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A Japanese Company Is Giving Nonsmokers Longer Vacations (fastcompany.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Marketing firm Piala introduced the new policy in September after nonsmokers complained that they were working more than their colleagues who smoked. The company's offices are reportedly on the 29th floor, meaning that popping out for a smoke break meant a solid 15 minutes away from work. Multiply that by several smoke breaks a day, and the hours start to add up, which began to tick off nonsmoking coworkers. A spokesman for the company told The Telegraph that one of those nonsmokers slipped a note in the company's suggestion box and the CEO agreed. Now nonsmokers are entitled to more vacation time, which the company hopes will encourage smokers to quit their filthy habit.
Somehow I doubt the math works out anyway.
For simplicity lets assume there are 200 working days in a year. If you take a single break every day for 15 minutes, you have spent 50h on those breaks, which would make it over a week of work time. Multiple breaks will increase this even further. Somehow I doubt the company will offer that much vacation time to non smokers.
Last time I checked, smoke breaks are unpaid
Really? Where? I've been paid for every single smoke break I've taken during the last 30 years.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Last time I checked, smoke breaks are unpaid... so are they suggesting only offering non-smokers more unpaid vacation time?
If so, that hardly seems like something newsworthy.
All office workers in Japan are salaried .. and expected to work 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week. 1 smoke break per hour in a 1 hour day means 12 15 minute chunks you don't work .. or 3 hours .. so you only work for 9 hours while being paid for 12 hours.
Are non-smokers going to have to pay for smokers' healthcare too
Not where I work. We don't hire smokers. We ask about tobacco use at the very beginning of the interview process, and reject all users.
This is perfectly legal. Smokers have no rights.
We hold down our healthcare costs, and it helps employee morale since nobody resents the smokers going on breaks and taking extra sick days.
I don't think there is much downside, since there are few smokers in California, and they tend to not be super bright.
I'm sure that all of those non-smokers are always diligently working while in the office.
Wait what? There's still backwards countries where you're allowed to smoke indoors in a company building?
*mind blown*
Yes, it's called Las Vegas...
We were in Vegas this fall for touristy stuff (grand canyon, hoover dam, etc.) and to enjoy the warm weather. Living in the Boston area where smoking isn't allowed in bars, I'd forgotten just how horrible the smell of smoke was. It just hits you like a wave when you walk into any of the Casinos. I would have thought that they would have, at least, upgraded their air ex-changers and filters to handle it a lot better.
Where I work, we hire people on the basis of merit-based qualifications. I honestly don't care if you smoke crack, marijuana, cigarettes, whatever. Show up to meetings on time, play nice with co-workers. If you can create value, you're hired.
I'd just like to throw this out there because unfortunately a lot of backwards thinking companies think they have the high ground, and they don't. If a company wants to pass up an employee because they have a stick up their ass, there are thousands of competitors who will hire instead. The only loser will be the idiot that passed up a smoker and has a vacant position for 6-12 months because they have no understanding of the market.