Extra Vacation Time for Non-Smokers? [POLL]

Take a look around you at work today, and point out the smokers. Now think about how much time they spend taking smoke breaks. Think it's a little unfair since you're a non-smoker?

I'll be honest with you, I was a smoker many years ago, and you can bet every couple hours I'd spend 5-10 minutes outside in the brutal Minnesota cold winter puffing on a heater (cigarette). I not only quit because I hated standing in the cold weather looking like a fool getting my smoke fix in, but also because I hated how smoking made me feel every morning I woke up.

If you take an average 8-hour work day with a smoke break every 2-hours for 10-minutes, that's 40 minutes a day additional time that non-smokers aren't getting the luxury of taking -- just because they don't smoke!

Halo Cigs published an article recently called "Trading in smoke breaks" and it's got a very interesting take on the subject. They found that smoke breaks total about 6 full work days a year. A company in Japan actually turned a complaint from a non-smoker into a benefit, by giving non-smokers an extra week of paid vacation to equal time smokers get for their smoke breaks. So Halo Cigs surveyed over 1,000 people to see if they feel this should be done here in the U.S., and here's the results of the poll:

Non-Smokers:
80% would like an extra day or two off in trade for not smoking.
14% want a FULL week off.

Smokers:
62% think non-smokers should get an extra day or two.
16% think non-smokers should get a FULL week off.

I guess smokers are more compassionate for those who don't have their bad habit! I'm not sure how many employers around central Minnesota are this loose with their smoking employees, allowing them to take enough paid time during the day to take this many smoke breaks, but I'm sure there's a few of them.

We want to take our own local poll on this, to see how many St. Cloud area employees feel non-smokers should get some extra paid time off for not taking smoke breaks. We want to hear from both smokers AND non-smokers, so let us know and we'll post the results shortly.