should smokers get time off from work to help them give up

[zippitippitoes]

...guidelines suggest they should

apparently smokers take 8 more days off each year because they smoke

time off would be to attend clinics to stop smokinghere

can I have time off work to catch up on my sleep? On full pay?

fgs

Yeah, I need time to catch up on sleep. Plus a haircut/massage/beauty treatment would do wonders for my emotional health so can I time off for those with pay please? For god's sake, this is just going too far. People choose to take up smoking, it isn't forced on them. I have a colleague who is currently having time off for chemotherapy, and frankly this idea is an insult to her and many others.

I agree, Ebenezer.

Totally agree Ebeneezer - the whole idea is bonkers!

And, if employers are forced to fund an employee quitting smoking, do you think companies will want to hire smokers? And then will it be illegal to discriminate against smokers?

This is a stupid idea.

people moan about smokers, then moan when the government want to do something to help them stop. can't win.

smokers are descriminated against going for lots of jobs anyway.

how caring you all are

I don't think it is such a bad idea. You feel like shite when you give up, your work is likely to be poorer quality. If in trials the outcomes for giving up were improved then the employer would aslo benefit as less time off sick and less time taking fag breaks. I think you should only get one shot at it though, would provide more impetous (sp) and stop people taking the mickey.

There is definately a smoking crowd at my work. They all linger down in the garage. But, they are asked not to hang around at the front door because it looks bad -- quite rightly in my opinion.

It al part of the gimmee gimmee gimmee society we live in. Gimmee this gimmee that. I deserve it. Poor poor me.

Smoking is a choice, not grounds for discrimination.

i Regularly puff whilst other people work.

Smoker where I work volunteers to go here there and everywhere. For some reason it always takes her ten minutes longer than everyone else and she comes back smelling smoked!

Actually El, smoking is not a choice for most, it is an addiction, and whilst I disagree wholeheartedly with the idea that the gov should force employers to pay for time taken for a smoker to quit (especially when classes could be run out of hours), I think it would be very sensible of employers to consider some form of support themselves!

For example, ciggy breaks (if you have them) are a lot longer than they used to be because you have to go down the stairs, out of the building, down the road and round the back of the garage rather than popping to the smoking room! Making it this difficult increases the intensity of the addiction requiring the need more often.

Also, since we have quite rightly become an anti-smoking society, 'cigarette addicts' (should be thier name) are being discrimating against to the potential detrement of the company they work for.

Just to put the record straight about days off - stressed people are more likely to take days off, and are more likely to smoke - it doesn't follow that smokers take more days off!

Sorry, that should read gov SHOULD'NT force

Opps, - sorry forget the last correction - my fat is making me stupid

I'd rather they were given time off than sat next to me stinking, tbh.

Bethbe - smoking may BECOME an addiction, but people make a choice about whether to smoke in the first place.

True Eb, as they do with alcohol and drugs - although to be fair it's only comparatively recently that the pitfalls and the social unacceptability of smoking have been widely understood.

There are many members of the workforce who would have 'chosen' to smoke before this!

a choice that is taken by many as teenagers, who often don't make the right decisions.

Plenty of smokers choose to quit. Just like I choose to spend too much time on mumsnet. Should I claim it's an additction and ask to be paid for it?

don't be pathetic

i give up

Does that mean I can get time off to attend weight watchers because I am addicted to food?

Yes. And someone should buy the food for you too.

I agree with you SEA. Most people take up smoking when they are little more than children and have no idea what they are getting themselves into.
It is a pretty poor lifestyle choice and we all hate having smoke blown over us/being in smoky places, so extra steps to get people to give up are good in my eyes.
I do feel, though, that the classes ought may be to be run IN the workplace where possible, as with other types of training. Small businesses should have the option of sending people somewhere very local so as to minimise time away from their work.
I can't wait for the ban in public places to come into effect. I used to work for a tobacco control organisation and the phone calls we got from bereaved people wanting to donate money or join our campaign were deeply saddening
I don't think there can be enough encouragement to help people give this killer habit up, personally.

NO! You need to keep busy when you're giving up smoking otherwise you just dwell on having a fag.

El: smoking is a physiological addiction, eating is not!

Many employers do offer free gym membership as a benefit - sadly not mine though