Japanese company offering non smokers more annual leave to offset smoking breaks

[SerenDippitty]

A good incentive to stop?

www.foxla.com/news/company-offers-non-smoking-employees-6-extra-days-off-to-make-up-for-cigarette-breaks

I don't think smokers / vapers would see it as an incentive to stop. But it would curtail the bitching from those who don't get an extra 30mins/day away from the desk.

I don’t think it will make people stop - although one or two maybe, which has to be good.
Only way is a total ban on smoking in public.

So as a lifelong non smoker, how do I get extra leave then?

They should do it the other way around. X days leave is the standard but if you take smoking breaks then you get X - 2 (or whatever).

I don’t understand why companies allow smokers more breaks than none smokers?

I am a smoker, I don’t have a set “break” pattern at work but I can get up and have a break when ever I feel I need one, and so can all of the people on my band at the work, smoker or not!! I know people who go to the gym for an hour at obscure times in the day.

The people who need to work on fixed shifts with set breaks, all get the same break allowance, Surrey that’s just common sense?

Years ago the solicitors I worked for did a version of this.

Non-smokers got 20 mins extra lunch hour than smokers.

As a smoker, nope, wouldn't make me stop. I actually think it's fair, as I do have more breaks. My way of dealing with it is by having a half lunch break, and using the remainder for smoke breaks. Not all smokers do that though, and it can add up over a day. So, good idea in my view. Still gonna smoke though

I’m a smoker, I have never worked anywhere that gave smokers additional it different break structures than non-smokers. That includes bars, shops, restaurants etc. Surely it would be barely needed?

Where I work non smokers get unofficial ten minute breaks morning and afternoon. I only discovered this recenty. I don't tend to take them as such, but leaving my desk to make a brew for our section and stopping to chat to someone on the way could be counted I suppose.

Where I used to work (not necessarily the whole organisation but the bit where I worked) leaving your desk for a coffee break was a bit frowned upon. You were allowed to make/fetch a coffee but continue to work while you drank it. But if you smoked you could leave your desk no problem.

Do businesses really give smokers extra breaks? Maybe that's what needs to stop and everyone just gets the same break allowance, rather than people being able to take more time out of their days work.

I don't know any of my friends businesses who,actually allow this anyway, and I work in a school so definitely no extra breaks for smoking given. We all get the same and use it how we choose.

We all get the same allowance and it's strictly timed
15 mins break, 30 mins lunch, 15 mins break. Can make brews in between and go to toilet but no going outside/smoking/wandering off to chat

Only if people who don't drink tea / coffee get extra holidays too.

Fair disclosure - I smoke, so if I'm working in an office I do have a couple of extra breaks through the day but I always make up for this by either halving my lunch break or by tacking extra time on at the end of the day. So no one is losing out.

But I also don't drink tea / coffee, and those who do seem to make a coffee run last 15 or 20 minutes a go. Far longer than any cigarette break I've ever had. Not sure why a nicotine addiction should lead to less holiday but a caffeine addiction shouldn't 🤷🏼‍♀️

Would be better surely to stop people going for cigarettes at random times in the day.

I think the only problem is non-smokers bitching about it, but no mention of time people spend making tea, using work time for gossiping, private phone calls or internet use etc. Therefore if staff that smoke are allowed, say 3 smoking breaks a day (5 mins per break) over and above lunch break, then all staff should also have these 3 breaks. But they must be taken outside in whatever weather, cold wet and windy.

I didnt know in some places smokers got extra breaks in the first place! I cant imagine that being okay.

Where I work, there can be up to half a dozen smokers on duty at any one time and it's not uncommon for all of them to traipse outside at the same time for a cigarette for about fifteen minutes, four or five times a day. They have to seek permission first (rarely refused) but they don't have to clock out, or otherwise make up the lost time. I wish I was allowed but then I'm not a smoker and our department manager is. Seriously annoying.

My colleagues who smoke go out every hour or so. It seems accepted

I LOVE this idea!!!

Japan isn't like the UK though.

You can still smoke in public (some areas are smoke free in Tokyo I think) and can still smoke in a lot of clubs/ restaurants so it's a different "smoking" culture than we have in the UK.

Also Japanese companies will NOT find it OK for you to wander off to have a chat will a work colleague about what was on telly last night/ christmas shopping or what Karen has done to her hair.

Nor can you wander off to make tea/ coffee.

You will be at your desk working 100% of the time. There will be someone in the office who will be responsible for making hot drinks/ refreshments for the team, even ordering everyone's lunch.

THIS is why the Japanese company is looking at this issue seriously.

I'm a non smoker but find people getting up and wandering around the other side of the building to "have a natter" to other colleagues about non work things or wandering off "to make coffee" take up just the same amount of time and if not more than someone "popping out for a fag" as at least they sometimes take documents to read whilst having a smoke.

I don't think we should do this, but I also don't think smokers get different breaks in most environments now. Usually it's a choice between a Diet Coke and a cigarette a 10 minute walk away standing in the cold or rain, or time to sit down and have some lunch and a cuppa in the warm. I know which one I would chose. You'd be surprised how many smokers can go 12 hours or so at work without a smoke and then light up the moment they leave though. I see this especially with people who work with kids (and rightly so) that they wait until after work.

Not really, because not all smokers take smoking breaks outside their normal break times.

And, what next? Six extra days for non-coffee drinkers to compensate for the time others spend getting coffees? Six extra days if you can prove you only go to the loo once per day? Six extra days if you have no friends at all at work so never have a non-work-related chat?

If smokers are taking too many breaks, employers should tackle that by formalising the breaks so they get shorter lunch breakers, or an earlier/later finish to make the time up.

I've never worked anywhere where smokers got extra breaks. It was either clock in and out for all breaks, or at one place everyone was entitled to a 10 minute morning and afternoon break. Some of the non-smokers didnt take that break but that's not the smokers fault. I think some didnt take the break just so they could be sanctimonious about it .

Would be great if some UK companies would adopt this. In my workplace, some smokers (the ones who take the piss) literally will be gone for half and hour every couple of hours. It's a huge amount of time out of the workday and incredibly frustrating when I've had to pick up the slack because they "don't have the time". Nothing is ever said so admittedly it is just bad management.

I had to to the shop for five minutes to get lemsips, I got told I could make it up out of my lunch break .Have considered pretending I'm a smoker just to get a bit more slack.

I hate smoking breaks. I let my staff who don't take smoke breaks bring their dogs in and take them outside a few times a day

I try not to employ smokers.