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Original poster

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

88 replies

zippitippitoes · 25/04/2007 08:19

...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

OP posts:
Eleusis · 26/04/2007 11:43

Yes, but people still make choices. And what makes they employer responsible. If this were to be accepted there were me more pressure on HR departments to weed out any smokers from the potential hire list.

Eleusis · 26/04/2007 11:51

So do you think tha tI as a nanny employer should give my nanny paid time off to go pamper her addiction for which she should not accept any personal responsibility????

No way. If I caught my nanny smoking on the job or in my house (even out of hours) she be facing disciplinary action. I ask people if they smoke in the interview process. Anyone who says yes does not get the job.

Bethbe · 26/04/2007 11:53

It makes good business sense to support your workforce with healthier lifestyle choices, - although I do think that if the gov. is serio9us about tackling this problem they would make classes more accessible!

El: I really don't see smoking as a choice and employers aren't allowed to discriminate on the basis of potential arrangements i.e maternity (often an employee choice)!

As a start, those companies could stop offering free gym membership/healthcare, reduce holiday allowance to the statutory and put the money into smoking cessation!?

Eleusis · 26/04/2007 11:58

It makes good business sense to support your workforce with healthier lifestyle choices.

I tell you what would help my workforce. A visit to the kitchen by Jamie Oliver.

Bethbe · 26/04/2007 12:00

El: I seriously doubt there are many smokers that do not accept responsibility for their addiction, but most did not CHOOSE to become addicted. I

It is not their employers responsibility it is theirs, but it is almost impossible to give up with out support. Being discriminated against because of their addiction (and no, this is nothing like overeating - and as a fat non-smoker I'd quite like the excuse) perpetuates the problem and since employers are becoming more and more against it, I feel they should support an employee that is trying, - for their own ultimate gain!

edam · 26/04/2007 12:00

I'm self-employed so no-one's going to cover my time off for stop smoking sessions. Although I can get free nicotine gum from my practice nurse, apparently.

OrmIrian · 26/04/2007 12:11

What happens if the ex-smoker starts again? Does he then get more time off? Is there a limit to the number of times they can do this? DH has given up about 5 times in his life and never permanently. With and without help. I don't think that's unusual.

Bethbe · 26/04/2007 12:21

What about if you CHOOSE not to have kids, - should you be allowed a year off of 'no-kids pay' with a similar arrangement to maternity pay, - and should you be allowed to do this 6 times, if it's 6 kids you're not going to have?

WHY - do some non-smokers feel so scared that someone somewhere out there is possibly getting something more than them??

It's these people that are responsible for the development of the gimmee gimmee gimmee society, - looking over their shoulder all the time to make sure no one is getting something they are not!!!!

Eleusis · 26/04/2007 12:23

I think that if you want to sell this to employers, you will first have to demonstrate a good success rate. For example, you would have to show that say 75% of the people who go to a NHS clinic during work hours actually quit smoking and improve their health for say 10 years.

I tend to agree that if we want to help people quit smoking, it would be far more helpful if clinics were open after work.

Eleusis · 26/04/2007 12:25

On the contrary bethbe, I think it is x-smokers rather than non-smokers who are very critical of these programmes. It more of a "I did it. Why can't you?" type thing.

Caligula · 26/04/2007 12:25

Bethbe totally agree with your sentiments.

There's no sense of a communal cause or greater good anymore.

Caligula · 26/04/2007 12:27

Yes but I hate all those "I did it, why can't you" people.

It's a sort of conceit.

Bethbe · 26/04/2007 12:38

Yeah, - my dad's one of those. Drives me round the twist and I've never even been a smoker!

El: Totally agree with your comments about success rates, - should not just be an expensive vote-pleaser initiative with no evidential back-up! But it is great that the gov is looking into ways of supporting people to quit and I don't think it helps when people get on the high horse about someone getting something that they are not!

