Smoking breaks at work.

mtn wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: We have smokers at the office. I complained about them smoking outside the front door, and they got moved to the back loading dock. Then I complained about that and now they have to go to the other side of the parking lot. I love seeing them have to walk through the slush and snow to stand in the bitter cold and the rain just to get a smoke! Hopefully, I can get it moved off campus entirely and that will be the end of smoke breaks here.

Doubt it. It will decrease them, and it may even make a few people quit. But there will be the stalwarts who will walk a 1/2 mile to get off campus. Or more likely drive.

^This All you've done is ensure the smoke break takes longer. We have a manufacturing site which for safety reasons we cannot smoke on campus. When I smoked and visited the site I would take the walk, and because it was such a long walk I'd have 2 while I was out there.

Datsun310Guy wrote: he looks to be enjoying his 2-3 breaks in the morning and his 2-3 breaks in the afternoon. When he is outside he is smoking, checking his facebook, personal emails, staring pensively into the sky, taking a break from the phones, and enjoying the peace and quiet. He looks quite happy. I might start eating my apple with him.

Even though I don't smoke, I make sure to take some "smoke breaks" every day to even that out. In fact, I'm on one right now.

Smokers? I thought they were all killed off years ago!

Is Abe Vigoda a smoker?

Appleseed wrote:

Woody wrote: I never thought about it until now but I work with about a hundred people and I don't think any of them smoke. There were quite a few smokers when I started but they have all either kicked the habit or retired or straight up berkeleying died..

Two of my friend"s parents have died from lung cancer from smoking. A third is on his way out. But my mom is still puffing away like a champ. The news of the deaths didn't slow her down one bit.

My aunt died in her 50s while smoking a cigarette on her remaining half a lung. All the bad news - and even direct personal experience - in the world isn't going to make someone quit, until they want to.

My parents both died from smoking-related cancer, too. But because they decided to quit while watching my aunt die, then decided to follow through, I got to enjoy many many more years with them before it came home to roost anyway.

Nobody smokes here. I am actually surprised, being in redneck Alberta. I would never dream, having severe asthma being able to breathe is something I am thankful for everyday. Plus two relatives who have died from smoking related cancer.

In the spring and fall I need to soak up as much daylight as possible and I'll frequently take two 10-15 minute walks in the morning and afternoon and sometimes a 30 minute walk for lunch as well.

I view this as my personal means of dealing with the stresses of work (or the stresses of staring at a computer all day). Some people smoke for this same reason, some people need music.

"Old school" guys might feel that its slacking off, but I won't resign to my fate of being a cube prisoner this early in my life.

I don't see a problem in taking breaks, whether they are for a smoke or a cup of coffee or to do the crossword puzzle in the paper, as long as a person gets their work done. If you take a little extra time off during the day, it gets made up by showing up a little earlier or leaving a little later, although I suppose it may be different at places where you work a specific shift and punch in and out at specific times.

I quit noticing it. I started vaping a year ago and haven't smoked since. And I don't have to go outside.

Another thing to note, any boss who thinks that time at the desk = productivity is kidding himself. If the worker gets the work done well and on time (or quicker), who cares? Boss-mans job is to manage, employees job is to do the work assigned. Yes, taking the initiative for yourself is a good/important thing if you care about your career or ability to move up, but that doesn't make you a bad employee IMO.

MadScientistMatt wrote: One of my co-workers at a previous job quit smoking and declared he was going to take "smoke breaks" with imaginary cigarettes. They let him get away with it.

We talked about doing it with candy cigarettes.

Y'all need to learn the wonders of vaping

HiTempguy wrote: Another thing to note, any boss who thinks that time at the desk = productivity is kidding himself. If the worker gets the work done well and on time (or quicker), who cares? Boss-mans job is to manage, employees job is to do the work assigned. Yes, taking the initiative for yourself is a good/important thing if you care about your career or ability to move up, but that doesn't make you a bad employee IMO.

Time on task is not irrelevant - suppose your job is to answer the phone? If you are out in the parking lot, you're not doing it.

I'm also unpersuaded by the notion that there is some preset quota of work to be done and employees who work more quickly can goof off for the remaining time.

Hard to make generalizations but if I'm paying you by the hour then I expect you to be focused and working diligently while you are on the clock. If you are more productive, you should be paid more - not excused to screw-off as compensation.

Then again, I've been straight commission for as long as I can remember.

Im confused. Am I supposed to be mad at the smokers for taking breaks or mad at The Man for not allowing breaks?

bludroptop wrote:

HiTempguy wrote: Another thing to note, any boss who thinks that time at the desk = productivity is kidding himself. If the worker gets the work done well and on time (or quicker), who cares? Boss-mans job is to manage, employees job is to do the work assigned. Yes, taking the initiative for yourself is a good/important thing if you care about your career or ability to move up, but that doesn't make you a bad employee IMO.

