Are smoking breaks fair?
In the UK, 15% of adults smoke cigarettes and 6% use e-cigarettes. One in four employees in manufacturing is a smoker. Type ‘smokers more breaks’ into Google and you would be barraged with angry employees complaining about their smoking colleagues.
Working less?
Breaks in the workplace are often a time when colleagues catch up, whether it be by the coffee machine or in the smoking shelter. We’ve conducted a survey, and it has identified this as a problem. The survey showed that smoking breaks can ‘take quite a long time as big groups tend to go out together’, which suggests that these occasions are regarded by non-smokers as extra socialisation and not a quick trip for a cigarette.
This perception and feelings contribute to a recent story that hit the BBC headlines, of a company who awarded their non-smoking employees 4 days extra annual leave per year. They also promised these incrementally for those who do smoke to encourage smokers to smoke less whilst at work and earn an extra day’s annual leave for every quarter of the year.
An alternative
In our survey, we found that many were indifferent to smoking breaks because they also took breaks for coffees, bathroom break etc. One responder stated that they ‘don't really care as long as the person works as hard as non-smokers’. Time and time again, the anti-smoking break argument boils down to non-smokers feeling they are working harder than their colleagues who smoke. This is a common workplace grumble, but perhaps the issue at hand is the policy around breaks. Another participant suggested that when they ‘first started working in a conventional workplace, a statutory 15-minute break was in place every four hours. But [now] people work longer hours with fewer breaks’.
Interestingly, maybe this respondent points to a wider issue at hand: the transformation of the working day. It is no surprise that in the UK, around 12.8 million working days are lost due to work-related stress, accounting for around 54% of total sick days used per year, and it’s on the rise at around 4% increase a year.
Productivity killer?
Another respondent to our survey added that they took around 45 minutes a day in smoking breaks and stated that if ‘you work hard and achieve your goals then it shouldn’t be a problem’. This coincides with a number of non-smokers who said it was ‘good to have a level of trust’ and that ‘no one takes advantage of the freedom they have’. A change in attitude towards regular breaks- for smoking or otherwise- at work could be what is needed to reduce workplace stress and to make employees happier. Studies have shown that productive work would have 12% of its day dedicated to breaks, which would equate to 54 minutes for an 8-hour day or 84 minutes for a 12-hour shift. For both, this equates to around a 7-minute break every hour.
The solution? There will always be discontent if a workplace appears to be giving more breaks out to those who choose to go for a cigarette break, and that will only change if the workplace ethos changes. It’s not just the atmosphere that’ll improve; but more frequent breaks are proven to reduce the risk of workplace accidents happening and increase staff morale. Therefore, rather than rewarding colleagues who don’t smoke in the office – and therefore potentially alienating those who do – perhaps it should be a matter of addressing the structure of the working day to ensure that regular breaks are in place for everyone to keep employees happy, motivated, and safer.
