To think smoking in the workplace and during working hours should be banned?

[Floogal]

Am I alone in thinking that smoking in the workplace and during work time should be outlawed totally in the UK?

1. The health aspect. People may be smoking outside but it still seeps in and we're still inhaling it.
2. The fact smokers get extra breaks. (Beautifully illustrated by that episode of Family Guy).
3. The social and professional cliques that smokers seem to form. Worse when managers or supervisors smoke (beautifully illustrated by that episode of Friends)
4. Doesn't look good on the company if employees are smoking outside. Looks very bad on NHS or council etc when their staff are doing it

Yes, businesses/organisations with staff lounging around outside puffing are not promoting a good image. Looks really common.

I do smoke but I'd agree it's not nice for others to have to smell. If I have a cigarette at work I use the designated smoking area which is at the back of the building and then spray perfume and have a mint before I come in. I think that's just common courtesy to be honest.

I actually agree that smoking right outside doorways or where customers can see you or have to walk past doesn't give a great impression. Same if people are constantly taking smoking breaks but I do think it's for companies to restrict this through their policies.... having a designated smoking area or making smoking break time come off lunch breaks for example.

Completely banning it is a tricky one in my opinion. We once worked with a member of staff that had absolutely awful BO, the cleaning staff complained how filthy his desk and office chair was. That is just as anti social and unpleasant for co workers as smoking if not more so.

I worked with a senior colleague who would switch on some kind of air freshener in their office to disguise the smell of smoke when they came back from a fag break which smelt even worse than the smoke. My desk was right by their office. No escape.

I see where you are coming from OP. I don’t think anyone in my team smokes anymore but when they did people who smoked definitely had more breaks than the rest of us. We raised it as if non smokers took as many breaks we’d have been moaned at. Nothing changed though. But over time less people smoked so it became less of an issue.

My real bug bear is people smoking at the entrances to places. The smell of smoke really clings to my hair, and DH has a sensitivity to nicotine and if he’s around too much smoke he struggles to sleep.

You can’t stop people smoking on their breaks but it should only be allowed on official breaks and in a place that no one else has to walk though.

I haven’t smoked for about 15 years now and I’m definitely the ex-smoker who would happily see it banned in all public places now. Sorry!

The organisation I work for doesn't permit smoking breaks and staff are only allowed to smoke in their lunch breaks.

However, a lot of staff work in the community. The office-based smokers wanted the community-based staff to be banned from smoking in their cars between visits, to make it "fair".

Management (understandably) declined, on the grounds that it would be unenforceable.

OP you do realise that Family Guy and Friends are not documentaries. To base 2 of your points on fictional characters in an American "sit-com" and a cartoon is a bit dim.

I've never worked anywhere where smokers get extra breaks and most people who smoke where I work change or cover their tops and usually go off site too.
People generally aren't paid for breaks so nothing to do with the company.

@Rosehip10

Yes, businesses/organisations with staff lounging around outside puffing are not promoting a good image. Looks really common.

The company I work for provides a smoking area well away from the reception because, yes it does look bad having smokers just outside the reception area. It makes them look good that they provide somewhere specific to smoke though.

Extra fag breaks shouldn't be allowed imo. Smoking on your actual break, outside, fair enough imo but nipping off every hour or whatever is not ok.

pls. also ban onions and garlic in work meals. And bad body odour. And coming in without brushing one's teeth. and loud phone conversations.
oh and black roots on blondes. it repulses me. So it should be banned. and reflects bad on a company as well if their employees are unkempt.
and lets not forgot peppermint chewing gum, I hate the smell of that.

What about people who’ve smoked for years and would rather change their job than be forced to quit?

I’m in the NHS, a non smoker, but a lot of doctors, nurses and HCAs smoke. Especially on high stress days or when they’re exhausted and looking for something to wake them up enough to carry on. They go and smoke in the woods though, so not on NHS property.

They don’t get ‘extra breaks’. They use their coffee break to go and stand in the cold. Sometimes I go with them for a bit of fresh air, there’s no rule that you must be a smoker to join them.

Strip people of too many freedoms and you get more leaving the workforce.

