Smoko
I just watched aca re smoke & coffee breaks & how much it’s costing the economy.
What a toss !
If companies are so concerned then why don’t they bring back the tea ladies & let people smoke at their desks ? There is such a thing as an exhaust fan.
It’s just so typical. Take everything away & when people exploit alternatives then the cost bandwagon gets into gear. 8 minutes amounts to 10 Million a day etc. on the whole.
Obviously we can afford it otherwise we’d have a lot more unemployment.
If we really want to talk cost then let’s start at the top of the pyramid.
It just needs a manager who has a little give & that business will prosper. Do it the Nazi way & you’ll get what we have now.
When will the control freaks come to their senses & realise that most people who work in repetitive & boring employment which they themselves won’t do need to get a few moments of sanity every day. A little smoke or/and coffee do that.
Yes, smoking is a health hazard for many to themselves but even more so to others are people going around the bend from too many dont's.

Regarding high costs, even the companies can't get it into their heads WHY, and they don't really care why, because the cause is really obvious to those who want to look. When the top tax is high as it was in the 1950 to 1970 period, the costs of goods and services were kept low. Since 1971, every party in power since hasn't got the intelligence - or maybe the integrity, to realise that the high tax (66.6%) was proven to fix that anomality. Harold Hold, was a one off, he spent time finding what was the suitable tax and Our people benefited from it. If our imitation of politicans had enough intelligence to revert to that 66.6% top tax and a no tax on taxable incomes of something like $25,000 or $30,000, the costs of everything - goods and services, would go down the same as those obscene incomes the CEO's of the banks are taking. The thing is to get people in parliament with integrity, intelligence and decency.

its wonderfull...how they like to control people
[and thats the real isue...absolute control]

first they pick on the smokers..next the drinkers..then those checkling their emails...or flirting during office hours
then those taking their sex break...or chatting up own sex at the watercooler..

then in time its those sitting there griping...writing to the editor about them idiotioc smokers..[im one]..then the get those giving up[former smokers..nowe on tranqil-sers...and then those with too much perfume..[they REALLY reek]

then we pick on the polititions and lawyers making ever more rules to distract us from their otherwise selfish[self service..of their party line...and the party machine-men...and the faceless control freaks..

if the true cause of cancer was known..they would ban diesal from cities...and wood-smoke..and asbestos...the three highest causes of lung cancer...[cigarette smoke is the wrong particle-size..to cause cancer...its the bigger micro/particulate that cause cancer

thats why non smokers
got the same death-rate of smokers..[re getting cancer..of lungs]

why dont we focus our health natzies on transfats..and obesity that causes diabetus...[cause a huge-tax wont work on lollies and big macs]..besides they got representatives in the party machine..[their protected]

im sick of the lies about smoking..
lets gear the truth re booze[deaths]...a contributary cause of 4 out of 5 of the highest death causes...[noting the absurdity of death..via smoking]..smoking may be a cause of a sickness..

but its the sickness...*ATTRIBUTABLE*..to smoking..that hides the lie

if its..ATTRIBUTABLE*...to smoking..then death..[from smoking]...includes all*..those*..deaths...in the numbers...attributable to it

its funny..that smokers get hated..[even when sick]..
yet fat people can get aid/assistance..
even if their gluttony was the cause of THEIR own sickness

govt has done its oppression..
to get tax income..too well...

[may they rot in hell]

If you want to smoke do it on your own time, Jacking up costs for your so called pleasure. Time is money. Malingering is a thing of the past these days every thing has a cost attached to it. Accrued time for offjob excursions should be accounted for as a loss of holiday hours. To be fair in the workplace.

Take all the smoke breaks you want, just don't b*t*h and moan when I take "me breaks" too.

Smoko & coffee too costly ?

Dam strait. I cant think why you would put something so discussing in your mouths. The cost to peoples lives ( The price of it ) and time to employers has to be a standing point not to employ time-wasters and future sick-pay days off that costs all.

Oh and the smell!

If people want to kill themselves and stink to high-heaven, do it in your time.

BLU

There is one thing I find amusing in the smoking debate.

I find that a very large percentage of those who are very anti tobacco smoking are highly pro pot smoking. The more virulent anti tobacco stance, seems to be associated with the strongest promotion of cannabis.

