciggie!

What I do at home is nobodies business and I am healthier than ALL of my co-workers coz I know all of them have had health issues within the last 12 months (invoking health insurance) and all I got was a cold while in Ireland for Christmas (which I cured with plentiful supplies of Irish coffees and hot whiskies. I have never had a sick day in 10 years (wait, I tell a lie - I did have a massive hangover after a work party one year and didn't make it in the next day). I wouldn't recognize my doctor if I met her in the street coz I never see her. Health insurance is used for smokers yeah, but it is also heavily used for a wider variety of other causations of ailments. People just don't take care of themselves with food, drink, lack of exercise, drugs, etc., etc. Will we see health insurance denied for smokers, overweight people, substance users, drinkers, people who eat spicy foods? Those applications down the road are going to be pretty lengthy!

A friend of mine manages a Blockbuster store. She makes it clear to any potential employees that they will not be allowed any "smoke breaks". There is a half hour lunch break and that's the only break they get. So she's not refusing to hire any smokers, but she doesn't have any who want to work at her store.

That would probably be the better way to go, although with some companies being so large, who but a fellow co-worker is going to notice a smoker going out for a fix? Personally, I as a non-smoker would find it unfair that a smoker gets to take numerous breaks while I'm slugging away the whole time.

Not denied, perhaps, but those with any health issues will likely pay more.

I agree with the smoking breaks. If they want to take the time to go out for a smoke, it should be deducted from their lunch-time. Anything besides bathroom breaks should come off lunch or vacation time. I worked with a large crew a few years back and half smoked and the other half didn't. We counted the minutes they spent on smoking breaks and presented a month-long report to management with the express wish that the non-smokers (or those who were smokers and didn't take breaks) be given the same amount of time off by letting us go early or come in later. They put a new rule in place whereby a maximum of 15 minutes a day was given for smoking breaks (with smokers having to check in and out with supervisors) and non-smokers could either take an extra 15 minutes at lunch or leave 15 minutes early.

Heeven: Just prooves the point of documentation, documentation, documentation. What an effective means of handling that situation!

I'm curious Heeven...most smokers I know (and my Mom was a regular smoker, so I've lived with one) really have a hard time going without their drug of choice for so long. How do you handle it? If you can go a whole working day without a smoke, I wonder why you don't quite outright. I know it's none of my business, so tell me to MMOB if you feel so inclined. Just that you obviously have the sort of discipline that eludes most smokers and why not go the whole way?

"Tobacco users"? That really how they called it?

(I mean, I can see the point ... in a way it's just being honest ... but my, times have changed.)



Hmmmm ... I've worked both in a shop, restaurant, and warehouses and the like - manual work, say - and now, since a few years, in an office job ... and now I'm a non-smoker myself, never smoked in my life ... but I dont much recognize what you're saying.

I mean, fair's fair - most everyone finds an excuse for those in-between breaks. The smokers take a smoke break, the non-smokers take a coffee break, or go "discuss" some highly important office business with a befriended colleague, or are discretely checking their e-mail when others think they're hard at work. Most of us be half-stepping every once in a while (I'm a big procrastinator myself if I've got something difficult coming up) - and some of us are just downright lazy, and will take any opportunity to flake. Smokers and non-smokers alike.

So - heh <grins> - how much time did the non-smokers spend on counting minutes, preparing statistics and writing reports, and generally discussing and complaining to each other about those smokers? :wink:

I've worked in those situations. My co-worker says "I'm going out for a quick smoke" and no less than five minutes later he/she is back. This happens throughout the day. Do I take extra breaks? No. So it burns my butt that smokers feel they are owed some special favours and less working time just because they choose to light up. In the meantime, I have to cover not only my work, but their work too.

In my workplace most of the supervisors smoke, so smoke breaks are not only tolerated, they are considered a God-given right. These supervisors harangue workers who stop to talk, walk around, or commit other acts of perceived non-productivity. That is, when they are not out back smoking, which, unfortunately, they take turns doing. Our only comfort is knowing the odds are they will die before us.