Council to ban cigarette breaks.

"A council has voted to ban its staff from taking cigarette breaks. Workers at West Lancashire District Council will be stopped from taking "fag breaks" during the working day."

Some of my colleagues smoke and I've no objection to them smoking during their tea breaks and lunch time, in fact if they had a couple more a day it wouldn't bother me. However, some of my colleagues go for a cigarette almost every 20 minutes, and I think that's a bit excessive. I'm left answering the phones.

How often do you think smokers should be allowed to go during a working day?

judging by the number of scruffy traffic wardens at the back of my building, as often as they bloody well like.

n.b. Park anywhere you like in Manny City Centre b/n 12noon and 2pm.

I think its fair enough. The people who dont smoke aren't allowed 10 minutes to pop off for a chocolate fix or a line of jean-luca. If you work out even one ciggie an hour thats roughly 45 mins a day,over a month its about what,3 days work?

I allow my admin thing 1 in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Uncle Liam wrote: I allow my admin thing 1 in the morning and one in the afternoon.

You 'allow'? Oh er,get you fancy pants..

I agree, they do take advantage. I'm self-employed,( a non-smoker) and if I'm on 'day rate' I do as others do,breaks etc, but always miss out on the 'fag break' ..... until I took a packet od sweet cigarettes and joined them

well they are there to work. it doesn't bother me as long as they more or less take the same abount of breaks as the rest of us.

i'd probably disappear to take a smoke break and never come back to the job if i hated it. get about four or five more hours of pay.....

When I started working, there used to be the concept of tea/coffee breaks - one in the morning and one in the afternoon... There was also a concept of a lunch break that lasted an hour... There also used to be the concept of only working about 7.5 hours a day...

Now, with the tea breaks eroding into a walk to the coffee machine and then back to your desk, and lunch breaks eroding into eating your sandwich at your desk, and the working week expanding into stupid hours, I don't feel at all bad for going out on cigarette breaks during the day...

My only issue is that non-smokers don't get a similar length break. Why should smokers get an extra break to give themselves cancer?

Kevin Smith wrote: My only issue is that non-smokers don't get a similar length break. Why should smokers get an extra break to give themselves cancer?

And who's fault is that?

Just take a break - get a coffee, go outside for 5 minutes, come back to your desk feeling refreshed - simple... You don't need to light-up for a break... :)

Nick King wrote:

Kevin Smith wrote: My only issue is that non-smokers don't get a similar length break. Why should smokers get an extra break to give themselves cancer?

And who's fault is that?

Frankly, I think it is a disgrace.

Shug wrote: Funnily enough Nick....

I am smoking a fag to try and forget about this ludicrous news.

I go for a fag break every hour, but I make sure I take less time for my proper breaks throughout the day

Nobody say anything else, until I go and get my cigarettes. I need to ponder on this....................can't concentrate without one.

Disgusting habit.

Shug wrote: Funnily enough Nick....

I am smoking a fag to try and forget about this ludicrous news.

I go for a fag break every hour, but I make sure I take less time for my proper breaks throughout the day

Yup, as I say, I can't remember the last time when I've taken the full hour for lunch, and most of that is sitting down on my desk eating a sandwich that I bought from the trolley...

Of course, with my job, I don't need to be manning the desk/phone, or indeed doing a job that a lot of other people do simultaneously, so I'm not disrupting anybody else by going outside for a smoke...

If you're in a job working in a call centre (which I used to do 10-odd years ago), obviously you can't just go outside when you feel like it!

Kath wrote:

Shug wrote: Funnily enough Nick....

I am smoking a fag to try and forget about this ludicrous news.

I go for a fag break every hour, but I make sure I take less time for my proper breaks throughout the day

Nobody say anything else, until I go and get my cigarettes. I need to ponder on this....................can't concentrate without one.

Disgusting habit.

Back shortly, just going for a cigarette, and, yes, I'm still doing work now...