I wonder what interesting things may find their way into your mouth occasionally Blue? Oh & mate, that last rant leads one to believe it came from someone rather high on something at the time of writing. Just what have you been smoking, or do the fumes of the local diesel buses effect you that way?

It's not about whether one is pro or anti smoking, it is about the right for individuals to be able to work without having to breath another person's revolting second hand smoke.

Hasbeen I have never yet seen people duck out for a pot break, but many for smokos. I also disagree with your assertion that people who are against passive smoking are pot smokers. What an assertion, where is your evidence.

Why do people take this so personally without thinking about the effects on others. You have a right to smoke, but people around you also have a right not to breathe in the stuff. Exhaust fans (even the desk ones) don't work having experienced this ridiculous attempt to reduce inconvenience to others in the 80s.

Fact is people who take smoko breaks work less than those who don't for the same pay. In any other situation people would be crying out inequality. Why should business have to pay for someone's habits at work. Personally I figure if someone is addicted to nicotine (given it is a legal drug) then a quick puff outside is to nobody's disadvantage, it is only when people abuse the privilege of these breaks that causes a problem.

In the past employees were given a tea-break in the mid-morning and mid afternoon to drink tea, coffee, and have a smoke. It appears that this custom has not been favoured by employers for a variety of reasons, possibly profit could be a driving force. On the other hand,
an employer needs to weigh up the effect that the lack of assigned breaks has on their staff. If the result is that workers especially smokers, end up taking multiple breaks (outside the office) and drinkers of tea and coffee bring it to their desks - is this a better alternative?

The dangers of smoking are well known, yet many take up or continue a medically unsound cultural habit. Similarly, many decline to use car seat belts, even though the practice drastically reduces the chance of death or serious injury in an accident. Many complain about and exceed the speed limit, although it saves lives and prevents severe head injuries. Millions eat themselves into cholesterol-induced heart disease, and still encourage their children to eat junk food. Breaking people's bad habits is not going to work and should not be the responsibility of an employer. All an employer can do is focus on the type of environment that they want to provide for their staff and emphasize the individuals' responsibility for complying with the conditions of their employment.

Good thread individual.
But some, more than half try to take it other places.
Bosses know we all do the reason for the break is to have a short spell ,break the day and hopefully return to work better for it.
Coffee and smoking are part of it for some others do a lot of different things including take insulin for that illness.
Lunch we pay for by working an extra hour or half hour, smoko is free ten or twenty minutes about a fifth of what some bosses spend in long lunches.

Hasbeen.

"I wonder what interesting things may find their way into your mouth occasionally Blue?"

lol well, sometimes Johnny Walker comes over with his best mate Jimmy beam and the two can party very well. As for your smoking weed and me supporting it, now I reverse the question to you.

( Just what have you been smoking, or do the fumes of the local diesel buses effect you that way? :)

Why is it, that when someone has green connections, he/she is all of a sudden, a crazed dope smoking hippy?

I like your stile Hasbeen.....you would look great chained to a tree to save that rain forest:) But Iam afraid Iam not that type of conservationist.

I'll bet right now, you have a "FAG" hanging out of your mouth:)

I was told it was a required taste.

Smoking is just a legal DRUG its self along with alcohol. Funny How these two are the top killers on the planet. You can just see how human-beings just love and protect one n other, cant you.

BLUE

Why is it, that when someone has green connections, he/she is all of a sudden, a crazed dope smoking hippy?
Deep-Blue,
I suppose what's meant by that is, that to be a conservationist you don't need to be green. You just care. To be green means (mostly) to pretend you care but really don't stop living the consumer way. I don't see too many greens trying to reduce their carbon footprints by not flying, driving cars, using fridges & electricity etc. I would be very interested if someone could produce the values of the footprint of the Kopenhagen conference.

individual.

Even thou I don't smoke or drink coffee, is easy to see that these are some of the little luxuries that people enjoy all over the world. The same little luxuries I also enjoy with the one's you've out-lined. I mean to be a full greeny one must live in the wilderness with NO connections with any type of technology what so ever. However, understanding the importance's of keeping the environmental life supports systems in a healthy check, is by no means an object of foul thinking.

