I think that is probably her company’s policy also, BayleDomon, and she just screwed everyone out of their entitled break. I’m just glad that rostfrei isn’t my boss. I can’t stand managers who are complete dicks or bitches.
Where I used to be employed, for each 4 hours you worked, you got a 15-minute break. If you only worked 4 hours in one day, you would not be entitled to a break because technically if you took the break before going home, you’d have only worked 3 hours 45 minutes.
I really don’t care one way or the other about the validity of second hand smoke on the general population. I know FOR MYSELF as an asthmatic, second hand smoke is like a vise grip on my lungs. What really pisses ME off is having to run past all the smokers outside on their breaks on my way into the building. It really should be illegal to smoke within 20 feet of any entrance/exit. What good does it do me to ban smoking in the building if I have to put up with it on the way in or out of the building?
By that logic you would only get one break in an eight hour day. (Technically you would only have worked 7 hours 45 minutes, thus not qualifying for the second break.)
The OP was being a hardass.
Yeah. That’s the way I see it also, Ellis Dee. There should be a fifteen minute break within each four hour period. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense, which you so aptly pointed out.
DarkPrince
Your analogy between women taking off work so they can have children and people taking off work so they can smoke is atonshingly stupid.
Children eventually grow up and contribute to society. If you ever plan on collecting a dime of social security you’d better damned well advocate that others have them.
OTOH, smoking contributes nothing to society but serious disease and broken hearts. My grandfather died too young from lung cancer. I wish to god someone had denied him his smoking breaks.
I also wish they would deprive a co-worker of mine of smoke breaks. She has two small children and asthma. She would be far better off if she had more incentives to kick the habit.
Sure thing. We should also regulate her diet, and subject her to forced exercise 3 times per week. Coffee’s bad for women, what with the caffeine increasing the risk of breast cancer, so make sure she cuts that out. And sugars. They rot your teeth.
If she isn’t quitting with two small children and asthma, what incentives, exactly, do you think will motivate her?
Yep. Well, at least it’s what I have been saying, if not in this thread then in others. When I worked outside the home, the smokers usually took more breaks, and were ALLOWED to take more breaks, than the nonsmokers. Since in most cases the managers were also smokers, they’d allow this. NOW do you understand the grudges that some nonsmokers are airing? For some reason or other, my bosses were willing to let people step outside for a smoke, but were not willing to let nonsmokers step outside or go sit down in the back for a breather. My experiences were mostly in retail, and of course most of the time the customer area was a nonsmoking zone, for staff and customers alike. Customers WERE allowed to smoke in the convenience/deli/liquor store where I worked, and they were allowed to play the slot machines if they were over 21, but were not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages, as we didn’t have the proper license for that.
When my husband went through basic training in the Air Force more than 20 years ago, the recruits were allowed smoke breaks, IF they smoked. The nonsmokers got to police the area (this means that they picked up trash and generally neatened up the place). Policing the area was NOT an optiional activity, the recruits either smoked or they performed janitorial duties, several times a day. My husband started smoking in the Air Force, just so that he could have a breather during Basic. He quit smoking about 16 months ago.
Oh, and I must say, even after all that, I think that the OP was being a major bitch for not allowing her workers to take their breaks. Obviously the smoker was going through nicotine withdrawal, which is agonizing, from what I can tell. Yeah, she’d be better off not smoking, but I have to think that there’s more to the story here. I think that the OP was just throwing her power around a bit, because she doesn’t like smoking.
No, what bothers me about smoking in the workplace is that it sets off my asthma, making it physically difficult for me to breathe, causes me to consume pharmaceuticals I otherwise would not need, all of which have side effects, and vastly increase my chances of spending some time in a hospital.
There there is the location of one of my favorite hobbies, where smoking can be lethal not only to the smoker, but to those around him/her if the open flame involve sets off violent chemical reactions.
You want to smoke in your own home? Ok. Or your car? Ok. Or in “designated smoking areas”? Ok. But stay the fuck away from me, areas where smoking is a hazard, and don’t inflict your sick, nasty habit on anyone else.
I know that cigarette smoke (most in general, but tobacco in particular) makes my eyes burn and feel very dry and irritated, makes me sneeze, and makes it hard for me to breathe. Whether or not it’s going to give me cancer, it makes me miserably uncomfortable, and I’ve known enough other people that it bothered enough to justify not allowing it in the workplace. I don’t need a medical study to tell me it’s offensive and physically irritating (and impossible to ignore).