Joking apart, I would say approximately 70 p/c of our staff smoke; because of the very nature of the job, you might go an hour, you might go 6; without the time for a cigarette. I have no problem with it (yes OK I smoke), but no one else are/is a non smoker has a problem with it either.

If they do; tough - there's a job centre just along the road.

Nick King wrote:

Kath wrote:

Shug wrote: Funnily enough Nick....

I am smoking a fag to try and forget about this ludicrous news.

I go for a fag break every hour, but I make sure I take less time for my proper breaks throughout the day

Nobody say anything else, until I go and get my cigarettes. I need to ponder on this....................can't concentrate without one.

Disgusting habit.

Back shortly, just going for a cigarette, and, yes, I'm still doing work now...

Me too! (In theory!)

We still smoke on the job in Mordor. Though there is a clampdown in the baitroom where it's been flouted for years,which is fair enough where people are having their bait..

Boatraceface wrote: We still smoke on the job in Mordor. Though there is a clampdown in the baitroom where it's been flouted for years,which is fair enough where people are having their bait..

When I was in the maternity unit in the hospital when I had my daughter (1990); there was a smoking roomon the ward - just along the corridor.........3 years later when I had my Son, the smoking room had gone. However there was a sign to say..........there is only '1 smoking room in this hospital' follow the corridor to A&E and take a left turn..........

Do you think that was a cryptic message??????

People tell me that I'm a wanker. If I got a job at West Lancashire Council would I be allowed 10 minutes every hour or so to go and loosen my load ?

Cheers

When I've worked at jobs with "smoking breaks" the whole job would revolve around getting these smokers smoke breaks every hour if possible while the non-smokers worked. If you give the smokers a chance to smoke they will smoke as much as possible, whether it is every 3 hours or every 2 hours or every hour or every 45 minutes or every half hour or every 15 minutes or every 10 minutes... you have to draw the line somewhere or smokers will do nothing but smoke half the time and if you can't go a reasonable time without smoking, that is your problem not your co-workers or employers.

SiLeakHunt wrote: People tell me that I'm a wanker. If I got a job at West Lancashire Council would I be allowed 10 minutes every hour or so to go and loosen my load ?

Cheers

Up to you...

Cheers

Nick King wrote:

Kevin Smith wrote: My only issue is that non-smokers don't get a similar length break. Why should smokers get an extra break to give themselves cancer?

And who's fault is that?

Just take a break - get a coffee, go outside for 5 minutes, come back to your desk feeling refreshed - simple... You don't need to light-up for a break... :)

Where I used to work, we weren't allowed to take a 5 minute break unless you were having a fag break. My boss knew I didn't smoke so I was even timed on how long I took to have a piss or take a dump. If I had to take some documents to the other buildings, I was given the Spanish inquisition if I took a minute longer than she envisaged it should take. But if I smoked, I could take as long as I liked.

I once took a fucking huge cigar into work and told her that if she pissed me off that day, then I was going to stand outside and smoke it until it was finished, which would take at least an hour.

So why do smokers get treated more favorably than non-smokers? And why are Barclays Bank such a bunch of wankers?

Kevin Smith wrote:

So why do smokers get treated more favorably than non-smokers?

Only a non-smoker would ask that! Smokers think they get the rough end of the stick, especially these days. I wouldn't want to be a smoker in Scotland, or Ireland. Or anywhere for that matter, drunken lapses excluded!

If smokers deserve smoke breaks to help them relax why not have porn/masturbation breaks every hour for everybody else to help everybody relieve the tension... could do it out back in the alley just like the smokers

Kevin Smith wrote: And why are Barclays Bank such a bunch of wankers?

You mean you actually have to ask that question!

The first 'proper' hotel I worked in (guests)complained about the smell of smoke in the toilets.................so the management, found a little poxy room for the smokers (staff) to use. Problem was, we all came out smelling of smoke..................we were assigned to a shelter outside. You know, if you want a cigarette that badly...............you'll go outside and suck a mint afterwards. Such is life.