LOL! You??? Yea, right! heh!
I'd never believe that one! :)
Posted on 05/14/2005 8:42:05 AM PDT by SheLion
Firing Smokers - Reading Beyond the Headlines
Trend: You smoke? You're fired!
May 11, 2005
By Stephanie Armour
More companies are taking action against employees who smoke off-duty, and, in an extreme trend that some call troubling, some are now firing or banning the hiring of workers who light up even on their own time.
The outright bans raise new questions about how far companies can go in regulating workers' behavior when they are off the clock. The crackdown is coming in part as a way to curb soaring health care costs, but critics say companies are violating workers' privacy rights. The zero-tolerance policies are coming as more companies adopt smoke-free workplaces.
•Weyco, a medical benefits provider based in Okemos, Mich., this year banned employees from smoking on their own time. Employees must submit to random tests that detect if someone has smoked. They must also agree to searches of briefcases, purses or other belongings if company officials suspect tobacco or other banned substances have been brought on-site. Those who smoke may be suspended or fired.
About 20 employees have quit smoking under the policy, and a handful were fired after they opted out of the testing. "The main goal is to elevate the health status of our employees," says Gary Climes, chief financial officer.
•At Investors Property Management in Seattle, smokers are not hired. Employees who smoked before the ban was passed about two years ago are not fired; however, they can't get medical insurance through the company.
•Alaska Airlines has a no-smoking policy for employees, and new hires must submit to a urine test to prove they're tobacco-free.
"The debate has gone from where they can smoke to whether they can smoke," says Marshall Tanick, a Minneapolis-based employment lawyer.
Such bans are not legal everywhere: More than 20 states have passed laws that bar companies from discriminating against workers for lifestyle decisions.
There are other ways that companies are taking action against off-duty smoking, such as raising health care premiums for smokers.
Employers say it's about creating a healthy workforce. But it's also a bottom-line issue: Tobacco causes more than 440,000 deaths annually and results in more than $75 billion in direct medical costs a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some smokers' rights groups are vowing legal action.
"These matters will be decided in the courts," says Redmond, Wash.-based Norman Kjono, with Forces, a smokers' rights group. "You're creating a class of unemployable citizens. It won't stand."
And legal experts fear companies will try to control other aspects of employees' off-duty lifestyle, a trend that is already happening. Some companies are firing, suspending or charging higher insurance premiums to workers who are overweight, have high cholesterol or participate in risky activities.
Actually the antis do not attack the science from that study because they know they can not do so legitimately. Instead what they have done is attack the researchers because one of them had previously done some research for the industry.
Are you aware that those numbers are 100% computer generated and do not actually represent any real people?
Well, you got the "cow" part right.
To Beat a Dead Horse . . .
Dakota Tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
A recently declassified Pentagon document indicates that people in the Pentagon try other strategies.
Specifically there are 22 separate and distinct strategies that people in the Pentagon try when they discover they are riding a dead horse:
1. Buy a stronger whip.
2. Change riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we've always ridden this horse."
4. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride their dead horses.
5. Increase the standards to ride dead horses.
6. Appoint a Tiger Team to revive the dead horse.
7. Create a training session to increase riding ability.
8. Pass legislation that declares, " The horse is not dead."
9. Harness several Dead Horses together for increased speed.
10. Declare with a policy directive and operating instruction that no dead horse is too dead to beat.
11. Do a cost analysis to determine if contractors can ride the dead horse cheaper.
12. Buy a commercial off-the-shelf dead horse.
13. Declare that the horse is better, faster, and cheaper dead.
14. Form an IPT to find uses for dead horses.
15. Revisit the key performance parameters (KPPs) for dead horses.
16. Say the horse was procured making CAIV-based decisions.
17. BRAC the horse farm on which the dead horse was born.
18. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
19. Name the dead horse "Paradigm Shift" and keep riding it.
20. Ride the dead horse "smarter," not harder.
21. Call the dead horse "joint" and let others ride it.
22. Ride the dead horse "outside the box."
Here is a paragraph from the Oak Ridge Study.
Please note that the people assembling claims here are not afraid to post their expertise, methodology and results for perusal by anyone in the world who wishes to do so.
Please provide me with a similar summary citation by the CDC or Numbnutz Glanz to support their figures.
I would love to read it!
Federal and states sting??
LOL! You??? Yea, right! heh!
I'd never believe that one! :)
I am not suggesting that at all. all I am saying is that even in the no-smoking indoors state of Delaware an employer is still permitted to hire only smokers if he so chooses.
I was still working with some friends downtown Dover when the smoking ban went into effect - we totally ignored it. We had been ignoring the city's ban for years - in fact once when a city inspector showed up and questioned the fact we were all smoking and demanded to see the non-smoking area, as required by the city ordinance he was shown a 12"x12" tile in the front window...we owned the building, there were 4 of us, all smokers, and the inspector was totally unable to do a bloody thing to us!!!!
That's a new one for me - never seen that before
Sadly enough, yes it is.
It does amaze me at times how "trees" thinking is so prevalent at times when "forest" thinking is able to cut short concerns with issues and thus, I at times, show sarcasm.
I know my sarcastic attitude can be an issue however to date it hasn't been a concern at my place of employment only in my personal life for example when visiting FR or when having friends over and I show it to them.
It has been brought up in "critical" meetings at work lately however, and I hope it doesn't become an issue for me to the point of my sarcasm being deemed more of a concern in productivity that the asset that I am in producing for my company.
Thank you, kind sir :)
They had this old geezer on Fox News about a month ago sitting there all smug with his lawyer.
He even admitted that he is installing a work-out room and is going to weigh his people that are over weight and start monitoring them as well. Can you believe this?
But, it's his company, so he is within his rights (I think, as this is being looked into quit closely), to make his "rules."
But this is being looked into to find out if it's legal or not about how he is treating his "puppets."
Now, I don't know first hand mind you. LOL!
You and me both.
If someone is abusing sick leave, they should get fired even if they don't smoke.
Yes, but because they have fallen for the propaganda of the agenda driven busybodies.....you get it, I know you do.
You lost me....
That cartoon? I've had it for quite sometime now. hehe!
No problem, FRiend.
I think I've become an expert at multi-tasking - I've been cleaning, washing windows and floors, getting dinner in the crockpot, doing laundry, watching HGTV (tired of the news) and FReeping....and keeping the little one out of daddy's way as he is hanging drywall in the attic.
The rights of private property extend to the right to hire a nonsmoking employee.
Hee...hee...hee!
ROTFLMAO!
You have made my day with that one SheLion!
But, I have to tell you I am VERY patriotic and ANYTHING I can do to maintain our freedoms why, I will do my best to support it! LoL!
SheLion, your pic is a classic! Could I impose upon you to send it to me via email?
I sure would like to share it with friends!
"Ain't" it the truth? It's ALL for the children!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.