This Burns Me Up!

[serephmoon]

This morning I was watching the Today show. They were having an interview with a representative of a company in Michigan called Weyco. They have put in place a rule that affects anyone who smokes cigarettes. What got under my collar was the fact that they can fire you for smoking at home, on vacation, anywhere. WHAT!!! Are we living in a land where

Comments

[boyplankton]

According to everything I've read, nobody at the company has been fired because of this policy. 1 person quit before the policy went into effect. 4 people quit when they were told that they had to submit to the test or resign.

As far as I can tell, the official policy is that employees have to either pay $50 a month extra, or attend classes to help them quit smoking. The company has also begun testing prospective employees and refuses to hire anyone who tests positive.

The company is using rising health care costs as an excuse to implement this policy. However, I'm willing to bet that the real reason is that smoker's are less productive employees. They take frequent extended breaks. Alot of non-smokers have a hard time working with smokers because of the smell. There are a few other reasons as well ...

[seleniumdream]

If they're going to cite health care costs, they should place tracking devices on employees to see how often they visit McDonald's and other fast food joints. I'd be willing to guess that these have a far greater impact on the cost of health care than the scape goat, cigarettes, are made out to cost.

[boyplankton]

Please ... a more reasonable one would be if the company were to begin doing quarterly bloodwork on their employees making certain that all their chemistry is in line. If they did that, and the insurance companies offered a discount to the company for enforcing that policy, I wouldn't have a problem with it.