Posted on 02/22/2013 8:25:37 PM PST by FreedomStar3028
So I go in for an interview, everything is going good. It was for an IT help desk in an office. The interviewer asks me a lot of questions, and asks do you smoke? I said yes. She immediately says, I can't give you the job then.
This is in Oregon. I looked up laws and there is a statute where companies cannot use smoking as a consideration when hiring, they can only ban smoking at work. Any advice would be great. Thanks!
Ooops, almost forgot. Long time Lurker, looking to meet some new FRiends.
Except insurance companies are prohibited from having higher rates for women in child bearing years. They do, however, have higher rates for smokers. Not bogus, I have seen the numbers from HR.
That makes absolutely no sense and doesn’t even pertain to my comment. My comment was the fact that insurance companies charge higher premiums for smokers. That is an increased expense on the employer. It is the employers free choice to hire who they wish including one who will be more financially viable for them in the long run.
If I had one position, 10 applicants, and one was a man dressed like a woman, are you saying that I have no discretion in California regarding hiring the best qualified? That I must hire the cross-dresser whether best qualified or not out of the 10?
In that case, I guess all will show up cross-dressed, because that's a crazy rule.
You certainly have “discretion” to hire the most qualified person but if you don’t hire the cross dresser and you hire a normal Heterosexual white guy, then the cross dresser will probably sue you for discrimination and then you will have to prove that the guy you hired was more qualified. Good luck with that.
I spent a little time at a nursing home Thursday, just visiting with the residents. A man, about 60 years old had a device over his nose and mouth and steam was leaking out of it. He took it off to visit with me and I asked him what the device was for. He said he had smoked for 40 years and this was to help clear congestion from his lungs so he didn’t die. He has to use it 3 times every day or he will choke to death. He begged me to talk to every young smoker I know and ask them not to smoke so they don’t end up an invalid like him.
“Give up Smoking.”
Worked for me. And easier than you think.
I’ll top that with another story. I used to work in respiratory therapy in a surgical ICU and took care of many patients on ventilators post-surgery and weaning them off the device to where they could breathe unassisted and go home.
We had a gentleman come from the nursing home, who due to smoking all his life was on a ventilator permanently, hooked to a tracheostomy in his throat. When he was stable, the nurses in the home could monitor him but when he began to worsen he would be shuttled to the hospital for extra care.
When a ventilator becomes unhooked or a line becomes blocked one or more alarms go off, and regularly alarms would come from his room. By the time I walked in, the alarms would stop, and I would find everything in order. Then a following night I found out the source of the alarms. I came into the ICU with the alarms going off in his room, and entered to find the man had removed the machine that was breathing for him, and had retrieved a secret stash of cigarettes, and was in the act of lighting and smoking one by sticking it into the tracheostomy hole in his throat.
The nurses called him the Marlboro Man.
I’ll try to think a little bit, assuming I’m even capable of that. Meanwhile, you should go sue the bastards.
Do you have the right to refuse to work for a company allows smoking? Do you have the right to quit your job if your boss who smokes is promoted and replaced by a non-smoker, or a beer drinker, or enjoys canoing on the weekends? Or should the law protect your employer by requiring you to continue to work for that employer because of your value to the company?
It seems that employees want employers to relinquish some of their property rights in the companies they own while employees remain free to work for whomever they wish.
I say let the market control.
you can be sarcastic, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to hire people. and they were stupid about it, and stupid has consequences. hopefully they learn from it.
i doubt you’d be rallying to the company’s defense if the gal asked the guy his age, and then said “oh, you’re too old, I can’t hire you”. a smarter company would simply find a different reason not to hire someone, and you know it happens all the time, and nothing bad comes of it.
you don’t reward stupid. not everyone learns stuff the same way, or the easy way.
and before saying the guy should have said no to being a smoker, he probably smells like smoke, at least his hands, and it’s in his clothes, and if the company insurance plan takes a blood sample nicotine is in his blood and hair, so they’d fire him for that. not smart.
“The statute explicitly says employers cannot punish employees for smoking off the job. “
And the fact of the matter is that at this moment, you are not an employee of the company. Therefore, the company is not breaking the law.
“The statute explicitly says employers cannot punish employees for smoking off the job. “
And the fact of the matter is that at this moment, you are not an employee of the company. Therefore, the company is not breaking the law.
I quit smoking in 1990. It wasn’t easy, but it was definitely worth it. Smoking comes with some shackles and chains, especially if you’re addicted to it.
Words you don’t want to hear: Quit smoking its bad for your health.
Employers choice. So?
Actually, I would. It is the employers job to give and they should be able to choose their employees for whatever reasons they may have. Similarly the employee is free to choose to work or not to work for an employer for whatever reason HE may choose.
I agree completely. The poster did not ask for advice on smoking... or not.
and if they say we can’t hire you, you’re black? or you’re white, we don’t hire white people.
that’s a swell way to live. let’s go back to separate entrances for different races, and drink from different bubblers. maybe segregated troops again.
i’m not for pc bullcrap, but i sure as hell ain’t for institutional support for allowing people to continue to inflict their bigotry on those who don’t share whatever flavor of it they happen to have, either.
I have never had an open position last more than 2 days. Usually have a waiting list of people who want to work.
I have never lost a man I want to keep.
I have fired people. The big issues are disrespect, spreading dissent behind my back, drinking and drugging on the job. The root causes of these issues are drinking and drugs. I do demand that smokers police their own butts. So far, the ones who think that butts all over the place is OK are heavy drinkers and druggers. If they are exceptionally skilled they might last to the end of a particular job. Otherwise they are on their way within a week.
I talk to the crew occasionally and they all understand that if the entire enterprise is not profitable, there are no jobs for anyone. They also understand that there are two costs for every worker. The cost of their salary, and the cost of managing and supervising them. If it takes too much time to manage and supervise a worker, then he is not worth having. Good employees might not have thought of this on their own, but they sure understand it when the concept is explained.
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