Smoking Breaks At Work

[AliFlump]

Hi. As far as I can tell there is no legal requirement for an employer to allow smoking breaks. As a non smoker in an office of non smokers it's not an issue. However a new employee who smokes has started and goes for one every hour. We feel this is unfair as we have our one hour lunch with no other breaks while the smoker gets their one hour lunch and 5-10 mins every hour to go outside and smoke. We are going to raise this to HR. Anyone else had experience of this? Thanks

[craft1948]

When I worked in a customer based office environment with BT we all had approximately 10,000 customers each, as long as all their work was done I couldn't give a monkey's if my colleagues disappeared during the working day...

[hc4361]

If a person is paid to answer the phone during working hours, they should be available to do so. An unanswered phone reflects badly on the company and expecting colleagues to take your phone calls is taking the pee.

It's not the same as being on piece work where you can go home after you've processed 1500 widgets.

[Mamyalynne]

I shared a workspace with a girl once , I smoked and she didn't - I would occasionally nip out fora few sneaky puffs.

She on the other hand would take her phone off the hook for as long as half an hour to paint her nails, I never felt guilty.


If the cigarette breaks are causing a backlog of work then I agree they are out of order.

[gingejbee]

Look at it another way...if this new person didn't smoke, but turned up every day 35 minutes late, would that still be OK?

[andy-hughes]

If you work at a PC, you are entitled to a DSE (Display Screen Equipment) break for ten minutes in every hour.

That is European employment law - so if you are a PC worker, you can start taking those - should even up the balance a little.

[Prudie]

Yes hc, I drink tea and chat as does everyone else but some smokers take the pee and some non-smokers take the pee too. I am not one of those - it's plain this is an emotive topic that cannot have a blanket solution.

[gingejbee]

Ah....life's SO much easier when there's no work involved!

[hc4361]

andy, you should take a break from looking at the screen but that doesn't necessarily mean a break from work.

[hc4361]

Andy, just found this:
Timing and length of changes in activity or breaks for DSE use is not set down in law and arrangements will vary depending on a particular situation.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg36.pdf

[andy-hughes]

Thanks hc - I was quoting the rule here where I work, which is BT.

[hc4361]

That's probably BT policy rather than law. :)

[vulcan42]

If my ex boss discovered somebody had time to take a smoking or any break apart from toilet he would say s/he hasn't enough to do and give them more work.

[craft1948]

^ but why if they're getting through as much work as the non-smokers?

[Svejk]

You should be flat out working all day anyway, not mithering about what other people do. If this person didn't have 'fag breaks' are you saying you'd have more time to do nothing?

[vulcan42]

Ah, craft, you're bringing logic into the argument, the ex boss wasn't into logic. He wouldn't compare the amount of work being done, he would just see that person has time for an extra break so therefore gave them more work. He also announced one day that overtime wouldn't be paid as if you had to work overtime you weren't working hard enough during the day. I hardly need to add he couldn't keep his staff and eventually went out of business

[hc4361]

craft, if somebody else has to answer the absent smoker's phone and deal with the query then the smoker is not doing his quota of work. Somebody else is having to do it during the fag breaks.

[gingejbee]

craft is choosing to ignore the fact that people are paid for the TIME they put in!

[hc4361]

I can't think of any other personal habit that a person is allowed to pursue during the working day. Candy Crush addict?

[Gizmonster]

Maybe you should all consider taking up smoking ??
Take your e-cigarettes (filled with some kind of neutral fluid of course) and go and join your new employee.
Your boss isn't to know that you're not really smoking .... I wonder what he'll think of that ??