Smoking and Productivity
Today being Weedless Wednesday, I have been thinking about the effects of smoking, not on the smoker’s health, but on his or her productivity. A quick Google search on smoking productivity only brought up issues of lost productivity due to absenteeism caused by smoking-related health issues, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
When workplace policies and then legislation changed so that workers could no longer smoke in the office (or other working environments), it was to protect non-smokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke, and that was good.
However, most workplaces allow two coffee breaks and one lunch break per shift. How many smokers do you know who can get through the day with only three or four cigarettes? As a result, a situation evolved where smokers would take a number of "smoke breaks" in addition to their allotted breaks.
This was somewhat annoying to those of us who continued working during this time, and once I even heard a manager threaten to take up smoking so she could get more breaks. So while the non-smokers were working something like 7 hours a day, the smokers were probably only working 6 hours, by the time you take off all the smoke breaks (which, in large office towers, mean waiting for elevators going up and down as well).
On the other hand, a certain camaraderie formed amongst the smokers that didn’t exist among the non-smokers, contributing to team building, which can increase productivity in some cases, but I doubt it would save the equivalent of an hour per person per day.
Photo courtesy of: Marcello eM
I TOTALLY agree with this and saw it in action yesterday.
I went to the mall to pick up a few things (I had my list and my route through the mall plotted to increase efficiency). When I arrived at the mall at about 10h I saw a crowd of people waiting outside the doors. I was surprised because I thought the mall opened at 9h30. When I got to the doors I realized that the people were sales staff on a smoke break (it still boggles my mind that they would stand out in -25C weather for a smoke). Anyway, I went into the store and couldn’t find what I needed. I wanted to ask for help but, lo and behold, there were no sales staff on the floor to help me. I considered going out to the smoking area and reaming them out for lack of customer service but I didn’t want to be breathing second-hand smoke so I just went to another store to get what I wanted.
Comment by Jacki Hollywood Brown — January 24, 2008 @ 8:56 am
i don’t necessarily agree with you. i smoke, and i work. i go out once in the mid-morning, once at lunch, and once again in the mid-afternoon. i think there are plenty of smokers who can get by on just those 3 breaks a day.
i think the issue is that most people, especially in corporate jobs, opt not to take their alloted breaks, so when they see people actually leaving their desks…it confuses/annoys them. i actually never take my lunch breaks…so really, i’m working more than my schedule requires.
Comment by amber — January 28, 2008 @ 4:24 pm