You could make it fairer but allowing ALL employees whether smokers or not to attend the clincs (as long as there was an attendance record!?

expatinscotland · 26/04/2007 12:38

I took the easy way out with smoking, because I got SO ill the second I got pregnant with DD1.

Now drinking is another issue entirely.

I still struggle with that, sometimes on a day-to-day basis.

RTKangaMummy · 26/04/2007 12:45

NO!!!!!!!!

They should NOT get time off work for this

Stupid idea

Eleusis · 26/04/2007 12:48

Ha! Kanga!!!! Is that a joke or do we agree on something????

RTKangaMummy · 26/04/2007 13:03

I didn't read the thread

idlemum · 26/04/2007 13:28

Bethbe - ''it's only comparatively recently that the pitfalls and the social unacceptability of smoking have been widely understood.''
I'm sorry but the health risks of smoking have been known for decades - my father gave up a good job in the 1960's with a cigarette conmpany because he wanted to give up due to the health risks (everyone in the company was expected to smoke).
The health warnings have been on the packets for at least 25 years so it is disingenuous to suggest that average worker wasn't making an informed choice to smoke.
I am all for supporting people to give up but it is simply not fair on small businesses to have to foot the bill. The longterm payback is not proven but more importantly alot of small businesses deal with very tight cash-flow and can't wait the possible years for the long term benefit of short term cost.

Pixel · 26/04/2007 15:02

Dh managed to give up smoking and run a pub at the same time. He was surrounded by smokers day and night and had been a smoker for 25 years but he still did it. He was self-employed so didn't have the option of swanning off to 'recover'.

How is sitting about at home with possibly the odd visit to a clinic going to help someone beat an addiction? You need to be more busy, not less. I know that I find it much harder to avoid dipping in the biscuit barrel when I'm at home than when I'm out and about. That's part of the reason why I can control my weight more easily in the summer. Perhaps everyone who wants to stop smoking should be made to go to some kind of 'boot camp' where they are kept too busy to light up a ciggy. That would be much more effective imo.

Pixel · 26/04/2007 15:05

Um sorry, didn't read the first bit properly.

I'll go away now.

paulaplumpbottom · 26/04/2007 16:11

Thats what i think to Pixel. Work should take your mind off the cravings. If they really wanted to help their employees they would ban smoking breaks

ratclare · 26/04/2007 19:46

as a smoker who worked in a huge office ,i was always the first to arrive and last to leave ,was hardly ever off sick unless something dropping off and yet a colleague of mine who was constantly off sick with little toe ache etc would harp on about cigarette breaks ,we got the same number and minutes break a day!!!!! I do think it would be difficult for small business's to cope with though ,mind you they are always moaning about maternity leave too so Im not sure where my sympathies lie !

ebenezer · 26/04/2007 23:32

Agree idlemum. I doubt any person of working age could seriously argue that they took up smoking not knowning how harmful it is. The risks have been known and publicised for decades. I agree that many people start smoking when they're young and impressionable - but I don't agree that it then becomes someone else's responsibility to bear the economic burden of helping them give up.

Twinklemegan · 26/04/2007 23:37

Well it's the organisation that will suffer if the person is not allowed to smoke at work and is unable to give up. My organisation has not only banned all smoking on campus, but has also banned people from using the flexitime system to clock out for a smoking break off campus. I can clock out to go to the canteen for a caffeine fix - what's the difference? Smoking isn't illegal is it? I pity any poor smoker trying to work in my organisation at the moment - I would fully support them getting time off to help them give up.

Skribble · 26/04/2007 23:38

"Smoke breaks" really bl**dy annoy me, I remember getting asked by a supervisor if I smoked, stupidly I said no so she carried on to the next member of staff to ask them and sent them off for a smoke break. I delared that although I didn't smoke I quite fancied standing outside for 5 mins any way or going for a pee or basicly anything other than having to continue working and made a whole 1 woman protest about how unfair this was . Still don't think they quite got it.