Committing on such actions is by all concepts, something all should be keeping in the fore-front of commonsense since "all" need this small blue-green planet for own survival.

So do I care? yes.

Why don't you?

The one species that I admire the most will no doubt run its course, so the burning the candles is in fact the living, and with all we know about what this mammal can do, its sometimes hard to see what a waster this animal is and the blatant disrespect of the very thing that sustains it. Its difficult to define where intelligence starts and stupidity ends.

Anyway...... enjoy your day with your Smoko & coffee:)

"I would be very interested if someone could produce the values of the footprint of the Copenhagen conference.

Indy, Iam sure what ever happens, it will be in the best interests of mankind..........and only mankind:)

Have a great day.

BLUE

Sorry blue, I don't smoke, or drink alcohol, although a bit of coffee does pass my lips.

I did smoke, if you could call it that, while I was doing my physics. In the days before computers for students, I would often have half a dozen books, & 2 or 3 cigarettes going simultaneously. Mostly they burned away unnoticed in an ashtray, the cigarettes that is, but the act of lighting them must have helped. When I stopped the heavy study at night I just stopped buying them. You could not have even called it "giving up".

I spent many years in some rather remote areas, using no more than 4,5Kg of LPG, [gas] 12 litres of petrol a month, so I've awarded myself some brownie points to spend now.

I have found the most anti tobacco people do allow themselves some little vice, & pot appears the vice of choice for them. I do object to to their holier than thou attitude, when aimed at poor people who are hooked on tobacco, a legal product.

I have also noticed that it is these same people who approve of injecting rooms, & Brisbane council buses, the latter of which I'm sure cause more lung disease than all the tobacco on earth.

I get so sick of urban greenies, with their total misunderstanding of anything but the concrete jungle. In some ways I would like to show them some of the world, but I could never stomach their misguided moralising long enough to do so.

it will be in the best interests of mankind..
Deep blue,
Yeah, but will it work ? What these statistics don't tell us is that the frivolities of the wealthy & war exercises i.e., bombing practice, big planes flying non-stop, tanks, trucks, private jets, huge private yachts, fantastic mansions, the list goes on, are the cause of global warming. Not a few million little cars tearing along. Let's have some perspective here. Who's leaving the bigger carbon footprints ? Who is costing the company or Govt Dept. more ? The CEO's & the top bureaucrats who sanction all of the aforementioned. The bloke having a smoke for ten minutes probably does more good than harm.

"Sorry blue, I don't smoke, or drink alcohol, although a bit of coffee does pass my lips."

Well good for you mate. At least you'll live longer than Indy's philosophy:)

Indy.

"The bloke having a smoke for ten minutes probably does more good than harm."

Ok, if that's what you think, I wont disagree with you.

Isn't it wonderful how people are seeing the wrongs of their ways.

BLUE

I'm with OUG and Individual.

The campaign against smokers is pure politically correct controlling drivel.

Humans since their existence have always had smoking ceremonies (for purification). It is a human trait/ritual. And since human existence, it has only been complained about for what is it now, the past 20/25 years. It is a new controlling ideology. An excuse for all the industrial pollutants so individuals with their smoking are a much easier target.

Some German scientists have confirmed from their research that smoking actually deters mental illnesses such as Dementia and Alzheimer's for a start. After hearing this in Berlin over 2 years ago, I later heard it confirmed by one of the founders of Google. This new light on smoking effects (pardon the pun) will never be exposed, will it? No chance because of the collective Controlling BullSiters.

And Individual is right, smoking is a break from work tedium (and stress). A mental health break at that.

Now they want to ban (or already have) siesta breaks which is has been proven to be beneficial to workers. It is all about corporate greed and control, and puritanism.

As for Pot smokers - why do we not hear of the effects marijuana has on mental illness such as Schizophronia. This happened to a nephew who now has to be on medication for the rest of his life. He lost his happy healthy youth. And he only smoked Pot once or twice. I gave up years ago because of what it was doing to me psychologically.

Alcohol is much more fun.

Also, many Schizophroenics smoke tobacco - because it gives temporary mental balance.

Also agree with OUG about the gluttonous fat people who dent the health system and hog space in the environment. They should take up smoking!

