Smoking at work........

[zobs]

What's your take on smoking at work?
Do people who smoke at work entitled to do so at the work place?

[Citizen X]

" The man who founded New York City in 1653"

My stance is simple, I believe that legislation is too harse for the smoker. I know the harmful effects of a cigarrette but I chose to smoke. I can understand the rationale behind not smoking in closed rooms etc, but I simply feel that If I buy a pack of cigarettes(I'm not breaking in a shop to get my cigarettes), I'm paying for it at Shoprite or Pick n Pay or the corner store, then I should be allowed to smoke my cigarette. I feel that truck smoke causes far more harm, but noone seems to care about that. A cigarette is not a mind alterating drug, it's not going to cause you to knock someone down such as a drunken driver, and yet there's such a big fuss about it.
The workplace, I can understand, there's customers, fellow staff etc, so it will have to be regulated. The question is how, according to the current legislation. I'm not entirely certain if the designated smoking area at work is still allowed? Is it still allowed?

[zobs]

Vanash what's your personal view?

[adrianh]

I would never employ a person who smokes. Smokers waste at leastm30% of the day standing around, talking crap and stinking up the stairwells.

I don't urinate on your desk so don't stink up my air.

[zobs]

Adrian, dnt you think you will have a policy in place if you were the employer?

[ians]

Smoking is a waste of employers time and money, like social networks.

The policy in my company, so long as i dont see you smoking or smell it, or catch you wasting my customers money while standing around smoking, being paid by the hour, i dont really care how you get your puff in.

Nobody is allowed to smoke near my workshop, due to fire hazard, because of all the wood chippings, it would result in instant dismisal , if caught, and if the law tells me i cant fire a person beacause of it, life would become such a miserable place at work.

And yes i was a smoker for 10+ years.

[AndyD]

Before I quit, smoking used to annoy the hell out of me, not because it's antisocial because that doesn't bother smokers...same way someone with stomach cramps from last nights vindaloo is just going to fart without worrying, it annoyed me because I couldn't quit the habit. I smoked since my uni days and eventually quit in my late thirties. I set myself a goal of 2 years smoke free but it was 2 years and a couple of months when I decided I'd start smoking again for no other reason than I enjoyed it and after that time without cigarettes I knew I could quit so it no longer annoyed me.

I restarted smoking before the legislation was even thought of so it was easy. Nowadays with the laws and the social stigma it takes resolution and will power to be a smoker

[adrianh]

I smoked for many many years. I stopped on the 29th of December 1995. I agree 100% with Ians but I still would not employ a smoker. I also spent many years watching smokers waste lots and lots of time standing around wasting time.

[zobs]

Andy lets stick to the Initial Post please.

[adrianh]

Zobs - please read the second sentence of your initial post carefully, the sentence does not make sense.