Smoking

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brian john

Senior Member
Location
Kilmarnock, Va
Occupation
Retired after 52 years in the trade.
Has anyone had any issues with employee smoking?

I recently got a call from a long customer, his boss happened to show up on a job and saw my men outside smoking he asked him if my men were on T&M (they were). He was upset because the last time he saw my men two weeks previously on another job they were outside smoking.

I do not smoke and wish my men did not I have paid for in the past any method they choose to use to quit and have given financial incentives added vacation and hourly pay increases all but two quit smoking.
 
First let me start by stating I have no experience with this but I thought I would share my opinion.

After reading your post I got to thinking. I would try to investigate this and try to come up with a solution. Some states require a break for employees 1 before and 1 after lunce (not sure if your state does). If this is the case, I would find out if my crew was out around the same time that your customers boss showed up at both locations (some people keep their smoke schedule, I work with a guy you can set your watch by, he smokes at the same time everyday unless something is happening he cannot walk away from). Then this may be a coincedence??? If not I would find out how many were out on break and how many were not. If the majority was out, I would talk to my crew and ask them to only go out and smoke/break in pairs or some mutual common sense way. This way will give the customer the impression progress is not stopping for a smoke.

Another thought, does your customers boss just loaths people who smoke, this could also be a issue. Never know, just a thought.

I am not a smoker, but I believe everyone needs a break at some point and if people want to take that 15 mins or whatever to smoke, that is up to them. I am sure not everyone has the same opinion.
 
I'm pretty sure you aren't legally required to allow smoking breaks beyond whatever normal breaks are required for hourly workers. Let them know that any additional smoking breaks are off the clock. This is reasonable. After all, you're paying them to work, not stand around and smoke.

If it becomes a real problem, you could just fire them. I know there are some companies that have fired people just for being smokers, even if they only smoked when they were away from work. Apparently it's legal to fire someone just for being a smoker.
 
The smoking off the clock may seem resonable. But one thing I have learned after 36 years in the trade is you take away a 1 minute it cost you 15.


We are required to give them breaks and it varies from location to location (we work in 4 states and the District) and the guys always take the most liberal.

The customer is very reasonable and respects my work but wants 8 for 8, which is seldom possible even without smoking.
 
I don?t think you should give an advantage or benefit to one worker that you do not also give to other workers, especially if that benefit (i.e., smoke break) is based on a personal choice (i.e., the decision to smoke). The author of the Dilbert comics gave us a funny twist on this topic several years ago. The character Wally, a non-smoker, wanting to get equal break time as the smokers, insisted that he be allowed to go outside at the same time periods as the smoke breaks. To be certain the break time was the same, he would light a cigarette and hold it in his ear. That way he didn?t have to inhale the smoke, but the break would be over when the cigarette burned down, just as it would for the smokers. He called it an ?ear-garette.?

The simplest policy to enact is to require smokers to take smoke breaks ?off the clock.? But it may be difficult to enforce. For example, if you have two workers sharing a truck at the same site, and one is a smoker, are you going to make the non-smoker stay on-site (paid or unpaid is not the issue) an extra 20 minutes, simply because the smoker has to make up the 20 minutes of smoke breaks taken earlier in the day?

Another possible policy is to forbid smoking at the job site. But will that mean that the non-smoker sharing a truck with a smoker will have to put up with smoking in the truck on the way to the next assignment? Or will you forbid smoking in the truck also? Neither would be fair to anybody.
 
Only once had an issue with smoking. We all were on a job at Valdez Terminal (end of the Alaska pipeline, all Class I, div,I or II, inside or outside except in designated areas). Half the crew smoked, half didn't. We were on a 7/10 schedule. The smokers were taking four more "smoke breaks" than anybody else!

So on the third day, when the smokers decided to use the truck to go to the smoking area, all of us non smokers followed into the truck. The smokers wanted to know what this was all about? We informed them that we were "addicted to coffee". So then they wanted to know what this was really about? We then informed them that they were working at least an hour less than anyone else in the field, and that they needed to smoke on given break times only, not inbetween breaks.They toughed it out for the month long job, but cranky about it.

No sympathy for them. They knew we were going to an oil facility, and that smoking wasn't allowed except in designated areas. It's disruptive to production to make anyone on the crew "special".

Back in real world, if it's not offensive to the client, or workers in the area, then it's their call.
 
I have always had a different approach to smokers. I don't hire them. But that is probably why I mostly work alone.
 
