To see nothing wrong with these workplace smoking rules

[doingthesplitz]

Our HR Department has introduced some new rules re smoking breaks eg No smoking break within one hour of clocking in (we are on flexi) or for half an hour before clocking out; one morning smoke break must be taken as part of your normal coffee break; smoking breaks should not last more than five minutes and should be kept to an absolute minimum.

Most of us can see where HR are coming from. There were a few staff members who were constantly disappearing for a smoke; would clock in when they arrived in work and immediately go outside for a cigarette; stand outside smoking for twenty minutes in the evening and then come in, clock out and go home; and would take a full coffee break and then immediatly go on a smoking break.

However, some of the smokers are moaning and giving out and saying 'God, next thing we'll start getting told how many times we can go to the loo' etc.
AIBU to think they should just shut up about it. At least now they might be around occasionally to answer their own phones.

[LimitedEditionLady]

I smoke and requesting an extra break to smoke at work would be laughed at.If you have an addiction thats your addiction,do it in your own time!!We can only smoke in our own break time and I find I rarely smoke even in them because I am so busy I just wana have a brew and sit down.

[Wallison]

I am imagining specialsubject pounding the keyboard with impotent fists of fury. Everyone wants to put the boot into smokers these days.

Even people who smoke electronic cigs are being targeted; was on a train recently and an announcement came on that electronic cigarettes were not allowed on the train. Have also heard of them being banned in some restaurants. It's water vapour, ffs! Proof if proof were needed that a lot of this anti-smoking stuff is not about fear of catching cancer from someone who has smoked a fag nowhere near you 20 mins before but actually about controlling people's behaviour.

[LimitedEditionLady]

I have an electronic cig and feel naughty smoking it inside....i push my chair right back away from people even though its doing them no harm in the slightest.ha.I dont think id use it on a train or in a restaurant more because I dont want to do it in front of impressionable people.am i daft?

[Wallison]

I'd say you're not daft but restaurants and train companies banning them are being completely ott. It's just the same as steam off a cup of tea or coffee.

[usualsuspect]

I go out for a fag in my lunch break.

that's it.

So not every smoker is a whining addict.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

If you were allowed to smoke at your desk, there would be no need to stop working.

Some of the employees became addicted long before the rules stating that you weren't allowed to work and smoke at the same time.

And for some of you judgy types, smoking isn't a choice for most people now, it is an addiction. Addiction is not the same thing as choice.

[Wallison]

Anyway, I think the rules sound more than reasonable compared to a lot of firms - surely in most places you just wouldn't be allowed smoking breaks at all? Not that I think that's right, but it seems to be they way things are going.

[MidniteScribbler]

It's banned completely at my workplace by law, so no options for smoke breaks. Fortunately we have no smokers on staff, so no one complains.

[kiwimumof2boys]

Why can't they just smoke on heir morning tea/lunch breaks ?
Used to really pi$$ me off when I worked that smokers popped out when they liked for a cigarette ! everyone should get the same breaks, and what you do on them (make calls, read etc or smoke) is your business.

[kiwimumof2boys]

their breaks even . . .

[AnnaKissed]

Can MN addicts pop out for 5 minutes on their phone whenever they feel like it?

[Jinsei]

I'm surprised at how many people are saying that smokers should use their morning/afternoon tea breaks. I've never worked anywhere where I've had formal breaks for tea/coffee - normally it's just a case of grabbing a coffee and drinking it at your desk.

I don't mind if the smokers in my office nip out for a fag every now and then, as long as they're getting their work done! Likewise, people can make as many cups of tea and coffee as they like, I'm not counting. They're employed to do a job, and I'm happy to let them get on with it. That said, we did have one employee who took the piss, and couldn't do the work he was supposed to do because he was outside smoking all the time. We let him go during his probationary period!!

[SHarri13]

Sounds very reasonable to me!

[starsandunicorns]

I smoke where I work now I have a hours lunch but break it down to a 15 min break in morning and afternoon and a 30 lunch break and only smoke in that time I used to do nights and started at 10pm till 6:15 am and got one 40 min break at 1am and smoked then though the perm would sneek off for a ciggie and would also have a 20 min break at 4am I never worked anywhere where you just went for cig cos you felt like one

[ithaka]

StarlightMacKenzie Saying something is an addiction does not absolve addicts of their responsibility for it.

It is possible to quit addictions - hard, but possible. I am not sure employers should enable their employees addictions. In general, enabling addicts is seen as unhelpful behaviour - addicts have to learn to take responsibility and own their behaviour is they are ever going to have the chance to break the addiction.

[wonderingsoul]

im a smoker and they seem very fair to me.

[Melonbreath]

I'm a smoker and that's really generous.
I would go outside, and shave 5 minutes off my lunchbreak for it. after certain people complained that I was getting time out I pointed out they spent up to half an hour making coffees and nattering in the kitchen an offered to clock in and out if they would too.
I never got complained about again.

[starfishmummy]

Back in the day when or office introduced a smoking room the idea was that people would take some work to do while they were in there. Dont think it ever happened.

[Featherbag]

Where I work we do 13 hour shifts, we get an unofficial 20 minute breakfast break on a morning, no one is allowed to leave the building. Lunch is 30 minutes unpaid, you can do what you like but to smoke you must go to the changing room, get completely changed out of your work uniform and shoes, then go off the premises (5 minute walk to perimeter) if you want to smoke. 30 minute tea break (unofficial so paid), no one allowed to leave premises. No one complains! And none of these breaks are guaranteed, one or more of them often doesn't happen.

[hackmum]

How times change. In ye olden days, smokers just used to smoke at their desk of course, and everyone was happy (apart from the non-smokers). When I started working in an office, there was a smoking room where people went for their fag breaks - and that seemed to work as a place for informal networking, giving the smokers one-up on the poor old non-smokers. Now the poor old smokers have to stand out in the rain and wind puffing away desperately for no more than five minutes. Poor wee things.

[mrsjay]

I am a smoker that sounds reasonable I dont work full time anymore but I didnt get fag breaks you go on your teabreaks and lunchtime, ,

[GingerBlackAndOriental]

I'm a smoker. No where I have worked has allowed 'smoke breaks'.

Would usually get a 15 minute break in the morning, 30 mins for lunch and 15mins in the afternoon. If you wanted to smoke you did it in those breaks which everyone got.

I don't understand 'smoke breaks'. Shouldn't be allowed IMO.

[luxemburgerli]

Poor wee things my bum, hackmum

[LustyBusty]

Where I work I am allowed to smoke on my lunch break only.
Bit of context... Flexi time, have to be at work 9-12, 2-4, 37.5 hours a week. Initially I was starting at 7:45, cig 8:55-9, 12-12:05, 1-1:05, butty at desk, cig at 1:55-2, 4-4:05, home at 5. I would book 45 mins a day "lunch" (non working time), but would only really be taking 30 mins. During this time one of my colleagues took 1hr5 mins to make a cuppa for 5 (I kid you not-she took my cup at 9:50, I collected it on my way past the kitchen to my 11am meeting). I got pulled up for "abusing the flexitime rules and wasting time" and was told I was not allowed to split my lunch break (eg 3x 10 min breaks for 30 min lunch). So now I arrive at work at 7:50, have a ciggie, clock in at 8. Lunch is 12:30-1 and I leave at 4 on the dot. They lose.