Refused a job because I smoke....

PasturesNew

toofy wrote: »

Remove the word "smoker" and insert any other (less emotive) term - then tell me it's right to discriminate in this way. It's so wrong.

Yes, what about not employing fat people because they don't move as fast - and they sweat/smell if the office is hot or it's summer. They also spend more time snacking, buying snacks, unwrapping snacks, disposing of snacks, looking around for new snacks that others might be discarding.


Your theory does work!

hamstercheeks_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes, what about not employing fat people because they don't move as fast - and they sweat/smell if the office is hot or it's summer. They also spend more time snacking, buying snacks, unwrapping snacks, disposing of snacks, looking around for new snacks that others might be discarding.


Your theory does work!

couldn't have put it better meself!!

Loopy_Girl

hamstercheeks wrote: »

we all have our addictions. Mine happens to be my boys, shopping, and cigarettes.
and of course MSE

OOOOHHHH....me too!!!!!!!!!!!!

esuhl

hamstercheeks wrote: »

LOL we (smokers) also fund the nhs too!!

that's untrue i know of a smoker who has smoked since he was 14 and is 86 -my friend;s grandpa

yet another urban myth quashed

You know someone who's smoked their whole adult life and is still alive at 86? Wow. Yep - you're absolutely right: that single piece of irrefutable evidence certainly "quashes" the urban myth that smoking is bad for your health.

amandada

I can't think of a better incentive to give up smoking!!!


I work with a lot of smokers, and no matter how much they try to cover it up, they still stink!

bikerqueen

the problem with any addiction is that it has a hold on you, you don't want to give it up as it's too hard to contemplate.

It's also the only commercially available product that, if you use it AS INTENDED, it has a 50% chance of killing you.

good luck with the job hunt.

margaretclare

esuhl wrote: »

You know someone who's smoked their whole adult life and is still alive at 86? Wow. Yep - you're absolutely right: that single piece of irrefutable evidence certainly "quashes" the urban myth that smoking is bad for your health.

That is one person.

I could tell you about people who smoked and did not survive long enough to collect their retirement pension. My father, who died age 57 of lung cancer. My late first husband - heart disease. Several people I know who've had limb amputations because of smoking. A friend of ours recently diagnosed with lung cancer - we didn't even think that he smokes, but he does - cigars. As for Roy Castle, he publicised the fact that, although a non-smoker, he played the trumpet in pubs which necessitated inhaling other people's smoke.

It's a mystery to me why anyone would smoke, given that there has been a huge amount of scientific research over the last half-century - not urban myth! - detailing the effects of smoking. In WW1 and WW2 they had their reasons for smoking, but the effects had not yet been studied. It's costly, money could be put to much better use, and that's without all the other disadvantages. It is addictive but also, it is possible to stop.

It's possible that the employer in question did not want the front of the premises messed up by fag-ends which someone would have to sweep up, which is what happens at every other building where people smoke outside - even hospitals!

liney

You can call me petty if you like, but as it happens i have pointed out that someone i work with spends around an hour a day outside smoking. 4 ciggie breaks a day, walking to the other side of the car park and back takes him from 12 to 18 mins a time (yes i timed him over a day). This is 5 hours a week, which is more than 20 hours a month, which means effectively he does a whole weeks less work that the rest of us every 2 months. An additional 6 1/2 weeks off a year! When you put it like that it's not such a small thing is it?

Apparently it will be sorted in the New Year; i assume with a policy stating maximum cigerette breaks, but we shall see. I actually suggested that non smokers should be entitled to extra holidays throughout the year as we are being short changed. It might also encourage smokers not to smoke in work's time with the incentive, meaning overall the company gets more time. Can't see that happening though.

jumpycheese1

I find it totally disgusting when staff smoke outside the entrance to their workplace. There is a call centre in Leeds near a shopping centre. There are always at least 20 smokers huddling the entrance. So when their non-smoking colleagues start work, or return after lunch, they have to breathe through the tunnel of smoke. One of my friends' mother works in the admin dept. She reckons the smoke outside is worse than pubs in the 1960s

hayley11

I completely agree jumpy cheese, I used to work in a call centre and it was just the same. They weren't even supposed to smoke near the doors but they did anyway.

I read this thread yesterday but I was so disgusted with the OP's comment about smokers being handicapped that I couldn't be bothered replying.