Badtz Maru - well, look at that, you just happen to be in my neck of the woods! The gossip isn’t that interesting in my opinion, certainly not enough to start the habit - but hey, try a fake cig like those “smokeless” ones and join in the fun. If they all fall silent when you walk out to join them, that’s not a good sign. 
I should be sleeping by now, but this thread caught my eye.
My office does not contain any smokers, but everyone takes non-smoking-smoke-breaks. When you need to clear your head or can’t look at your computer or just had a frustrating call, you go outside and sit on the benches, or walk a circuit around the building. Everybody does this, even the CEO. Calling out, “I just need to get out of the bulding for a few minutes,” and then doing so is perfectly acceptable. I love it. Smoke breaks at work are actually the thing I miss the most since quitting-- it was the perfect thing to do when you needed a change of scenery to think.
However, I also don’t punch a clock, have no duties that need ‘covering’, and routinely exceed 40 (or even 50) hours a week, so I don’t think time spent refocusing my thoughts in the courtyard is going to kill anyone.
I also have been at workplaces where this would not be okay, sitting outside and doing nothing. But if you’re smoking, your doing somthing, whereas not smoking is wasting time (and therefor money). Someone should tell these employers that smokers are costing them extra in health insurance rates. Mine went down after I quit.
Too-right CanvasShoes. How many times do we have to explain this? I took NO offense to ivy’s post, and enjoyed a laugh at the double entendre that ensued from my (unintentional) use of the word ‘fag’. She was NOT being condescending, she was NOT being bitchy, and she was NOT being an anal-retentive wanker like some in this thread.
Shit folks, I can smell a put-down at 50 metres and ivylass’s post doesn’t even come close. If you’re looking to find and defend offense, you’ve jumped on the wrong bandwagon here. Go find another one.
Cheers all!!
Now, I’m off to have myself ANOTHER fag…wheeeeeeeee.
Oh, way to fuck up the coding kam…
But you get my meaning, yes?
I really suck at math but look at this…
You figure 4 smoke breaks a day @ 20 minutes means they actaully took off over an hour extra for a break each day.
Take that to a weekly break and that means they had over 5 hours off each week.
Take that to a monthly break and that comes to 20 hours a month.
Take that to a year and they actually had 240 hours off which is equal to 6 weeks a year.
What the hell do non smokers get?
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What is that far away look that smokers get…
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Ahhh, that’s us contemplating our mortality. Something we have to look forward to a little sooner than others would.
I never really realised it before reading this thread, but I think the hospitality industry does lead to smoking. I never smoked before I got a job in a restaurant as a young’un, and then I did for the aforementioned reason of “smokers always got their breaks”.
A company I used to work for offered an hour lunch-break to employees but didn’t specify a time frame for other breaks during the day, being a small and fairly flexible company. I was a smoker then and felt I could smoke/take a break as I saw fit. I was also one of those people who smoked a cigarette in about 3 minutes. A couple of nonsmokers would grumble about not being able to take breaks because they didn’t smoke. It was a bit annoying to me, because no one ever said they weren’t entitled to take a break/go outside whenever they saw fit; it’s not like there was a force-field disallowing all but smokers to inhabit the outdoors at given times during the day.
Some people pee many times a day. Some people check their make-up and hair several times a day. Some people use the phone for more (or more lengthy) personal calls. Some people take time to talk in the hall or at the water fountain (or elsewhere).
I have a similarly flexible job now, but although I don’t smoke anymore, I still take breaks. Sometimes I chat with people who are smoking; sometimes not. My break; my call.
And a 20-minute break is not just a smoking break, unless they are stoving down 3 or 4 smokes each session, which may lead to dizziness and fainting and generally poor job performance…
Take heart; all those paid minutes that smokers take out of work time will be deducted from their lifespans.
I just do my job and don’t worry about the times others slack. But then, I’m in a situation where I don’t cover for anyone and nobody covers me either.
Crimeny, who are all these people who are so hooked that they have to smoke every hour? I smoke, and I have never (unless the boss was with me!) taken an unscheduled break just so I could smoke. My duty is to my job, not my habit. And the longer I wait for that after-work smoke, the better it is.
LOL!
You know? I remember, years ago while listening to a “live” report of a forest fire near our neighborhood.
The reporter was QUITE excited, and maybe a bit nervous at being so close to the flames.
He blurted out something to the effect of “It’s very hot and smoky, and I’m surrounded by flaming faggots”.
Of course HE meant faggots as in bundles of wood, but being immature bratty high school students, WE all took it as its slang meaning, and it was a hit around school for some time to come.
Back when I worked fast food, I also smoked, and in my opinion, didn’t have enough time to. My solution was to start working as a “maintenance crewperson” (scrubbing sidewalks, sweeping the parking lot, etc.) which kept me outside and puffing all day.
I later on got a job which required me to seriously bust my ass to finish in the allotted time, and my solution that time was to quit.
Since this thread has been hijacked all to heck 
Featherlou said
The company I worked at after I left teaching was much like this. While I enjoyed the work and it prepared me well for a nice position after I left (not through their wish but I ‘spun’ the position like a pro and my degree helped me pull it off ) the company did the same things.
Bonus? Bonus? What’s that? When people would ask about a bonus (usually new people) they would always get the ‘you should be grateful you have a job’ speech.
‘Management’ would only work about 6 hours a day and at least one of that was chit chatting with each other.
Fridays and Christmas’s were a joke. Higher ups would disappear around lunch on Fridays and the 2 weeks around Christmas was a ghosttown.
No, it wasn’t vacations. They were “working from home”. Whenever you called them when they were “working from home” they would seldom pick up. Assistants of the people “working from home” noticed that no work seemed to be getting done when they were “working from home”.
Lord forbid one of the grunts asked to “work from home”. Oh man, the management would be up in arms! Such requests were never granted.
Friday afternoons and near Christmas were always humorous. There would literally just be us grunts hanging around and (believe it or not) working because it needed to get done. However, after a couple of years of this we started to do a ‘tag team’ in that 1-2 people would stay at work and the others would leave.
Management would try to make sure we were still working. However, coming into the office was too much effort so, for example on Friday afternoons, they would call at 4:55 (5:00 usual quitting time) and ask to speak with John Doe. If it wasn’t John Doe turn on the tag-team the person there would go get him or tranfer the call, then pick up and say they just saw him but he must have went to the bathroom or equivalent. Would you like to wait for him or him to call you? Every time they would say that it could wait till Monday.
They must have thought we were idiots.
It’s amazing the company could survive, but it did.