Company demands workers give up smoking to keep jobs

The difference between cracking down on diets of overweight people and smoking is that smoking is a choice. People choose to smoke. Many times, people do not choose to be overweight. They could have a slow metabolism, for example, or a genetic predisposition to be fat. Smoke-related issues are purely voluntary, self-inflicted problems.

 

Congratulations!

 

so now bosses aren't allowed to hire the person that they want for the job...oh wait, they haven't been able to for over 10 years.

 

Quitter.

 

Thanks Manny! A pack a day for 23 years was enough.

 

Smoking can be harmful to the health of people around you. Eating a bad diet cannot.

 

I know, I know!

But with the money I saved I can pay four months of my mortgage a year!

 

Quitters never win, mark.

 

Alright! That's it! I'm going to buy a pack of smokes...

 

I really don't see why this is that big of a deal. If a company is having to pay for health care then shouldn't they be able to make some requirements for their workers? Most athletes have a clause about dangerous activities e.g. motorcycle riding, pickup basketball, etc. If smoking means that a company will probably have to pay a lot more for an employee's health care, why should they have to put up with that? How is an employee driving up healthcare costs through smoking any different than botching a sale? They both cost the company money. I don't feel really strongly either way, but I can't see how this is that big of an issue. Obviously there's an issue of "where you draw the line," but that doesn't seem to be a huge issue.

 

One of us.... one of us....

 

this would definitely be fair. i shouldn't have to pay a higher premium b/c of someone else's habits.

 

Seems like it would be much easier (and more ethical) for the company to simply say they won't pay healthcare costs for workers who smoke. Solves their cost problems and doesn't get them nearly the bad publicity.

 

Just funnin, mark. Anyway, you're not one of us. Didn't you smoke Marlboro Lights or Camel Lights or some other girl cigarette? And a pack a day? Bill Hicks woulda had something to say about that. Oh wait, he did:

BH: How much do you smoke a day, dude?

Audience member: Pack and a half.

BH: Pack and a half? You little puss. Why don't you put on a dress and swish around for us. "Pack and a haaaaalf... I smoke a pack and a haaaaalf...." You make me ill, dude. I go through two lighters a day. And I'm starting to feel it too...

 

All of this goes away with a national healthcare program.

DD

 

BINGO!!!

 

For me it's 10+ years without smoking after 10 years of 1 pack a day on average.

It feels good to be a quitter.

I find it hard to believe you can be a vegan but can't rid yourself of tobacco craving. Come on Batman, you can do it.

 

Good on you. Ten years is a long time. Of course, you did only smoke a pack (see: Bill Hicks quote above). Congrats anyway.

I get this vegan smoker thing all the time and I really don't understand it. I'm not vegan for my health. I'm vegan because I think it's grotesque to eat dead animals. I don't have the same issues with smoking dead plants.

And yes, I probably could do it but first I'd have to want to.

 

Well I guess you misunderstood me. There is no suggestion whatsoever on which way of "consumption" is more ethical. Personally I think it takes a lot more resolve and determination to be a vegan than to quit smoking for good. Besides improving your own well-being (I bet you know all the bad things about smoking), let's just say by quitting smoking you are in a better position to show your [political] opponents you have what it takes to get things done, or to convince people with questionable minds on something most important in your belief.

 

That seems like kind of a dumb reason to quit smoking. I have what is known in the politics game as "the courage of my convictions." You and mc mark are flip floppers.

Also, it didn't take any resolve or determination to become vegan; it only took realizing what I had been eating and wanting to barf for a year.