Time on task is not irrelevant - suppose your job is to answer the phone? If you are out in the parking lot, you're not doing it. I'm also unpersuaded by the notion that there is some preset quota of work to be done and employees who work more quickly can goof off for the remaining time. Hard to make generalizations but if I'm paying you by the hour then I expect you to be focused and working diligently while you are on the clock. If you are more productive, you should be paid more - not excused to screw-off as compensation. Then again, I've been straight commission for as long as I can remember.

Can I come work for you? Here I discovered that regardless of how much I work, I will still get paid the same. Yes I know that's a company problem, but I know it's not just mine that is like that, especially these days

I take probably 4 breaks a day, but I also don't take lunch pretty much ever.

I also smoke 72's so my break is like 3 minutes.

Datsun1500 wrote: My 90 year old Grandmother has been smoking for 70 plus years, still going strong, still smoking.....

Oh... I bet she quits sooner or later.

The_Jed wrote: Some of my co-workers smoke at work. I have yet to see anyone go outside for a smoke break. I'm in the "mind my own business" camp.

I'm not upset or unhappy nor have I said a word to anyone; it's just that the smokers look happier hovered next to the building smoking. Some of the non- smoking cube dwellers look more stressed.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

The_Jed wrote: Some of my co-workers smoke at work. I have yet to see anyone go outside for a smoke break. I'm in the "mind my own business" camp.

I'm not upset or unhappy nor have I said a word to anyone; it's just that the smokers look happier hovered next to the building smoking. Some of the non- smoking cube dwellers look more stressed.

That's a chemical reaction. You should have seen them 30 seconds before they lit up.

Who says you can't go out with him on smoke breaks. Nothing says you have to smoke on smoke break. Gets you away from the desk/cube for a few minutes. We do it all the time. I am a light smoker and sometimes don't smoke on my breaks. We drag out a few people that need the exercise just to get them moving a bit. If not they would sit at the desk all day, only getting up for restroom and coffee.

In reply to Datsun1500:

Nah, they will say she had a good run. And she did. Lots of people die early from that stuff and it does no one any good to take outliers as if they were near the average.

that's where all the really serious brain work got done where I worked... in the smoking lounge. Best brains in the building were out there sharing solutions to gnarly problems. People who didn't smoke went down there to get information.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

The_Jed wrote: Some of my co-workers smoke at work. I have yet to see anyone go outside for a smoke break. I'm in the "mind my own business" camp.

I'm not upset or unhappy nor have I said a word to anyone; it's just that the smokers look happier hovered next to the building smoking. Some of the non- smoking cube dwellers look more stressed.

I wasn't busting your chops, I was just butting in and adding my $.02 as per usual. I can definitely see how it may have read that way, though. I should have worded it better. Sorry, no jab intended.

If you're looking for productivity never hire a pipe smoker; 45 minutes of every hour will be spent trying to keep it lit as well as scraping, packing and otherwise fussing with the damn thing.

JThw8 wrote:

mtn wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: We have smokers at the office. I complained about them smoking outside the front door, and they got moved to the back loading dock. Then I complained about that and now they have to go to the other side of the parking lot. I love seeing them have to walk through the slush and snow to stand in the bitter cold and the rain just to get a smoke! Hopefully, I can get it moved off campus entirely and that will be the end of smoke breaks here.

Doubt it. It will decrease them, and it may even make a few people quit. But there will be the stalwarts who will walk a 1/2 mile to get off campus. Or more likely drive.

^This All you've done is ensure the smoke break takes longer. We have a manufacturing site which for safety reasons we cannot smoke on campus. When I smoked and visited the site I would take the walk, and because it was such a long walk I'd have 2 while I was out there.

So far, one person has successfully quit, and another two are on Chantix right now, and a third is planning to quit. If I cause one person to quit for good, it's worth the effort. I love my co-workers and want them around a long time, even if it takes some tough love.

pinchvalve wrote:

JThw8 wrote:

mtn wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: We have smokers at the office. I complained about them smoking outside the front door, and they got moved to the back loading dock. Then I complained about that and now they have to go to the other side of the parking lot. I love seeing them have to walk through the slush and snow to stand in the bitter cold and the rain just to get a smoke! Hopefully, I can get it moved off campus entirely and that will be the end of smoke breaks here.

Doubt it. It will decrease them, and it may even make a few people quit. But there will be the stalwarts who will walk a 1/2 mile to get off campus. Or more likely drive.

^This All you've done is ensure the smoke break takes longer. We have a manufacturing site which for safety reasons we cannot smoke on campus. When I smoked and visited the site I would take the walk, and because it was such a long walk I'd have 2 while I was out there.

So far, one person has successfully quit, and another two are on Chantix right now, and a third is planning to quit. If I cause one person to quit for good, it's worth the effort. I love my co-workers and want them around a long time, even if it takes some tough love.

It's the "I know what's better for you than you do" attitude that kept me a smoker for so long. I told my wife when we met 15 years ago that I would quit when I went a full year without someone telling me I should. It took 14 years to get to that point. The people that quit didn't do it because you inconvenienced them, I've never met a smoker who quit because it was inconvenient.