Nottinghamshire County Council to ban smoking breaks.

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Mine is based on the fact you cannot use these devices on an aircraft as there there is no evidence that passive smoking from these devices has not been proven to be safe.
Over to you.

Utter crap

 

[Publius Ovidius]

We have taken to going outside at the same time as people who are taking " fag breaks" to drink our coffee or tea.

If we all do this at the same time, then the place grinds to a halt, but we are all sensible and stagger this.

Management tried to stop it, but one particularly militant employee took it to HR and they caved in suggesting that we should be sensible...which we did.

Of course I work 90% from home and so don't have any " breaks" per se, but I try and walk away from the computer as much as I can. The temptation to check mails during the evening is very strong especially as I work for a U.S. company and my team is based in Houston so they are well behind us and work in my evening.....I also get calls from the Indians as they start 8 hours before I do...that is a tad annoying.

 

[drew]

The same place as the results of your research to blindly refute this statement.

He didn't blindly refute the statement, he just asked for evidence from Mustafa to support his hypothesis.

 

[Diego Napier]

That's not a problem with smoke breaks though. That's a problem with him and your boss, He was what we call round here a BELL CHEESE.He should have been sacked. If his superior wasn't dealing with it then he should have gone too.

The issue here isn't that lazy bar stewards should be allowed to have as many breaks as they want, It's that you should be allowed the basic human right to be a stupid whatsit in your own time, and that people should realise that as many deals are done in "breaks" as in the office.

But what is "your own time"? Is it specific periods during the day when you can stop working that have been written into your contract? Or is it sloping off on a regular basis because it's just become the norm and anyway, the bosses won't know where I am or what I'm up to?

Your own smoking break experience has provided you with some significant personal and work opportunities however, the overwhelming number of people on a fag break are not working in IT services or in a position to benefit from an opportunity to extend their contract through social networking; they're skiving off.

 

[albion534]

i dont smoke but i think its ridiculous some of these laws around smoking are stupid

if people want to smoke let them in their breaks, as long as they are out of sight

 

[Guinness Boy]

But what is "your own time"? Is it specific periods during the day when you can stop working that have been written into your contract? Or is it sloping off on a regular basis because it's just become the norm and anyway, the bosses won't know where I am or what I'm up to?

Your own smoking break experience has provided you with some significant personal and work opportunities however, the overwhelming number of people on a fag break are not working in IT services or in a position to benefit from an opportunity to extend their contract through social networking; they're skiving off.

So no one ever goes on a break with their mate and discusses, say, a new tool they've found to help them or proposing a shift swap to help with a holiday or appointment or that they've heard redundancies might be in the offing? They just stand there skiving ALL the time, silently smoking while reading a paper? REALLY?

 

[Diego Napier]

So no one ever goes on a break with their mate and discusses, say, a new tool they've found to help them or proposing a shift swap to help with a holiday or appointment or that they've heard redundancies might be in the offing? They just stand there skiving ALL the time, silently smoking while reading a paper? REALLY?

You're splitting hairs as I stated "overwhelming" not ALL and you've managed to ignore the main point I made which is that they are defrauding their employer unless they have such social networking breaks specifically written into their contract.

I'm sure that some do as you suggest although to imagine that such opportunities are the sole preserve of fag breaks would be facile.

Your febrile imagination has also somehow managed to extrapolate "silently smoking while reading a paper" from my suggestion that they're skiving. Defrauding or skiving, it amounts to the same, the mode adopted is immaterial.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Wish us non-smokers got as many breaks as smokers at work!

Quite. Everybody just blindly accepts that smokers are allowed to skive off and socialise whenever it suits them. Need their pay docking to focus their minds a bit, either that or equal rights given to, say, drinkers. Always used to think it would be quite nice to go outside and have a can of Stella every other hour while my smoker colleagues covered for me.

 

[GT49er]

Mine is based on the fact you cannot use these devices on an aircraft as there there is no evidence that passive smoking from these devices has not been proven to be safe.
Over to you.

You've said it yourself - and I quote, "there is no evidence". I'm sure ASH will claim there is, but they think that if someone lights up a hundred miles away we'll all die of cancer........ They're not called ASH (Anti Smoking Hysteria) for nothing.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

To say nothing of all the teachers in those schools.

Well according to the NCC website the council employs 5,500 teachers plus 3,000 school support staff.

 

[BrianWade4]

This is about efficiency and productivity

10 mins a fag
10 fags a day
100 lost minutes

Yet paid the same as a non-smoker in the same role

Not fair?

 

[GT49er]

This is about efficiency and productivity

10 mins a fag
10 fags a day
100 lost minutes

Yet paid the same as a non-smoker in the same role

Not fair?

Bit of hysteria here again, I'm afraid. I know, it's what anti-smokers do - they can't help it. In the 20 - 25 years since smoking in the work place gradually became banned, I have never known any smoker to take ten fag breaks a day.

 

[dreaming spires]

I smoked from when I was 14 to when my son was born when I was a month shy of my 35th birthday. Nearly 21 years. In that time I made myself worse at every sport I played, got more coughs that I naturally should have and probably gave myself nasal polyps, resulting in 2 operations. I also met two of my best friends and my wife in the smoking room of my first company, met three invaluable work contacts on smoke breaks, had the funniest night I can remember in Dublin because I'd popped outside for a fag and did a deal that extended my timeline on a software project in Japan by two weeks because I took someone for a coffee and smoke at the right time.

My son was is now 8. I can run a half marathon fairly comfortably and have got up without coughing most mornings for about 5 years. Yet smoke breaks have been massively beneficial to my life as you can see from the above. The least people should be given is a choice.

And should non smokers also be allowed a non smokers break? Oh and sorry you forgot to add the usual drivel about more likely to be knocked down by a bus or something.
Smoking kills, as does passive smoking, the sooner it is completely banned the better.

 

[GT49er]

And should non smokers also be allowed a non smokers break? Oh and sorry you forgot to add the usual drivel about more likely to be knocked down by a bus or something.
Smoking kills, as does passive smoking, the sooner it is completely banned the better.

All workers should be allowed breaks at appropriate intervals. In those breaks, some may wish to smoke; others may huddle round talking shite and generally wittering, painting their nails, texting their mates, having a w*nk in the bogs, or whatever. The point is, the breaks are there anyway - or should be - what people do in them is called choice.

 

[BrianWade4]

Bit of hysteria here again, I'm afraid. I know, it's what anti-smokers do - they can't help it. In the 20 - 25 years since smoking in the work place gradually became banned, I have never known any smoker to take ten fag breaks a day.

Ok
5 fags a day
50 minutes
Not fair