Smoking breaks at work.

We work in an anal type office and none of the cube people get a break.

Except the smoker........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.

How about your smokers? Happy looking group to you?

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.

Nope - our smokers right now are getting to enjoy their break at about -18C (0F). They don't look that happy!

He'll die before you. You can enjoy all that "break time" then.

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.

Where I work, it's pretty much only the imports that smoke. It's not allowed on campus, so they have to go to the street.

Smoking is generally very unpopular among educated work age people in CA. It's almost weird, you just do not run into it anymore, much different then 20 years ago or so. The young ones... well... they don't call em' young and dumb for nutin'.

The way smokers die is pretty slow and horrific, suffocating over a period of years. That one anti-smoking commercial with the guy wheezing and coughing was probably had the most impact on me.

I'm the only one that currently does at my job, but I only have 2 per day when I'm at work.....then again, I'm pretty much a recreational smoker by most people's standards.

I know the feeling.. we sometimes work like dogs here, except for the couple of smokers who go take a break for 10 minutes every hour

where I worked, we got 3 breaks a day … mid-morning, lunch, and mid-afternoon … those were the only times the smokers got to light up … many tried to slip outside and catch an extra break … but when a couple of 30 yr employees were fired for it … that pretty much came to an end

You could always start smoking. Then you would get those extra breaks too.

Or just not worry about it.

Personally, as someone who minds his own business, I'd go with the second choice.

At my last job, I just walked outside with them and chatted whilst not smoking.

My current job I figure me occasionally getting on the internet and reading the news/car forums, etc = out with the smokers taking breaks.

Near the end of my last job I was a 2nd hand smoker. I'd just go out to the smoke break room with friends of mine.

I asked once, since I don't smoke and these folks go outside for 10 minutes every hour to light up; may I go home an hour early?

In reply to 914Driver:

A co-worker and I did that for a while. There were 3 very dedicated smokers in the office and they went out for at least 15 minutes of every hour. We started leaving an hour early every day and just said it was our smoke break. It was a pretty good deal.

I took "non-smoking breaks" at one job years ago. Seemed only fair to me.

I was a smoker for many years. I worked in an office. I never smoked during working hours and never lit a smoke on the company property. Others did routinely, but not me. It was just the principal of the matter - they weren't paying me to stand around and smoke cigarettes.

Conversely, when I was a member of a software development team on which all of the developers smoked some of the best pseudocoding, troubleshooting, and design workshops were over a smoke. Our non-smoking boss routinely joined us just to keep abreast of our efforts. Since I quit smoking at my current gig I have had many of my in house clients who were also smokers lament the fact that they don't get their unscheduled business discussions with me anymore. You'd be surprised how much work can happen on a smoke break.

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.

I think the 41st amendment to the constitution protecting tobacco industry supporters and clients was enacted to protect those folks from people like YOU.

Get back to work slacker. If you have time to pay attention to what everyone else is doing maybe you need a bit more to do?

--
The Management

I work in mental health. 3/4 of my clients smoke. 3/4 of my therapy sessions involve smoking. I don't get smoke breaks. Or lunch. Or an actual schedule.

So yeah, I guess I'm a privilege smoker. I've tried to quit, but have been unsuccessful so far. Maybe when I change careers,which can't come soon enough.

I don't smoke but won't preach to those who do. It's their choice and life is full of choices.

Many years ago I noticed a co-worked was taking 6-8 ten minute smoke breaks a day so I asked if I could get an extra hour of pay a day since I was working during the time he stood outside. You can guess how well that went over.

As an aside, kentucky has a very high rate of smokers but the University hospital declared itself smoke free a couple of years ago. So now when you drive past the sidewalk in front of a multi-billion dollar facility is littered with patients smoking. Sometimes pushing their IV poles and wearing hospital gowns. Addiction is FUN!

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.

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.

I take [quotey fingers] smoke [/quotey fingers] breaks a couple times a day. My district manager smokes like a freight train. He walked into my store once unannounced while I was in the office cruising the GRM forums. He got kinda pissed and asked why I wasn't actually working. I told him I was taking a smoke break........ He said "Fair enough." and never questioned it again haha.

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.