I have had coworkers that seemed to be out smoking far too often, but I haven’t had any bosses that didn’t let me have equivalent breaks if I made any noise about it.
You ever hear of Cecil Adams? He wrote two columns about this topic:
You can’t possibly compare caffeine and sugar with tobacco. Sugar, and caffeine can be consumed in small amounts without long term harmful effects. You can’t say the same about tobacco.
As for my friend I have no idea what will motivate her but I hate seeing my workplace encourage her to continue a habit that has as many severe consequences as smoking. Perhaps if she did indeed not get breaks from work to smoke with other smokers she might have more motivation to stop. It’s certainly not something the workplace should sanction with official “smoking breaks.”
The point is that some of us do not want government to legislate what is good for us. By all means, legislate to prevent me from hurting other people, but I should be allowed to do what I want to myself. And I don’t smoke.
Exactly, amarone. Sam, what you’re suggesting is the same general concept as that which Ellis described. Basically, deciding what’s good for someone for them and using your authority as their employer to impose your will upon their personal habits. Overstepping boundries, if you ask me.
And doesn’t nicotine in small quanitites improve memory? I remember reading something about that on the boards. Either way, if you’ve got a bunch of smokers working for you and you deny them breaks (that they’re entitled to by law), you’re asking for trouble. Do you really want a bunch of employees going through nicotine withdrawls in the middle of a shift?
Also, you mentioned not allowing her to smoke with the other smokers. What, are you her dad or something? You’d seriously consider giving other smokers breaks but not her? Because you think she should quit?
Oy.
But government does that all time. Would you like to get rid meat inspectors? Minimal building codes? Seat belts? Mandatory school attendance?
As for the issue in the OP I think all workers should get breaks. I don’t think smoking should be allowed at work unless the smoker should also enrolls in a quit smoking program. Smoking does hurt others because at a very minimum it raises medical premiums and life insurance rates for everyone else. Why should I have to shell out extra medical expenses to subsidize a habit that has no redeeming value?
As for the argument that smokers they aren’t just hurting themselves that isn’t even remotely true. They’re hurting others as well. My mother still misses her father who she lost when she was in her thirties. Furthermore smokers congregate outside my workplace when they smoke so I have no choice but to come into contact with cigarrettes, something I’d rather completely avoid.
Long before there were scientific studies and health worries about smoking, smokers used to be sensitive to the idea that perhaps their habit was offensive to others. Not harmful, just offensive. Solely on the basis of good manners, smokers used to have smoking rooms, retired to the parlour, wore smoking jackets to keep their clothes from smelling awful, and, from everything I can tell, used to ask, “Do you mind if I smoke?”
What a great group of folks smokers used to be. There was no social stigma on smoking, just a realization that others needn’t be subjected to the indignities of taking on another’s smell, and coughing and hacking like the smoker did the first time they took a drag. Now they wonder what all the fuss is about.
Smokers used to give others consideration, but now most are demanding status as an abused minority, demanding to indulge their habit whenever/wherever. The vitriol and backlash they are feeling is what has been latent through many years of silent suffering by non-smokers. (And, I haven’t met a smoker yet who doesn’t toss their glowing butt out the car window, regardless of how tinder-dry the area vegetation may be. Okay, maybe YOU don’t, but MOST do.) They’ve become a whiney, selfish, demanding lot.
Actually, I blame the first passive person who ever said, in response to the polite inquiry about allowing someone to smoke, “sure, I don’t mind,” when really, they DID mind. But they were probably just trying to be nice.
Nice. Remember “nice”?
This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read on these boards.
There are not enough rolleye smilies in the world.
Sam, you’re basically advocating forcing smokers to quit.
Do you also advocate forcing people who drink to quit?
Smoking is legal. Until it is made illegal, you have no right try to force your will upon another. Period. End of story.
Your attitude disgusts me.
Oh, I forgot to add, Sam, you examples of forced breaks and seatbelts ect., are examples of people enforcing laws. Yeah, the laws were put into affect for people’s own goods, but they are laws nonetheless.
Smoking on break at work is not against the law. Therefore, you refusing to allow an employee to do so because you don’t want them smoking is self-rightious and ridiculously arrogant.