smoking at work
Discussion
It's a problem when other people need to see you. There are two admin staff where I work who smoke, they do the sort of job where a variety of others need to see them every now and then to do things that can't proceed otherwise, not often, but regularly.
Loads of times I've gone to see one of them to find they aren't there so wasting my time in having to come back later and then find something else to do as I can't proceed with what I was doing. I presume this is repeated across the work place by other people too.
I'm quite amazed that smokers get to go and have their own little breaks at all, more so that they are allowed when it affects the work of others.
Loads of times I've gone to see one of them to find they aren't there so wasting my time in having to come back later and then find something else to do as I can't proceed with what I was doing. I presume this is repeated across the work place by other people too.
I'm quite amazed that smokers get to go and have their own little breaks at all, more so that they are allowed when it affects the work of others.
Fishtigua said:
"No smoking or fook off" as one poster said. Well yes, I would. All you poncy tea drinkers can fook off too, all that waiting to brew shyte wastes time too. Women going to the loo, why so long? Taking a dump at work, have you no bog at home?
Arbeit macht frei.
Except men spend 1 hr 45 mins on the loo every week, women a mere 85 mins. Arbeit macht frei.
And yes, someone actually researched this sh...
Although not directly affecting work or only mildly connected to this thread one thing the smokers fail to realise is how bad they smell.
Firstly it's the s
tbreath. Get too close and you feel the full force from the breath of a thousand camels.
Secondly the stale smell that emanates from their clothing.
Third when they return from a burn then it's the stinky ashtray aroma that propagates the surroundings.
If i were a customer and a smoker started his sales pitch with one or more of the above then my mind would be focusing on how to get away and not on the product or service they are pitching.
Firstly it's the s
tbreath. Get too close and you feel the full force from the breath of a thousand camels.Secondly the stale smell that emanates from their clothing.
Third when they return from a burn then it's the stinky ashtray aroma that propagates the surroundings.
If i were a customer and a smoker started his sales pitch with one or more of the above then my mind would be focusing on how to get away and not on the product or service they are pitching.
The guy on our team that smokes, he comes back from his fags outside having chatted with the smoker from HR, the folks in finance, the woman in corporate communications etc etc. He brings us back all the news/gossip etc from those departments, in a frankly more useful and far more regular form than the formal news you get from all user meetings or emails etc; and he also hears from them what IT problems they're having or stuff they're planning that gives us an early heads up.
win win both ways.
win win both ways.
deckster said:
Stu R said:
I couldn't care less.
Treat them well and you'll get more out of them in 45 minutes than someone you treat like st will give you in an hour.
Exactly this. Are they doing an appropriate amount of work, to an appropriate level of quality, and are available when they need to be?Treat them well and you'll get more out of them in 45 minutes than someone you treat like s
t will give you in an hour. If so, they can take as many breaks as they like.
Provided they are doing what you want, why should you be particularly arsed?
As a non-smoker, I generally hate pretty much everything about smoking, but I defended a couple of people I manage over it recently.
One guy I manage is a surveyor and the other is a leasehold manager, and the company were having a bit of a real clampdown on smoking and the time it wasted and they decided to pick on these two of my staff as they are quite heavy smokers, to which I defended them by saying that they both produced exemplary work, were timely and efficient, and I generally could not fault them, which was all true.
I measure their performance by how much work they produce and the number of tasks completed, not by how much time they sit at their desks.
If they did everything I asked them to do in a morning then I couldn't give a crap if they stood outside smoking all afternoon.
I would of thought treating each employee as an individual and measuring the amount of 'work' they produce is a sensible way to go about it.
I'm the only smoker in my department now (there were lots of us 5-6 years ago), and we get 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. The non smokers used to moan until it was pointed out that they were more than entitled to get up for 5-10 minutes here and there and get away from their desk.
However when you see half the department get up at the same time and spent 20 minutes chatting in the kitchen and making drinks I feel more time is lost to that than to a smoke break.
However when you see half the department get up at the same time and spent 20 minutes chatting in the kitchen and making drinks I feel more time is lost to that than to a smoke break.
I wasn't going to use the 'back of a fag packet' analogy but it works.
While on a fag break and staring at yet another motor with alloy corrosion issues, I just spent a bit of time looking.
Just looking. Nothing more, just having a think.
Bingo, came up with a wheeze that the factory has now implemented into their production design and solves a major problem.
Maybe I should smoke a pipe?
While on a fag break and staring at yet another motor with alloy corrosion issues, I just spent a bit of time looking.
Just looking. Nothing more, just having a think.
Bingo, came up with a wheeze that the factory has now implemented into their production design and solves a major problem.
Maybe I should smoke a pipe?
Dodsy said:
Smoking gives me time to think and I often have useful work discussions with other smokers while outside. But my job is flexible I set my own schedule and manage my own delivery so no one to stop me really. Bit different if its a shop floor.
As an extension of this, I find the smoking area to be a total leveller - it doesn't matter if you're the MD or a cleaner, when you're outside you're all just smokers. It was the best way of meeting other people in the company, and it's the one thing that I do miss about smoking. Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff