I was reading the paper today, in the public opinions section there was a small rant about "smokos" costing employers more than two weeks paid wages per year. I thought to myself about this, and well, my smokos are an entitlement in my EBA, so screw you.
Another thing he said which got under my skin was "banning smoking from work will improve productivity and employee health" or something like that. And I thought to myself again, and suddenly the reason this is an extremely bad idea hit me in the face like a very obvious wall in the middle of the road, with a giant flashing sign on it saying "bad idea! bad idea!".
You see, I'm willing to wager the jobs with the largest ratio of smokers to non-smokers would be retail and hospitality. This is without any research on the subject whatsoever of course. And you see, those aren't the kind of people you want to deprave of an addictive drug. As the non-smoker you obviously are, I understand how you can grasp what nicotine detox feels like, so of course you have the right to make these kinds of requests.
As I am a smoker however, I can tell you that nicotine detox is not a very pleasant thing to go through, and moods will swing extremely rapidly. That is certainly not what you want in an extremely-fast-paced-little-room-for-error industry like retail. Not to mention the lapse in concentration that such a feeling causes is not something you particularly want in a hospitality worker either. I can totally see how much effort you've put into this idea of yours mate.
Personally, I think there is something about smoking that a lot of non-smokers don't understand. You honestly think we'd all continue to do this to ourselves if there wasn't at least one extremely good benefit to it? I mean, the propaganda is impossible to escape, there's no way any smoker doesn't know the detrimental effects of their addiction. But even then, it's not the addiction of smoking that's hard to break, it's what you have to break that comes with it: A break. (Read that twice if you don't get it.)
Quitting smoking is actually quite easy. Put the patch on before you go to bed and the cravings are gone for good. No cravings, no addiction. But that's not what you miss. Without going for a smoko, you lose the small breaks you get with actually having a cigarette. You get to physically stop what your doing and leave the area. All that busy, noisy, fast-paced stuff is put on hold for seven glorious guilt-free minutes (fifteen for me, but once again, EBA). People who don't smoke don't really understand how accustomed to those small breaks someone can get. I assure you, it doesn't take long for them to become practically essential.
That extremely precious seven minutes (how long it takes me to smoke a cigarette at a normal pace, so it's the average time for this post) really does give you the time you need to let your head catch up to what's going on around you, organise your thoughts and workout your game-plan for when you go back inside. And this is an extremely useful thing to have in retail (believe me).
So I'm going to have to say mate, you really didn't think that one through at all. Aside from decreasing productivity, you know, the exact opposite of what your idea is supposed to you. You also manage to piss off two very large groups of people in the two places you really don't want them to be pissed off. Good work mate. You should run for Prime Minister. Next you'll be telling me I should vote for Tony Abbott, just so I can lose that EBA which entitles me to my two paid fifteen minute smokos a day to the liberal Work Choices plan.
I love how far between the lines people will actually bother seeing before they start spewing bullshit.
Oh, and for the record, I'm not advocating smoking. No smoker of over three or so years would ever advocate smoking to someone else. Smoking is a terrible thing to pick up and should be avoided at all costs. It still doesn't mean the people who already do (like myself) and the people who (for some unintelligent reason) want to start can't enjoy themselves while they do it.
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