Smoking Co-Workers And There "Smoke Breaks"

[suzanna1066@comcast.]

The whole "other workers spend time on the phone dealing with their kids" argument doesn't hold water, because smokers do that too, in addition to taking thier smoking breaks.

The whole "smoking break" thing isn't fair, has never been fair, will never be fair.


Hmm....

I assure you I am not on the phone half the day taking care of kid's baseball team/soccer team/church activities. Nor am I doing my personal business or surfing the net unless I am eating lunch. I think it balances out where I work. Thankfully, I do not work in an environment where my (or anyone else's)every movement is tracked---we are treated like professional adults.

 

[Metro West]

My company is going smoke free in July so I only go out at lunch and I allow myself two. Next week...I'm going to pretend it's July 1 and go all day w/o smoking at work so when the day comes, it's not a big deal.

Some people haven't made any plans yet.

 

[arminnie]

As far as in the work place.....whatever you do, take it up with the bosses.

I was in my office working one day when I got an irate phone call from a VP at the company (but in another department). Some of his employees were in my area and had complained about a man smoking in his office.

The VP yelled at me and told me I HAD to make my employee stop smoking in his office. I laughed and told him that he had it backwards - that was my BOSS not my employee so I could not tell him what to do.

This was about 20 years ago - I am female and my boss (the smoker) was a male a few years older than me. At least it proved to me that the VP was not sexist. He did not assume the male was the boss.

 

[eh24fan]

Ugh...I hate hearing about the dr's and nurses that are going out for a smoke at the hospital. When I had to take the baby to the ER one night this winter because he wasn't breathing well, some of the nurses went out to smoke while we were waiting for the respitory (that doesn't look like it's spelled right) therapist to come back. After the nurses came back, one of them came over to check the baby's vitals and I had to tell her that she needed to go find someone that didn't smell like an ashtray to check my child with breathing problems. That irritated me in a big way.

 

[Plantlady]

At my last job.. I would take a "non-smoking" break.. and just sit outside.

it drove me crazy.. that if I smoked, I'd be excused to go outside during busy times.. because I couldn't wait five minutes... but, it was a restaurant, working with kids.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I ran into the same issues. I wasn't allowed to take a break but the smokers went out once every 2 hours and would be gone for about 30 minutes.

The other non-smokers and I had to cover their work while they were gone to add insult to injury.

I finally started heading to the coke machines or bathrooms while they were gone just so I wouldn't have to answer their phones. I'd also save trips to other departments to drop things off or get questions answered while they were on smoke break so I could get work done still but not be doing theirs.

It worked for me and I wasn't so frustrated.

 

[Planogirl]

Our company is primarily production driven so a smoke break here and there is irrelevant. Now people on the phone have to be on them at certain times so that makes a difference in their area. I'd hate to be a smoker and have to deal with the public all day - it must be really hard.