Dennis I have 20 people 4 are smokers, one of the smokers quit for 5 years and was rewarded for his quitting after 6 months. He recently went through family problems and now smokes worse than ever.

1-smoker is the secretary she seldoms smokes then it is a quick outside and then back.

2-are electricians the same that got this thread going.

1-is my business partner, I do not allow him to smoke in the office.

An additional 4 of my employees smoked and quit with me paying for the quit smoking method of their choice and with vacation or a raise as an added incentive.

In our trade it is hard to find electricians that do not smoke, and not sure if by law we could discriminate.
 
AS A NON SMOKER i USUALLY LET THE SMOKERS GO GET MATERIAL OUT OF THE TRUCK, SEEMED ONLY FAIR. SOMETIME WHILE SITTING AT A TRAFFIC LIGHT TAKE A LOOK AT THE GROUND NEAR THE MEDIAN AND ALL THE NON-BIODEGRADEABLE MATERIAL WE WILL BE FORCED TO DEAL WITH SOON ENOUGH.(BUTTS)
 
barbeer said:
AS A NON SMOKER .....
Click to expand...

Why are you you yelling at us?

017559.jpg


Make that light go off.
 
There is no reason you have to let anyone smoke while on your clock. I usually try to be accommodating but that would change if the customer was upset.

The facility I am working at now is a Division of Johnson & Johnson, they have a strict policy that is posted at the parking lot entrance.

"Use of any Tobacco products is prohibited on the premises"

This includes the entire property, no smoking outside, no smoking in your truck as long as it is on the property.
 
I am a pack and a half a day smoker. I smoke a cigaretter in about 4 minutes.

I can guarantee that each one of you screws around for at least 20 minutes per day (the time it would take me to smoke 5 cigarettes). I personally don't see the issue.
 
Pack and half a day.

30 cigarettes

16 hours awake each day

or about 2 smokes per hour

Walk to smoking area 1 minute

Smoke 4 minutes.

Return from smoking area and become productive 2 minutes.

7 minutes lost each half hour.

But lets call it 'only' 5 minutes, thats 80 minutes a day lost time.
 
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I quit smoking 2 years ago. It feels great and I am far more productive now than when I was a smoker. There's not enough time in the day for a smoke break, but if the guys going out to get material from the truck or whatever, I don't think its that big of a deal. Deliberately stopping what you're doing to go have a smoke, is. I'd be pissed too if I was a customer paying T&M and the guys were going out for a smoke every hour or so.
 
iwire said:
Pack and half a day.

30 cigarettes

16 hours awake each day

or about 2 smokes per hour

Walk to smoking area 1 minute

Smoke 4 minutes.

Return from smoking area and become productive 2 minutes.

7 minutes lost each half hour.

But lets call it 'only' 5 minutes, thats 80 minutes a day lost time.
Click to expand...

I smoke a lot more at home. :) But, when I was installing, I still ran circles around my guys. :)

Edit for spelling.
 
I agree, there is a perception with seeing someone standing around not working. I try to grab my smokes while doing outside work, going to the van to get material or tools, going to spot-a-pot, etc. When on a T&M job, I am particuarly careful.
I can't even smoke in my appartment! I thought for sure I would quit when I had to go outside in the winter-3rd winter here and still at it...
 
iwire said:
Pack and half a day.

30 cigarettes

16 hours awake each day

or about 2 smokes per hour

Walk to smoking area 1 minute

Smoke 4 minutes.

Return from smoking area and become productive 2 minutes.

7 minutes lost each half hour.

But lets call it 'only' 5 minutes, thats 80 minutes a day lost time.
Click to expand...
It's only lost time when you non-smokers make it so. I can work, in most cases, while I smoke. And what about the non-smoking, idle talkers? What about their lost time? Actually it is getting that bad. I've heard of electricians getting fired because they were idle talking. Get real: I work to live, not the other way around.
 
Like Iwire, most hospitals and factory's we work at are "non tobacco" facilities. If an employee of the hospital or a contractors employee is caught using tobacco (even in their own car) on the property they are made to leave immediately, the second time they are banned for one week, the third time they are banned permanently.

The hospitals actually offered help for those wanting to quit.

Some of the factory's are as tough.

One hospital has a policy of no writing on clothing unless it is a company logo, I like this too.

These facilities make it easy for us.

BTW, I smoked for 32 years and quit 4 years ago, I still drink coffee and beer which I thought was going to be impossible without a cigarette. :wink:

Roger
 
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