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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

#91

Post by sova »

loco5niner wrote: post #86
dionidium wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's indicative of the hysteria around secondhand smoke that someone on HN could seriously think that occasionally standing near people smoking outside is a serious health risk.

I take it seriously enough that I hold my breath while walking past someone smoking.

A friend of mine said that when they were young they went to a museum and saw two lungs: one of a daily smoker, and one of someone who simply lived in a dense city with poor air quality. The lungs looked almost the same shade of gray. Of course, the smoker's lungs were worse, but air pollution from the bus is not exactly good for you.

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

#92

Post by TheVinous »

It really depends on the company culture, but in a lot of cases, going for a cigarette break is not equivalent with taking time away from your work. There are a lot of brainstorming and work related discussion can happen, jut like in a tea or coffee break.

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

#93

Post by Retric »

sova wrote: post #90
Retric wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> walking to a coffee shop That's no reason to actually buy coffee though. You can just take a walk in the middle of the day.

That three dollar cup of coffee could easily have become 7 shares of a biotech penny stock.

3$* 5days * 48weeks * 40years (65 years - 25 years) = 28,800$ before investments.

However, caffeine is a larger problem. It's very additive with strong withdrawal symptoms, but giving it up for 6 months has significant mental health benefits. Unless you enjoy black coffee it often adds up to several hundred calories per day.

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

#94

Post by JamesBarney »

amai wrote: post #51
athenot wrote: post #42

As a non-smoker I used to go on the smoke breaks with coworkers. Not as an excuse for time away from work but rather to get up and brainstorm things. That turned out to be more productive than stay seated and let my wheels spin in my brain. Nowadays we use the coffee/watercooler break but it's not quite the same as getting out of the building, feeling the outside air against the skin (hot or cold) and getting a chang…

You know about the dangers of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_smoking ?

I don't think they've found any risks for outdoor exposure. The amount of exposure you get in a smoking bar is far more than what you get outside.

Also there is some weirdness in the research where it's hard to find a dose response curve, and you see larger effects on cardiovascular system than lungs. I think there might be some confounds, like if you are married to a smoker or work at smoking establishment you're more likely to be poor, and be unhealthy in other ways besides smoke exposure.

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

#95

Post by dionidium »

sova wrote: post #91
loco5niner wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take it seriously enough that I hold my breath while walking past someone smoking.

A friend of mine said that when they were young they went to a museum and saw two lungs: one of a daily smoker, and one of someone who simply lived in a dense city with poor air quality. The lungs looked almost the same shade of gray. Of course, the smoker's lungs were worse, but air pollution from the bus is not exactly good for you.

It's not just that there are so many other risks present in cities -- e.g. it's probably more dangerous just to be walking there in the first place than it is to pass a smoker -- it's that, like, how potent do you imagine cigarette smoke to be that just passing near some every once in a while is going to significantly harm you?

I can't even begin to imagine what kind of model of the world you'd have to be working with to believe that, which is why I deliberately chose the word hysteria to describe it.

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

#96

Post by s73ver_ »

drinchev wrote: post #75

Cigarette break is not a break every time. You usually can't stop thinking about work for the 10 minutes you spend outside. It's quite the opposite. Smoking break usually shifts you the direction of thinking and you solve a problem probably faster. Not because of the cigarettes itself, but because of the environment change. This whole idea sounds like "People without social media accounts are allowed 1 more day off,…

It could also be a health incentive, to get people to quit smoking, and thus lower their healthcare costs (if in the US).

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

#97

Post by acidreflux »

ZoeZoeBee wrote: post #84
amai wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please read about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_smoking#Evidence .

>Twenty rats in each exposure group were exposed to the smoke seven hours a day for 21 days. The method of exposure was ‘‘head only’’, meaning that the rats were placed head first in snug fitting plastic tubes with a screened head portion that projected into a duct through which the smoky air flowed. Try the same with car exhaust and see how it goes

Ah yes, the ol’ “what about” argument. “Second-band smoke is dangerous.” “OH YEAH? WHAT ABOUT CAR EXHAUST, HUH!?” Yes, that’s bad too, but we were talking about cigarette smoke.

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

#98

Post by otakucode »

drinchev wrote: post #75

Cigarette break is not a break every time. You usually can't stop thinking about work for the 10 minutes you spend outside. It's quite the opposite. Smoking break usually shifts you the direction of thinking and you solve a problem probably faster. Not because of the cigarettes itself, but because of the environment change. This whole idea sounds like "People without social media accounts are allowed 1 more day off,…

Nicotine is one of the very few substances with strong clinical support as being a cognitive enhancer, so I wouldn't discount its role entirely... but yes, just getting away from things is often what people need. As a culture we are still trying to switch gears from an economy centered completely around mindless repetitive physical labor to one centered around mental work. They're two extremely different things that have to be tackled in different ways, but we still have people kicking around (mostly in management positions) who see taking a break from working on something as 'giving up' or 'slacking off' or similar. Eventually people will come to understand that expecting extended bouts of mental effort from human beings is exactly as reasonable as expecting to have people work for 8 hours without taking a bathroom break.

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

#99

Post by Kevguy »

Retric wrote: post #93
sova wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That three dollar cup of coffee could easily have become 7 shares of a biotech penny stock.

3$* 5days * 48weeks * 40years (65 years - 25 years) = 28,800$ before investments. However, caffeine is a larger problem. It's very additive with strong withdrawal symptoms, but giving it up for 6 months has significant mental health benefits. Unless you enjoy black coffee it often adds up to several hundred calories per day.

Aside from sleepiness for a few days and a (lack of) caffeine headache for a day, what are the strong withdrawal symptoms? I honestly don't think there are any and have never figured out why some people are so against coffee. If I'm wrong, please tell me what I am missing. Thanks.

I agree the sugar and milk/creamer add a fair amount of calories to your diet.

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

#100

Post by hdctambien »

jacobush wrote: post #30
et2o wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Positive?

Sitting is chairs has not been shown to cause cancer.
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