COFFEE BREAKS

[gac]

Ever observed a long time smoker suffering from enphyzema trying to get off their bed to go take a pee ....... its about a 10 part effort with frequent breaks to try and get enough oxygen into their trashed lungs to make the next move ...... pretty stressful I suggest. And trying to hold a brief conversation, no such thing with enphyzema. Simply cant draw enough breath to hold a decent conversation.

I dont mind anyone smoking but keep it out of my breathing space please, thats all I ask. Because you need to have a puff doesnt give you the right to exhaust your fumes into my space. Please put a bag over your head and suck it in repeatedly until you exhale smoke free air thank you then you can take the bag off!

Someone who takes medication doesnt contaminate the air I breathe, so I'd far rather they take their medication rather thank you.

OK maybe I'm being a little over the top, but point is one should not expect others to be adversley affected by one's own vices. Thats not how it works and is unacceptable.

[Mark Atkinson]

Whether or not second hand smoke is actually harmful, I feel it's extremely unpleasant to be around. I can smell cigarette smoke from a mile away. Put a smoker in a closed room with me, air conditioning or not, I'm not going to be a happy chappy.

People are free to smoke as far as I'm concerned, but do it outside, not in an enclosed space. Granted, I am every bit against smoking, but I have seen the very real long term side effects destroying a person right in front of my eyes. It's not pretty.


On topic now - I think AndyD's suggestion is probably the easiest and cheapest solution to implement.

[Just Gone]

Yes I think the suggestion/advice of smoking in the same room is a very irresponsible piece of advice and opens the employer up to numerous other problems ..... including being sued if he allowed it and another employee could prove that they got sick or got something due to passive smoking !!!

[adrianh]

Again "second hand smoking" was falsely accredited with a lot of BS. The fact is it does less harm to the smoker then one that uses stress medication. I don't recommend smoking but if it works for the smoker I am cool with it. I honestly don't mind a smoker sitting next to me.

Smoking has side effects yes. Most treatments for stress has side effects and other medication can even be deadly so it is all the same to me. It is a form of medication so accept it deal with it. Part of being human is to tolerate others.

Dude, where have you been the past 30 years. Do you think there is such a crackdown on smoking world wide because government have nothing better to do with their time. Have you ever heard of lung cancer, you know, that little problem that makes your lungs turn black and kills you.

Then we can also say that drinking and driving is medication becuase it is just as stupid and causes lots of damage to innocent bystanders. Part of being human is not to tolerate other humans who are stupid enough to try and kill you with their stupidity.

Nobody is welcome to smoke around me and I have no regard for people who deal with stress by stinking up the entire neighbourhood. Go for a jog, shag your woman, etc.. but don't deal with stress by stinking stink up my personal space. I am an ex smoker and I know that anybody can stop, most are too lazy and the others don't have the willpower.

[wynn]

Besides the fact that my taxes get spent keeping smokers alive and in comfort?

[Miro Bagrov]

To the original topic of coffee breaks.

I think, Forget Vending Machines.

If you have a maid, have her control supplies. Lock up shelves where supplies are kept. Have the lady take out enough milk to last 1 day, and also enough coffee and tea to last 1 day. The rest keep locked up. If it finishes, employees must request more and they wont try steal. Stolen things must be paid in by the employees. The maid could even deliver coffee to desks. Re-organise kitchen for faster access.. so that more than 1 person can make coffee at a time.

Another strange question that no one mentioned.... can anyone define and quantify that there is really a loss arising from smoke breaks and tea breaks being extended by 5 minutes?
If there is no real effect on output this discussion is pointless - and I think its easier to presume that there is a loss than proving it.

[Justloadit]

Well Miro,

Unfortunately employees do not weigh time up in what must be done with the available time in the day. Most times they arrive on the hour, but spend 10 minutes making coffee before going to their desk. The probably take toilet breaks during working hours, and usually leave before the hour is up. Now lets take 5 minutes an hour for smoking outside then, well it turns out to 10mins, going there light up then come back. So lets use 5 minutes an hour. 8 hours a day, that is 40 minutes, and 5 days a week, is now 200 minutes a week. That is a loss of 3 hours a week due to smoking - lets say you pay R50 an hour. SO effectively you are throwing away R 150 a week just for the fun of it, or lets take it for a month then of 4 weeks - that is R600.00. Now lets say you have 10 employees, that means that the time wasted in smoking, you could almost have an extra employee and get actually 20% of more work out in the month,

Follow the money and it changes your perception.

So employees - do not smoke in my time!
I pay you to work not smoke!

Anyway lets take

[KimH]

Workplace studies (UK, US, Aus and other first world countries) show that any employee who spends the greater part of their day working on a computer should take a 5 minute break every hour to prevent a host of ailments and to boost productivity. Seriously,... google it.

Personally, as someone who spends anything upwards of 12 hours a day working I couldn't imagine breaking my stride each hour to 'take a break' - in this harsh economic climate coupled with working in a very deadline driven environment it's just as well I don't employ permanent staff because I'd be spending too much time in my day worrying about lost time and money due to the workforce taking too many coffee/smoke breaks.

To the OP about coffee breaks - you can never go wrong by implementing structure and routine, allow say 2 coffee breaks of 10 minutes per day - rather than spend your valuable time monitoring breaks, let your office manager take responsibility for this and be sure to discipline your staff if they don't abide by the rules.

[Miro Bagrov]

So can anyone prove to me that if you reduce breaks the profit margins or output margins increase? As a comparison before and after in a numerical form..

It seems "logical" but I think that it's "logical" only if we ignore how the mind works. No one can focus 100% of the time on one task (regardless of whether they are paid or not). Remember the 80/20 rule.. 80% of results were made in 20% of effort. The other 80% of effort produced small results.
Maybe it also depends on the type of work? Creative type of work needs more freedom than repetitive type work.

[Justloadit]

There is maybe 5% creative workers, the balance do the menial tasks. Unfortunately the menial task force is the bulk of the wages.