MARISSA BURR
Opinion Editor
We’ve all had managers who pretend that labor laws don’t exist.
Whether your employer follows labor laws or not, lunch breaks on shifts of six hours or more are required. In addition, any rest break under 20 minutes taken by an employee is required to be compensated. This includes going to the bathroom, getting a drink of water, taking a phone call and for many, going outside and smoking.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 23.8 million adults smoke cigarettes, and that amount increases when adding in those who use e-cigarettes and other similar products. Compare that to the number of people who are required to work in order to keep every business functioning, and the likelihood of there always being employees that need to take “smoke breaks” increases.
In my experience in food service, retail, restaurant work and other odd jobs, at least a quarter of my coworkers will need to take time away from their duties in order to smoke or hit their vapes.
When working with them for more than a couple of hours, there’s usually a noticeable difference in their mood before and after they’ve smoked. It could be boiled down to them just needing a mental reprieve from the stresses of the job. I absolutely get that, it’s something I need too. But both the length of their “break” and the stark difference in demeanor lead one to realize the true effect that nicotine has on them. It’s disturbing.
Maybe it’s because I don’t use substances that I am not more sympathetic to the issue, and for that I’m sorry. Yet, I’m not advocating for the elimination of this break time. I just want equity. If I were to take a bathroom break every hour for ten minutes and be forced to leave no matter how slammed we were with business, people would start to be concerned. Doing this isn’t prohibited, as it’s built into my 20 minute paid rest break that I get during a shift. But, this time could add up pretty quickly. I have been told at jobs before that I cannot go to the bathroom at a certain time because we’re too busy. I’ve also been told numerous times that sitting down for five minutes is unnecessary and I therefore shouldn’t do it.
In my opinion, what is unnecessary is feeding into an addiction ten times during a shift and getting paid to do so.
There’s a double standard happening here.
Basic break tasks like eating snacks, going to the bathroom, checking your phone and sitting down are normal and totally harmless. Smoking and vaping are not.
When smoking becomes welcome in the workplace, standards drop. It starts happening inside instead of just out back. The walk-in freezers can become hot boxes. Then people will come in reeking of tobacco, weed or artificial cotton candy.
If I know what they were doing based on their scent, so can customers. Therefore, they’ll think it’s acceptable in the restaurant. I have seen patrons pull out their vape pens at their table next to a family with an infant, and they don’t see anything wrong with that. What kind of standard are we setting?
So what am I calling for? Prohibit smoking and all other substance abuse in the workplace. Now, people will say, “it’s an addiction,” and yes, that’s true. So is alcoholism, yet people aren’t allowed shooters in the office or outside. It impairs your work ability, as do other drugs. This can be seen by the growing frustration and irritability of users when they can’t have a smoke break for a while. It makes them hard to work with.
If using substances becomes illegal while clocked in at work, people can still do it when on their paid lunch break and not be breaking company policy. If they’re not clocked in, it’s not a corporation’s problem.
And hopefully by eliminating the acceptance of this addiction and making people aware that they cannot feed it while working, it will encourage quitting it entirely. If you can’t go four hours without your vape, you won’t be able to get a job that pays well enough to support that habit anyway.
I know it’s a touchy subject, and my lack of compassion does not come from a lack of understanding. My family and friends have been scarred by addiction, and it led to a lower quality of life overall.
This should not have to happen, and as a society we should be encouraging the elimination of our reliance on these products. So no more job orientation speeches that say, “As long as you’re not taking a smoke break every five minutes, it’s fine.” It isn’t, and it needs to end.