Yes, of course I smoke, but only rollies because of chemicals in commercial cigarettes. And am considered more or less an outcast, and people are continuously surprised and shocked when they find out that I am a smoker.

This is another BIG FAT LIE from the anti-smoking campaigners and fanatical do-gooders.

Sorry, I missed Hasbeen who I also agree with.

let's all smoke pot so the gov can earn more from us and we can be more productive, pain free and hallucinate more.

what's going to jump start my day if i don't but coffee outside for $3-5 when i can spend that and make a nicer cup at home that will last through the week/more.

cigarettes: quit if you wanna complain, don't smoke near certain buildings in QLD coz you can get a nice big fine.(why aren't there more signs for this). there are other ways to but cheaper tobacco(online).

they're all ganging up here.. carbon foot-print? yea, the planes and buses and everything is going to stop soon. Greener Fuel(natural gas) is more and more used to lower it down. Whether or not consumers decides to buy cars that are more friendly to the environment is up to who? Electrical transportation then if you care, or just walk and run. Not your problem aso. Planes are the worse, so everyone stop flying? how about making time stand still then?

don't like other people smoking and driking? look and walk the other way

Smoking doesn't kill and stink you say Constance. Iam I surprised that you smoke; not at all. You were just sucked in like the rest of the poor saps in campaigns like ANY HOW HAVE A LOOSER_FIELD and Mr hogan loved you for it.lol.

"And am considered more or less an outcast, and people are continuously surprised and shocked when they find out that I am a smoker."

Yes and YES. Just light up another one while you watch this.

http://tinyurl.com/2dsr57b

Look! Be a drain on the health system..... and give it to fat people!lol...like they haven't got enough problems:)

http://tinyurl.com/2euetgk well give the fat kid a pack too Cono.

http://tinyurl.com/245swmw

But hey! If you want to stink and smell, plus throw 1000,s away each year....well go for it.

As Cono said...........its good for you "with benefits.

Oh dear.

BLUE

B,

Predictably, another fanatical wet blanket who close their ears to something that could really rock their very powerful campaign.

Thanks for your unconstructive thoughts. I know this positive light on smoking must have been too tough for you.

It's funny, I've never been told that I stink - in fact, when anyone has commented on my smell, it has always been complementary.

I know Hoges didn't inspire me; I think it was more innate than any cigarette advertising. Have never been the impressionable kind. And I don't consider myself a loser. I enjoy the stuff.

B,

Predictably, another fanatical wet blanket who close their ears to something that could really rock their very powerful campaign.

Thanks for your unconstructive thoughts. I know this positive light on smoking must have been too tough for you and beyond your imagination.

It's funny, I've never been told that I stink - in fact, when anyone has commented on my smell, it has always been complementary.

I know Hoges didn't inspire me; I think it was more innate than any cigarette advertising. Have never been the impressionable kind. And I don't consider myself a loser. I enjoy the stuff.

As an ex-smoker, I find myself strongly aligned with Constance on the topic of smoking. The holier-than-thou attitude that Hasbeen mentioned, that seems to be the natural stance for a particular breed of person, grates on me like nails down a blackboard.

[sidebar: any thoughts on how to update that simile for the computer generation?]

The aggression shown by this breed is out of all proportion to the "sin". Through taxation, smokers are net positive in the health equation, both by providing over $6 billion p.a. to general revenue, and by "leaving the system" at an earlier age. The pollution they cause is minuscule, compared to the amount of other evil stuff in the atmosphere - I'd be more impressed by that argument if non-smokers also refused to drive cars.

I do agree with the ban on aeroplanes, though. That's simple courtesy. But pretending that smokers are by definition society's pariahs is simply the worst form of nanny-ism.

And hey, the smoko and coffee breaks were never about "malingering", as 579 calls it, always about the improved productivity that regular short breaks provide. Even in sweat-shop call centres, management knows that they can't get the best out of people without the safety-valve of planned sanity breaks.

Pericles:"any thoughts on how to update that simile for the computer generation?"

Feedback through your headphones
A slow connection
The blue screen of death
Running out of credit at i-Store
Too much lag
People using "aimbots"
etc, etc, etc

Or so observation of my children would suggest

BTW, as an ex-smoker, I also dislike the Mother Grundys.