Smoking & Discrimination
 

This has probably been done before but I can't be arsed to check.

Picture this - girl at work on same grade as me and more or less same salary. Assuming we both work our contractual hours each week, with her once every two hours fag-break which takes her about 15 minutes (depending on who she get's talking to - it can be more sometimes), she's working around an hour a day less than I am as a non-smoker.

My question, therefore, is smoking at work discrimantory against those who don't smoke and is there anyone else who feels this way?

I know the law requires certain breaks in the day but (ignoring lunch) I live in the real world ;)

you dont work in ****ing HR do you :razz:

Here we go again :rolleyes:

It doesnt happen here, if you want to smoke, do so in your lunch hour.

I dont smoke, but at the same time I dont get a break to go and have a beer 3 or 4 times a day, why should I?

Where is the difference between smoking and other activities that should not impact on your work day?

Depends what sort of work you do - i'm guessing office based?

It's all about a bit of give and take.. the smokers here try and make up a bit at the beginning / end of the day. Mind you some of the non smokers spend hours in the tea room gassing!

Same here with the smokers taking a break every hour. The deal was, they can do that if they dont have a lunch hour ! 5 minutes every hour !

Some stick to it, some dont

in my work we have no breaks , well probrably would if we cried for them but if you dont smoke your here constant ... i dont smoke at home or on weekends or after work , but ill smoke about 10 fags whilst on a 10 hour shift , 1 an hour but i just fly out the door smoke the fag and in instantly , 5 minutes IF THAT ,, dont smoke you dont get breaks

Ive said it many times before and will keep saying many times again, for those people who don't smoke and don't take a break more fool them, and if your one of those people then you cannot ever complain that a smoker takes their entitled break :D

In many of the offices I have worked at a lot of non smokers go and stand outside with the smokers so they get a break too

Thats whats so great about this place. You want a ciggy, go, you want a piss, go, you want to sit in the sun for 15 mins for some fresh air, go, you want to borrow the company car to head into town for lunch, go, want to sit and play on SN all day, go ;)

Same here mate :thumb: I really couldn't handle working somewhere with timed breaks etc, it'd drive me insane! :brickwall

In fact as it's sunny I think I'll go wash the car.

Unless people take the piss and have a fag every hour then I don't worry about it.

Dave & Tam do you both work from home :lol1:

:lol1: no I work in an office. Very relaxed atmosphere and it means people are happy here, when theres work to be done its done. When theres not much to do you can do as you please. Nobody bothers you. I often sit and watch TV programs for an hour on my PC just relaxing :cool:

Nope, that would drive me insane too!

I get an hours lunch & two 10 min fag breaks a day which is more than i got at my last place, which was simply an hour for lunch & NO BREAKS!!

Absolutely not..........although I do sit nearby which is good, cos there's some fit birds in there :thumb:

You get to live 20 years longer ...... I guess that makes it fair?

civil service only allows smoke break at lunch time or after work. if you nip down for a quick smoke at 12 noon and then another sneaky one at 2pm when lunch is finished you are expected to mark down a 2hour lunch. i have had this happen to me when the head of our branch went out at 12 and came back at 2. she asked my boss if i took a 2 hour lunch that day. scooped or what

Liar, your job is one long MSN break ;)

Jokes on her; chances are you'll live significantly longer to enjoy your retirement! ;)

So is yours Dave :razz:

yes, but she is significantly thinner and more attractive than he is :p

Do what I do, find the quietest bogs in the building, go there every 2 hours for a "poo poo", but dont have a poo poo. No. Take your mobile phone with you and play snake, or surf for porn, or something :)

Haha, nuff said, lol

Done and done! :thumb:
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I probably should have used a cubical rather than done it at a urinal though! :cry: ;) :D

apparently smokers work much harder, so they are allowed breaks or that is the general jist from the SN smokey massif IIRC

Oh the irnoy of someone logging onto Scoobynet during working hours and moaning about other workers having a fag break and not working!! :D

Everyone should try working for themselves for at least a year, or working somewhere like where davegtt works - only then will you realise that working to a strict time regime really doesn't mean anything. If work needs doing it gets done, if not then why not have a break, or a smoke or a chat.

When I worked in an office all the smokers and non smokers had breaks together - directors were OK with this as we worked very well as a team and got results. :)

If I did have any staff I would run a relaxed ship.

mine are pretty much let loose as long as the work gets done, they have a radio/cd player/ tv with freeview, megadrive + ps2 and various other bits and bobs to mess about with if no work is available, but if they are pissing about and we have a load of jobs outside need doing, then they get there arse kicked :lol1:

this is in stark contrast with my mate who actually threw his TV and stuff into the skip because his lads had not cleaned the t cups after they had used them one day lmao

At my place, we get an hours lunch, and 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 minutes break in the afternoon. If you smoke you can go out at these times, but that is it. I'm fine with that, as it's what I'm used to, and the breaks are that regardless of whether you smoke or not. There have been some who work shorter shifts, and if say they only get 30 minutes break altogether, they have arranged with management to split their break in two, so they can have more smoke breaks, it's all fair as they are still only having the same total break time as anyone else.

THB, if she is taking more breaks in total than she should, not that you just aren't taking what you are allowed, then complain if it's bugging you so much, but before you do just make sure that outside of break time, you don't ever stop for a chat with anyone, or do anything other than just work, as you could cause the boss to put their foot down so much, there isn't any lenience (sp) for any of you. While this may look unfair to you on the surface, it may actually turn out that bosses are just generally relaxed in more ways than just this, and ultimately you could shoot yourself and others in the foot by making an issue here.