The issue of smokers rights at work never seems to go away. It’s back in the news again where some Australian companies are looking at charging smokers up to five weeks of their pay because that’s how much time they spend each year outside having a smoke. I don’t smoke. However I do feel that smokers have rights too just like non smokers. I have worked with many managers over the years who penalized their staff who smoked by making them stay back after the official quitting time to make up for it. Not the way to go if you are in management. Smokers are here to stay weather we like it or not. As long as governments receive taxes from smokers and tobacco companies it’s not going away.
While it’s true that smokers do spend a lot of hours each year having a smoke outside of the office, it’s really pointless and unethical to penalize them for it. Most smokers only spend a few minutes every two hours or so having a smoke. So really, its not that much time out of their working day. Whenever someone complained to me and said that it wasn’t fair that smokers can be out of the office countless times per day and non smokers can’t, I suggested to them to take take a slightly longer lunch break. Not everyone would agree with that suggestion but in reality, there were only ever one or two who thought that way so it was never a big deal. Most non smokers couldn’t care less if their smoking colleagues spent time out of the office having a smoke.
If you are a manager who smokes, then why not use the time to coach or mentor your staff while you are out there? Talk shop and use the time productively. Sometimes I used to go outside with some of my staff who smoked and did just that but I stood in a position where I wouldn’t inhale second hand smoke.
Most countries have now banned smoking in the workplace so why not use the time productively if smokers have to be outside? There’s nothing you can do about it so don’t penalize your staff that do smoke and have to go out of the building to do it. If you take that mentality then you need to look at your staff that don’t smoke and monitor how many times they go to the kitchen in a day and make tea or coffee for themselves or stand around the water cooler chatting for ages. Just as much time is spent on these activities in a day by non smokers as smokers spend outside having a smoke. Instead of penalizing smokers, why not set up some sort of a quit smoking program at work like a lot of companies are now doing. In the long run, it could save the company far more money than going down that road of charging staff five weeks pay if they smoke for lost work time.
Smokers have an addiction and it makes no sense to me to penalize them or discriminate against them for it. Governments instead of adopting a mentality of banning smokers from every corner of our cities, they should be thinking about helping people give up smoking and banning tobacco companies and stop collecting those taxes! Oh, but wait, that will never happen will it? It’s far too lucrative for them. So the only thing that you as a manager can do as far as smokers rights at work go is just accept that it’s here to stay for quite some time and accept that smokers don’t have a choice but to go outside and have a smoke. Be proactive and start a quit smoking program at work and encourage your staff to quit smoking if it’s a major issue where you are.
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