do they fire people for smoking pot after hours?
What's next? Not hiring someone because they drink, eat junk food, don't exercise, etc. The more these companies make stringent rules and regulations, more people will end up being unemployed.
What you do on your off time should not concern the employer as long as you perform your job!
Well, hold on now.
Menthol or regular?
Weyers' claim that he is doing this to save on health-insurance expenses is disingenuous. He's 70 years of age; he ought to fire himself first, if he's interested in firing people who statistically have high health care expenses.
But, what is next? Will sex be prohibited to Weyco employees, on the grounds that it could create a rather large healthcare expense (pregnancy and dependent child care)?
"Howard Weyers, the founder of Weyco Inc., said he wants to tell fat workers to lose weight or else, Reuters reported."
http://www.nbc10.com/health/4134754/detail.html?rss=phi&psp=health
Hmmmm ...I wonder what this old fool will die from? Choking on a McBurger, or a blast of second hand cigar smoke?
Nah ... It'll probably be a garden hose, attached to his running auto's exhaust pipe.
Let the four who were fired go start their own businesses which will only hire smokers, if they want to. They exercised their free will and can continue to do so.
Don't smoke myself, but don't have a problem with others doing so.
I wonder why the effort to banish smoking and legalize pot?
France's Jeanne Calment, world's oldest woman, dead at 121
ARLES, France (AP) - She took up fencing at 85, and still rode a bicycle at 100. She liked her port wine, her olive oil, her chocolate and her cigarettes, and she released a rap CD at 121.
No wonder Jeanne Calment, at 122 the world's oldest person until her death Monday, said she was ''never bored.''
She lived through France's Third and Fourth Republics, and into its Fifth. She was 14 when the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889.
''She was a little bit the grandmother of all of us,'' President Jacques Chirac said.
Mrs. Calment died of natural causes at the Arles retirement home where she had lived for 12 years. Though blind, nearly deaf and in a wheelchair, she remained spirited and mentally sharp until the end.
That was clear to those who attended her 121st birthday - in February 1996 - when she released her CD, ''Time's Mistress.'' It featured her reminiscing to a score of rap and other tunes.
By then, she was already a media star. A steady stream of foreign reporters had traveled to Arles to interview her.
Born Feb. 21, 1875, Mrs. Calment eventually became the greatest attraction in the southern city of Arles since Vincent Van Gogh, who spent a year there in 1888. She met him that year when he came to her uncle's shop to buy paints, and later remembered him as ''dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable.''
''She was the living memory of our city,'' said Michel Vauzelle, the deputy mayor of Arles. ''Her birthdays were a sort of family holiday, where all the people of Arles gathered around their big sister.''
For Mrs. Calment, the keys to long life were olive oil and port wine.
She gave up cigarettes in 1995, and her doctor said her abstinence was due to pride rather than health - she was too blind to light up herself, and hated asking others to do it for her.
At 121, Mrs. Calment hinted about what it takes to stay interested in even the longest of lives.
''I dream, I think, I go over my life,'' she said. ''I never get bored.''
Mrs. Calment had no direct descendants, having survived her husband, her daughter and grandson.
In her later years, she lived mostly off the income from her apartment, which she sold cheaply more than 30 years ago to a lawyer, Andre-Francois Raffray.
He had agreed to make monthly payments on the apartment in exchange for taking possession when she died, but never got to do so. He died more than a year ago at 77; his family was required to keep making the payments.
Just the same, his widow, Huguette, said Monday she was saddened by Mrs. Calment's death.
''She was a personality,'' she told France Info radio. ''My husband had very good relations with Mrs. Calment.''
The Guinness Book of World Records had listed Mrs. Calment as the oldest living person whose birth date could be authenticated by reliable records.
Smoked until 118, gave up cigarettes and died!!!!
Okay. I missed this sentence:
"Several companies that SHRM interviewed said they have programs in place to help employees with specific health issues like diabetes or asthma."
These two groups, and I do have asthma as do all my relatives from childhood, have some specific demands to avoid illness. Some attacks are just unavoidable.
How on earth will they penalize asthmatics who can lose work time due to attacks. All the steroid sprays, antihistamines, targeted meds like singulair, inhalers, flu shots, clean air in the world will not stop an attack. They happen. Just catch a cold.
What next, fire the genetically predisposed?
Hi T.Smith!
I think it is up to a private company who they hire or not hire,but to fire some one after they already worked there, before such a policy was introduced, even with ample warning,is not right,IMHO.
For exactly the same reason, bars and restarants who chose to serve smoking customers, should be allowed to only hire smoking employees.
All State laws which restrict smoking in bars and restarants based upon "second hand smoking" health reasons, would then become null and void. These laws would not apply, since every employee in the company is also smoker.
Of course they should have the right to hire and fire whomever they choose. That still doesn't mean this isn't ridiculous.
There is a better case to be made to forbid employees from engaging in a whole range of dangerous activities that might result in injury. Skiing & snowboarding, in-line skating, white water kayaking, rock climbing... riding a motorcycle.
Thinking back on the various medical issues among my coworkers, it seems obvious that the most serious injuries and the most lost time from work all relate to either risky hobbies that people have or, the number one cause of lost work: children. I used to track sick days and payroll in a former life, and I can say authoritatively that the number one most expensive employee from a lost-time standpoint and a medical expense standpoint are those with young children.
I can't recall a single instance of somebody becoming expensive to employ because of anything even remotely associated with smoking. Smokers don't actually seem to get sick any more frequently than nonsmokers, but people, especially single moms with young kids... they're out all the time.
If this were really about costs, then they're reaching way way down the list of risks and completely ignoring other low hanging fruit that would in fact save more money. Its so obvious its like the proverbial gorilla in the room. This has nothing whatsoever to do with health costs or any "genuine" concern for the health of employees.
This is a small-minded little control freak that gets off on flexing his power. He's become bored with his power over people while they are being paid by him, and is reaching for some new thrills.
I think that people who smoke should work an extra hour every day. GO AHEAD AND ASK ME WHY!!!
They're liars if they say this is about health insurance costs. All they would need to do is set everyone up on a HSA (health savings account), and if someone's lifestyle choices affected their healthcare costs, it would affect their bottom line and not the company's, plus the company and workers get to screw their HMO. It's a win win situation except for the HMO, and a loss for the HMO counts as a win!