Where you work, do non smokers get upset at the frequent cigarette breaks taken by smokers?

This is a pet peeve of mine. Non smokers don’t even get a break where I work. Smokers take about 4 to six breaks a day.

Yes, Even more so now because they must go outside and away from the building. It is an easy 15 minutes from when they leave till they get back and as most have to have a cigerrette every hour, a quarter of the work day is wasted. As for non smokers, if they are not working the whole time except for a potty break, the bosses go nuts.

Because they get a break and nonsmokers do not, in some cases. I would not be okay with that at my job. And when I’ve worked for places that are corporations, they’ve had to allow nonsmokers breaks.

<=== smokes. I try to limit it to one every two or three hours though. seems nuts to go out every hour.

non smokers take as many breaks as smokers, you just don’t notice it because they are sitting at their desk drinking coffee and looking at fluther or facebook or whatever. They’re still not actually working.

I’m an ex smoker

No, non smokers can take different breaks. Have a chat over a cup of coffee. Answer some Fluther questions…

Yes because smokers get to go out and take frequent breaks leaving important work for the non smokers to do.

It does really irritate those of us who are non-smokers. The rest of us are limited to two breaks per day & we are not allowed to use our break time to access facebook or myspace or fluther, or to just wander around the internet (although we do to some extent anyway). Our internet use is strictly monitored by an outside company that submits weekly reports to our employers as to the amount of time we were on the internet & the websites we were visiting (so far I haven’t gotten in trouble over it, but my internet usage is usually checking news or science sites & not for very long at a time). There are several very restrictive elements in play where I work & you either adjust to dealing with the situation or you quit. As you can imagine, morale frequently hits some very low points.

@Lightlyseared & @mattbrowne

EXACTLY!!!

All workers should be entitled to the same breaks, smokers or not.

When I worked at Walgreens, smokers went out to smoke on their breaks. They didn’t get extra breaks, they just had to make do. I know sometimes employees would be working in the stockroom and might open the big door and have a smoke while they were working, but smokers never got more breaks. Is this an unusual situation? I would think that @Lightlyseared and @mattbrowne have it right. No one notices when a non-smoker takes a break.

Yes. Sure, the non-smokers drink their coffee, have little chats and spend time online during the workday… but so do the smokers!

@KatawaGrey Why do you think no one notices when non-smokers take a break? Is it because non-smokers only take the breaks they are entitled to take? I guess that would reduce being noticed. I think the reason that many small breaks are allowed to the smokers at my place of employment is because a couple of members of management are smokers, too, & the other smokers are simply following their lead (& it does irritate the rest of us).

Limiting breaks in the knowledge economy doesn’t make much sense to me. Actually, you could have the most innovative idea during an extra break. Or when you’re taking a shower. In our company everyone can decide about the number and the length of the breaks. What counts is reaching your objectives. It’s hard to measure this in correlation to minutes or hours or days.

At a former workplace, there were a half-dozen of us who were nonsmokers who took several “smoke breaks” a day.

At one place I used to work for, several non-smokers accompanied the smokers on their breaks, too.

i used to do that too, however, i think some bosses might say, if they saw it, “where are you going” or “why are you going out?” and i don’t think they’d see it as justified. i do, but i don’t think supervisors would. if i were asked now, as i were heading out, and i replied “oh I just think i’ll go outside for about 15 minutes” and i did that as often as a smoker, i think they’d say something.

I wish they didnt let us take smoke breaks. I smoke so much more than id like to because of it. Because the way i see it, its just an excuse to go sit down outside for 5–10min, so i smoke. If non smokers were allowed the same breaks, id have probably quit smoking by now lol

@jca: When we were asked where we were going, we said “On a smoke break.” Nobody noticed or cared that we weren’t actually smoking.

This is my Medical answer to you. I am a smoker and I do take smoke breaks on long shifts. I do not thank it is anyone business how you spend a or your break. Just because someone smokes does not mean that they are a bad person or needs to have more breaks than others. We are all the same people we have our habits the good ones and the bad. Do not judge someone by their habit judge them by their person and who they are.
Thank You