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Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

independent.co.uk

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Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#31

Post by sumeno »

ideonexus wrote: post #17
leroy_masochist wrote: post #15

Given the amount of walking needed to get outside the building and the sedentary nature of their job, it's worth considering whether, on balance, the smokers at this company are actually healthier and more productive than they would be if they kicked the habit.

This is the point I wanted to bring up. As a pack-a-day smoker for 10 years, I got up from my desk for 10 minutes every 1.5 hours to smoke a cigarette. Later, as a non-smoker, a health-conscious manager told me he wanted me to get up from my desk once an hour to take a five-minute walk around the building for my health. Regular breaks during the day are better for your health than vacation days; although, both are go…

Regular breaks during the day may be better for your health than vacation days, but I'm guessing that gain is offset when you use the break to smoke.

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#32

Post by peterburkimsher »

ideonexus wrote: post #17
leroy_masochist wrote: post #15

Given the amount of walking needed to get outside the building and the sedentary nature of their job, it's worth considering whether, on balance, the smokers at this company are actually healthier and more productive than they would be if they kicked the habit.

This is the point I wanted to bring up. As a pack-a-day smoker for 10 years, I got up from my desk for 10 minutes every 1.5 hours to smoke a cigarette. Later, as a non-smoker, a health-conscious manager told me he wanted me to get up from my desk once an hour to take a five-minute walk around the building for my health. Regular breaks during the day are better for your health than vacation days; although, both are go…

I walk to the water cooler or toilet every 2 hours, and take a longer break to watch the sunset in the evening if the weather's suitable. Perhaps I drink a lot of water compared to most, but the last I heard was that medical advice is to drink more water.

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#33

Post by jacobush »

stronglikedan wrote: post #21
mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #3

This assumes people are working just because they aren't on a smoke break. If you work on a production line in a factory, it's fairly easy to see the output level of your work. If you work in an office, there is not a simple measure. The non-smoking worker could just as easily spend the same time chatting it up around the water cooler. Physical presence does not equal working time. I wish more managers understood tha…

Not to mention the amount of problems that are solved over a cigarette. I don't know if it was placebo, or a mental jolt from the nicotine, but I've come up with many a solution on a cigarette break. I don't smoke any more (thankfully), but when I did it at work, I was usually thinking of a work problem, and thus working.

Or taking a break from the work problem, thus giving the brain some slack so it could solve stuff. Thus working. :)

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#34

Post by wavefunction »

jacobush wrote: post #28
brango wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just go for a non-smoking break without any pretence?

A slacker hated by both the addicts and the non using? Nah... gotta have your social support structure in place

And you can always further leverage the situation by bumming smokes to the actual smokers.

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#35

Post by internetman55 »

draw_down wrote: post #27

This stuff just strikes me as very petty. Something about smoking or smokers just drives people a bit crazy. Before she retired, my mom would regularly bitch to me about the smoke breaks her coworkers took. She’d say “maybe I’d like to just go outside for a little walk”. So do it then! The smoking is bad of course, but the specific focus on it, to me, feels pretty hinky. How about taking breaks every once in a while…

That's what I do (just periodically go for walks outside). Some managers don't like it, but I usually just ignore them (sorry dawg, my health is more important to me than pretending to be productive for your sake). I usually ended up getting a lot more done when I was doing it as well.

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#36

Post by CalRobert »

mattmanser wrote: post #26
bryanlarsen wrote: post #5

Does the company have a culture of encouraging people to actually take those holidays? Based on my experience in Japan, nobody actually uses their holiday time, to avoid losing face at work. The only holidays people actually take are the public holidays. Luckily, they have a good number of them, including a whole week at the beginning of May.

UK's nothing like Japan, most people use all of their holiday.

FTA: "Company based on 29th floor of Tokyo.."

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#37

Post by throwaway2016a »

When I worked for a larger company people would routinely take gym breaks (the gym was right down the hallway) which took the place of smoking breaks. Sure you can't get a huge workout in in a 15 minute break but you can get the heart rate up.

In the US I'm not even sure it is legal to provide different benefits to individual employees than the rest of the company. But one thing I can say for sure is that if this was in the US most people wouldn't take the days. Most people I know don't even take the days they have :(

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#38

Post by wlesieutre »

draw_down wrote: post #27

This stuff just strikes me as very petty. Something about smoking or smokers just drives people a bit crazy. Before she retired, my mom would regularly bitch to me about the smoke breaks her coworkers took. She’d say “maybe I’d like to just go outside for a little walk”. So do it then! The smoking is bad of course, but the specific focus on it, to me, feels pretty hinky. How about taking breaks every once in a while…

The reason your mom was complaining is that if she just went outside for a little walk, she'd probably get written up and eventually fired because only smokers are allowed to take those breaks at most workplaces. If you have a boss who's more fair about it, that's great, but I don't think it's typical.

This is especially true for places on timeclocks, probably less if you're salaried.

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#39

Post by nsxwolf »

et2o wrote: post #24
leroy_masochist wrote: post #15

Given the amount of walking needed to get outside the building and the sedentary nature of their job, it's worth considering whether, on balance, the smokers at this company are actually healthier and more productive than they would be if they kicked the habit.

Definitely not. Relatively minor health benefits from standing vs. drastic health consequences from smoking.

I thought sitting was the new smoking.

Re: Company gives non-smokers six days holiday to compensate for cigarette breaks

#40

Post by dingaling »

bluGill wrote: post #16
mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #3

This assumes people are working just because they aren't on a smoke break. If you work on a production line in a factory, it's fairly easy to see the output level of your work. If you work in an office, there is not a simple measure. The non-smoking worker could just as easily spend the same time chatting it up around the water cooler. Physical presence does not equal working time. I wish more managers understood tha…

Water cooler conversations is in fact the major advantage of having everybody coming to a physical office instead of working from home. The best ideas in a company start from someone around a water cooling mentioning a problem to someone else who comes up with a good answer. I know of a simple 2 week engineering project that almost didn't even get proposed because marketing thought it would be a multi-year project an…

Another great trick for encouraging spontaneous conversation is to have a couple of cheap plastic-mould "visitors' chairs" at each desk.

At my first office we had this arrangement and it was a boon for continuing ad hoc meetings which started in corridors or at the printer. "Grab a chair, let's have a look at the database..."

Unfortunately we moved to a more "modern" office with higher-density desking and no spare space.

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