Smoking breaks at work

[fraggle500]

If you smoke... do you think you are entitled to extra cigarette breaks ( not part of your allocated break times)?

Sarcasm? Not intended

@fucksgiven
Thank you for your input.
I have carry out time and productive ratio reports - it works.
I do allow time out for many, many reasons - believe me, I really believe in an appreciated member of staff will work diligently and happily.
However, as I stated before HR don't take that view.

@TheOxymoron apologies, no that isn't a choice, I just didn't think of it.

No, I don’t

It’s fucking ridiculous that smokers are allowed to take breaks if I was to keep on taking breaks where I ate a mars bar my boss would tell me to fuck off and rightly so.

I worked somewhere many years ago where the boss smoked like a chimney, the number of fag breaks was ridiculous. Whenever she nipped for a break I just chilled out at my desk for 10 minutes, it really broke up the day. It was a temp job and I didn't care about the job I might add!

TLDR at the bottom

I've worked in many different environments and I'm an ex-smoker

In my experience in customer facing roles (shop floor, call centre) everyone got the same breaks. What you did in that time is your own business. Smokers did not get more breaks than non-smokers. In my first job the supervisor would set the breaks for the shifts and if the supervisor was a smoker then we would all get 2 breaks. Although even as a smoker sometimes I just couldn't be arsed and carried on working. Shifts were only 4 hours and 2 fags in that time was a bit much.

When I've worked in non customer facing roles it has been up to the management to keep an eye on productivity. In one office the smoke breaks got out of hand so they policed it a bit more.

My current work place is split with back office staff and customer facing. The customer facing staff are entitled to a 15 min break morning and afternoon. Again, what they decide to do with it is their own business. It's also possible for them to nip for a fag in between appointments providing. Non smokers also have time in between appointments and it's up to them what they do with it. But overall everyone does the same amount of work.

As a now non smoker I'm not bothered in the slightest. Everyone does the same amount of work but you do find the smokers still working gone 5:30. When I smoked I stayed behind an extra 30 Mins a day to make the time regardless of if I needed to catch up. This wasn't something which was asked of me.

As PP said, we are treated as adults to manage our own time and it's up to management to ensure no one is taking the piss. I'm sure if everyone went for smoke breaks and there was no one to cover the phones they would start policing the fag breaks a bit more.

And although smoking is an addiction it's not as black and white as it being a choice. I started smoking to look "cool" as a teenager and found it very very difficult to quit after smoking for 20+years. I found I was much more productive when I had a fag break.

TLDR: it's down to management to ensure no one is taking the piss. As long as everyone does their fair share of work I don't see the issue. And if non-smokers want/need to take an equivalent break they should be allowed to. (I was often accompanied on my fag breaks by a non smoker)

I work in a pub, most of the staff smoke and generally we’ll have one when we get a chance, however, if I am working with a non smoker I’ll always say “I’ve had a cigarette, do you want to take 5 mins to grab a drink/ play on your phone etc”.

Smokers aren’t allowed to take extra breaks where we work. They get two 15 min breaks and an hour lunch.
No one should be entitled to extra breaks because they CHOSE to take up a filthy disgusting addictive habit.
None of them wash their hands afterwards and they stink out the lifts and the smell lingers around them for ages afterwards.

Minging!!

No, I never expected extra breaks (usually had two 15s and a lunch hour), though if I’d been given just a half hour I would probably mither a bit to split it into two 15s IYSWIM.

I have did work somewhere I could sneak out and have a ciggy when it was dead, but my non-smoking coworker was equally welcome to snack/flick through a mag etc so I think that was ok.

depends on the nature of the work to a degree - as a knowledge worker, who is paid to think, going for a fag is not necessarily a break, as such

As a smoker, I take 2x 5 min breaks a day, but never use my full lunch hour - I'm away from my desk and back before anyone had actually noticed I'm gone most times, and my managers have told me several times they don't mind at all what I do as long as all my work is completed by the end of the day