Especially when said employee's are "off duty."
Posted on 02/06/2005 3:44:20 AM PST by MisterRepublican
In last year's remake of the 1970s classic science fiction file, "The Stepford Wives," a group of techno-weirdos set out to transform imperfect women into perfect wives. Of course, the plan fails because of... well, a lot of reasons.
But the point is, the world remains as full of weirdos today seeking to create the perfect person as when Pygmalion tried many centuries ago. Now, the "Stepford Search" has come to corporate America.
Weyco Inc., a Michigan company, has decided to fire any employee who smokes. Not just any employee who smokes on the job. Any employee who smokes anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Why? To help the employees make healthful life choices and become better persons; to help the employees "manage their health care."
How does the company ensure its employees remain truly and permanently "smoke free?" Mandatory "drug" tests. If traces of the "devil weed" tobacco are found, the hapless employee who thought he or she lived in a free country — one in which a citizen could practice such horrible habits as lighting up a cigarette or cigar in the "privacy" of his or her home — is summarily fired.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the decades of my misspent youth, we harbored the illusion such menaces as nuclear war or communist invasion were the real enemies of freedom. How wrong we were. The good folks running America just four or five decades later, including the Weyco Gestapo, know the real enemy of man is not the trivial nuclear holocaust, but smoking. And they will leave no freedom unturned in their zeal to root it out wherever it might still lurk.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"The Left's "soft totalitarianism" is as frightening as communism. Our freedoms must be eliminated for our own good because the Commissars Of Government and Industry have decreed it as necessary for the common good."
Beautifully stated.
I knew a guy whose son worked as a salesman for a laege paint company. He sold a lot of paint. His son's boss told his son that his vintage Porsche did not fit the company's image and that he had to buy a mid size sedan. He put the Porsche up for sale and went in hock for a Ford Taurus. Two months later, he was told to "hit the highway". His boss did it "because he could".
Crummy boss. I hear stories like that about spouses too. With a boss like that why would an employee stay? I agree it is not smart, but the employer owns the business, and no one has a right to work for particular employer under terms he decides are fair.
Especially when said employee's are "off duty."
Yes, and insurance companies are already intruding on people's smoking, drinking and eating habits. I know this because of the recent change in policy and rate in my own insurance. We had to take this survey about our "lifestyle" under the guise of giving us the opportunity for lower insurance rates. I don't smoke, don't drink more than occasionally and I don't drink and drive, I always wear my seat belt and I get fairly regular exercise and eat healthy food and in moderation. My BMI indicates that I am only slightly overweight. During the time this was going on, the premium for all employees was raised by over $10 a month. A few weeks later I get a bunch of crap in the mail telling me how to eat. My premium stayed at the higher rate. I was livid! Others got lectures by mail about what they should and shouldn't be doing in relation to eating, exercise, drinking, smoking, etc. Some got more than one. Next will be the lifestyle gestapo who will send representatives from these insurance companies to randomly "test" employees to make sure they are not being deceptive on these survays.
Those who are perverts homosexuals can't help themselves. God made them that way and it is discriminatory to say they are at a higher risk for certain diseases. < /sarcasm >
The answer is to deny Weyco their oxygen. If your employer uses Weyco, get them to fire Weyco as a benefits administrator.
Weyco sems to believe in the Nanny State. That is inappropriate for a company claiming they want to administer, among other things FSAs anf MSAs, which should lead to greater freedom of choice in medical care and insurance.
Weyco looks like a petty small outfit. The only customer I could find online is Central Michigan University. If you find any others, contact them and tell them Weyco is unfit.
Just curious, can second-hand smoke cause the tests to indicate you might have been been smoking, even if that is not the case? If the spouse of one of these smokers is a chain smoker and you are breathing this stuff in all the time you are away from your job, would that not show up on the tests?
Boy, that would be something, making it a condition of employment that you live in a smoke-free home, and never going anywhere where people might be smoking.
That's right.
If my company was a customer of Weyco's...we'd be firing them. I hope other companies do the same.
Regards,
I think all the employee's there, smokers and nonsmoker's alike, should walk off the job in protest of this jerk trying to 'control' his employee's. Holding their paychecks over their heads, he says "You WILL do as I say."
He was interviewed on DaySide, (Fox) and he looks like another dried up old prune. Looks like he never had a happy day in his life.
Even if the employee doesn't smoke and hates smokers, they better wise up. This control freak will be going after something else in the near future, and it is bound to hit the rest.
Next he will force his employee's to running 5 miles every morning and using the gym. Do people really want this type of control over their lives? I think not.
Wouldn't banning homosexuals be within sight if they can fire someone for participating in unhealthy lifestyle choices?
As the life expectancy of a homosexual is some 42 years on the average, wouldn't such activity be considered higher risk than smoking?
This is going to be interesting at the very least.
When you enlist in the Navy (or any other service) it's made clear that you are on the job 24/7/365. That's not the case at Weyco, or most other jobs on civvy street.
Employers have been peering into their employees personal lives for decades now. Its called drug testing. Welcome to the party.
At the root, this is the problem. Your employer should "pay" you for the work you do, with wages, that's it. Then anything you do on your time only impacts them on how it impacts your ability to do your job.
You smoke? Fine, but you would have to pay out of your own pocket for you life and health insurance, and you WILL pay more than a non-smoker. You are overweight? No problem with me, as long as you can do your job, but your health insurance will be more than somebody who is not.
Don't like it? It's not fair? Well, we could have nationalized health care, that would be fair, as we all would "pay" the same, and have the same lousy health care. But you would be free to do as you please....
I agree with some that a business owner should be able to run his own business, no matter how ridiculous are the rules he lays down.
On the other hand, no one should work for a company for twenty years and have the rules changed so that he is no longer eligible for his retirement benefits if he doesn't fit the company mold.
The Christian-free policy has been an ongoing program — and part of the Lifestyle Challenge Program at WEYCO, Inc. — since fall 2003. We have assisted our employees through a series of communication and support activities, including: employee meetings introducing the program; Christianity-cessation classes, medication, and appointments with acupuncturists. The policy has been implemented in gradual stages to encourage staff members who worship God to become healthier and remain WEYCO, Inc., employees.
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