I used to stand sometimes with others in the smoke area until they noticed that I didn't smoke,asking why I was joining them I reminded them that they like me,was paid hourly not paid for an hour and take 10 mins or whatever off,for doing absolutely nothing so thought that I would do the same,,the management agreed after a while & stopped it all, got vilified for a while but it soon passed

I cannot bear the smell of cigarette smoke and it makes me feel physically sick, but I couldn't care less what other people are doing as long as it doesn't affect me. Can't say I've ever noticed how many times smokers go off for a break. I've always felt it's the start of a slippery slope if you start banning or restricting cigarette breaks. What's next, restricting the number of times you go to the loo or get a drink?

The only thing I find really annoying is that at our office smokers have to use designated shelters but it isn't enforced. The rules say it's a disciplinary offence to smoke outside of the shelters, yet every single day people are out there smoking around the shelter and not in it. Then the smoke comes into our building because someone always has to open the window level with the shelter.

From next week our whole site is going tobacco-free (vaping still allowed) and I'm waiting to see how that is going to be enforced. Quite sure it won't be, so I can't see the point of a ban.

What about people who’ve smoked for years and would rather change their job than be forced to quit?

I don’t support OP’s idea, but if it happened, then the smokers wouldn’t be able to change jobs because it would be the case everywhere. So it would be a choice between cutting down on smoking during the day, or being unemployed, or just finding a new job.

*not just find a new job

I'm in the NHS, a non smoker, but a lot of doctors, nurses and HCAs smoke. Especially on high stress days or when they’re exhausted and looking for something to wake them up enough to carry on.
Yep but mn won't believe you.
I worked in patient accounts I couldn't believe Doctor's and nurse's smoking.
Paramedics too, DD attends therapy in the off the Paramedics centre, they're always in the smoking area.
As for young people many vape now.
It is popular for tictoc blowing out shapes from vaping.

Definitely not fair for smokers to get extra breaks. But I think during their actual breaks they can do as they wish but attempt to avoid bringing the smell back in with them.

On my ward of 50 nursing staff 2 smoke however they don’t change uniform and mints and perfume just make it worse tbh. I don’t like the smell but it’s not my job to police their habits, they don’t tell me to stop eating so why should I ask them to not smoke.
There is no smoking in nhs grounds but I think they go to their car or off grounds and only during break times. It’s up to management to deal with it if they feel it’s an issue imo.
My mum smokes, so when we visit we come away everything stinks I put up with it because she’s my mum though.

I think it’s possible some work places may try and ban it over time. Although I think they’d have a hard job dictating what people do on their breaks (especially if breaks are unpaid). But if someone is wfh or is out and about in the course of their job, you will never be able to enforce the no smoking in work hours.

I wfh with no plans for a return to the office. So I can smoke whenever I want. Who’s going to stop me?

I remember getting a hard time from colleagues for getting an "extra" 20 min break to go and express breast milk. They told me I should be doing it during my normal 30 min lunch break. If I'd been bold enough I would have said the same about their 5 min smoking break they took every hour.

I agree smoking areas should be away from the building but I've worked for companies where people can have breaks without smoking. When I was smoking would only go out mid morning and mid afternoon, go to the loo and pick a yogurt out the fridge. Plenty of non smokers would have a good chat around making tea and snack. If your work don't allow it why is it the smokers fault. Many studies show in office work going for a 5-10 min wonder every 90mins increases productivity. And you sposed to have legal breaks from the to computer screens.

I don’t mind if people have cigarette breaks.

What I do mind though, is going into a shop that reeks of smoke. There’s a local shop/ post office, where it stinks all the time. I don’t think people should smoke in the vicinity of a food shop and it’s clear that they are. Won’t be using that post office.

I worked for the NHS and my smoking colleagues would have at least 4-5 x 15-20 minutes smoke breaks (we were a smoke free setting so they had to walk all the way to the main road for one).

If I had had the same amount of breaks and was never made to stay beyond my finish time or be late to pick up DS from school because the fuckers were still smoking outside, I wouldn’t have minded.

I also resented having twice or three times as much work to do while they were having their breaks or while they were off during the work day to attend stop smoking schemes that never worked anyway.

I used to smoke years ago and only smoked on my lunch break at the smoking shelter quite far from the building.

It sounds like you have a problem with your workplace. So take it up with management.

Imagine we all outlawed things we didn't like?

1. Their choice to smoke and should be smoking away from entrances/exits so others don't have to inhale.
2. Management issue, smoking breaks if required should be deducted from lunch hour.
3. And?
4. See 1