Smoking and Why employees get special privileges

[GreenTeaFrapp]

You should just hire some gangstas to do random drive-bys where the smokers take their smoke breaks. Even if they aren't all gunned down, the survivors will think long and hard about the dangers of smoke breaks.

[Grunt]

I love imagining nits like OP sitting at their desk, blood pressure rising as their coworker goes for a cigarette - worrying more about what everyone else is doing, and thinking about all the little things going on that aren't quite 100% fair in life.

Get a grip. Who cares if they're taking extra smoke breaks, especially if it doesn't directly affect you at all. As others have said, if their smoke breaks are affecting the amount of work they are getting done, they'll be hearing about it from their bosses.

You remind me of a guy I saw at the poker room the other day, complaining that the dealer didn't mix the cards well enough before she put the deck in the card shuffler. Sure, technically she is supposed to, but it doesn't make one lick of difference to the order of the cards. He was quite upset about it though, and even though he admitted it made next to no difference to how the cards came out, he felt wronged in some way because the rules weren't followed to the letter. Nitpickers like this are soooo annoying.

Spend less time getting upset about insignificant things like this and I think you'll find life a lot more enjoyable. BTW, I'm a non-smoker.

[taco.vidal]

What time of companies do you work for with all these smokers?

In my office, smokers are probably less than 5% of the employees. Most employees are health conscious almost to the point of being more annoying than smokers. Theres people who run or bike to work, vegetarians, people who only eat organic, people who work out at lunch, etc.... with people in each of those groups individually outnumbering the smokers.

In fact, most smokers try to hide their smoking.... pretending to leave for some other reason... You CANNOT hide that stench! OK... getting off topic.

Times sure have changed... as recently as 10 years when I started my career (not in Calgary) smoking was just being banned in the workplace. My director was a smoker and resistant to change... his corner office became somewhat of a smoking lounge... even when the ban came in, there was resistance to change and it took other tenants in the building complaining about the smoke for employees to stop smoking. Now, working in the same field, everyones at the other extreme and a health freak.

[ResAlien]

Productive smoker here. Rant on all you'd like about how smokers abuse the system. If you're only using your allotted break time, as I do, no issue. If people are abusing it, talk to your mgmt about it. If they don't care, well, get over it or get a new job.

[V]

I used to be a smoker. I quit over a year ago.

The OP reminds me of a few folks in my office. They complain about people using the gym, the foosball table, coffee breaks, and of course, smoking. Of course, these folks are very unsurprisingly the least productive folks in the office. In my years of an office worker I have found that this is a pretty consistent thing.

In any case, I have found no increase in productivity since I quit smoking. This is mainly because now I spend that time getting around the office, talking to people, drinking coffee, going for a walk, getting my thoughts straight. Of course, I am generally the guy that will get what he wants in an office. I have no sympathy for people that complain that they don't have the best furniture available, or don't have the ability to take breaks like others. If you want something, go get it. Don't whine on a friggin messageboard. You're pathetic.

[ken0042]

OK, let's not pile on the OP too hard here guys. We have all done our share of ranting about everything from bad drivers to bad customer service.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by ken0042

OK, let's not pile on the OP too hard here guys. We have all done our share of ranting about everything from bad drivers to bad customer service.

Ken, bro, there are threads where people are getting piled on and this aint one of them. Go hit up one of the extermination threads if you're going to say that. In this thread, the OP whined and got called on it. He also had alot of support. This isn't a one way thread. Sorry man, you're just out to lunch if you think this is a 'pile on' thread, especially on CP.

[V]

I'm sorry, but when I have to deal with these office whiners, all I see is red. I'm embarrassed to even be associated with them.

And that comment was probably more for the morons I need to deal with at work, than anything else. I don't really care about the OP, as fake as he comes across.

[flip]

Originally Posted by ken0042

OK, let's not pile on the OP too hard here guys. We have all done our share of ranting about everything from bad drivers to bad customer service.

It is only ok to pile on if they are talking about something we don't agree with like banning dogs or calling teachers lazy.