Posted on 09/25/2011 7:38:46 AM PDT by upchuck
Currently there are some 14 million jobless Americans. And if you’re one of the thousands of North Texans looking for work, the competition is tough.
Now, a new hiring limitation by one employer could make the job search even harder.
The Baylor Health Care System has decided that if you use tobacco, in any form, you won’t get a job with them.
“I don’t like it,” said Cassie Grooms. “I don’t think it’s fair.”
Smokers like Grooms were quick to condemn Baylor’s new policy that basically conveys: if you use nicotine, there’s no need to apply.
“We all have the right to smoke a cigarette,” Grooms said in disagreement. “I can understand not [smoking] on their property, but to not hire somebody for smoking…”
Baylor officials claim smoking has a lot to do with the high cost of health care. The FDA estimates smoking costs American employers some $200 billion a year in lost productivity and increased medical costs.
“It’s about how we continue to deal with the rising health care costs,” said Baylor CEO Joel Allison. “It’s about how do we really focus on the new model of health care around prevention and well, and how do we keep people healthy. And I think that’s very, very important for us as a city, a state and a nation.”
Smoking was banned at all Baylor campuses four years ago. But, can they legally refuse to hire smokers?
“Absolutely they can,” said Dallas employment attorney Thomas Brandt. “People think well, that’s discriminatory, but really there are only certain factors that you cannot consider when making hiring decisions.”
Things like race, gender, ethnicity or national origin cannot be considered when hiring an employee.
If increased medical costs are a consideration for banning employee tobacco use, then ponder this: obesity is also a national health crisis. According to the CDC obesity costs employers some $147 billion a year.
Have you been denied employment for having a glass of wine at home on a Saturday night?
~15 years ago, Lockheed in Georgia, stopped hiring smokers.
No great big publicity, but their reasoning was different. Most of the buildings they had were very large — bigger than the average aircraft hanger. Indoor smoking had just been banned and smokers had to trek several hundred feet to an exit in order to light up. It quickly became apparent that smokers were spending more time walking to an exit, smoking outside, and then walking back to work, than actually working. And they did it at least once per hour.
Seemed justified to me...
Wow, I’m impressed. Prayers for a successful surgery, a great outcome, and a rapid recovery.
My present employer offers options in our insurance coverage choices for smokers vs. non smokers. If you smoke, you pay more for coverage. I’m presently trying to lay ‘em down (two weeks and so far, so good) but I think that my company’s approach is reasonable given the risks of prolonged smoking. In my case the smoker’s cough and loss of lung capacity just became too much to bear but then I puffed a pack and a half daily.
Yeah, walking a few hundred feet and taking a few minutes to light up eats up the bulk of an hour.
I put in extra time at work just to keep anal jerks from using that argument with me.
I don’t see anybody timing how long people people are in the john or how often they go.
I don’t see anybody timing the quantity and frequency of coffee breaks.
You know what the #1 waste of time at work is?
Meetings!!! Good Lord! the inefficiency of meetings is stunning!
No, I have not sought employment in recent years. I have a large number of children at home.
I find it unlikely that the majority of smokers has had this experience, either.
>>You know what the #1 waste of time at work is?<<
I thought is was FaceBook and Angry Birds.
And they still have that right, just not the right to work wherever they want.
And companies should have the right to hire whomever they wish.
I don’t know. Not only do they expect to be catered to by their fellow employees and the owners of the companies for which they work, but the level of hostility there is off the charts.
“Over the last year, I’ve lost 55 pounds and been hitting myself with vitamins and minerals.”
Congratulations! Other than (presumably) lots of back pain, how do you feel?
***It’s the same principle as Hooter’s being able to employ women that they believe will attract business. Do you believe that is Hooter’s right?***
The attractiveness of a Hooter’s girl has a direct impact on the hooters business model.
If a professor has a cigar after dinner in his home, it has no impact on Baylor’s business.
If you believe that businesses have the right to discriminate against the legal behaviors of adults on their off hours on the basis of healthcare costs, then you believe that a business can dictate the healthiest diet (in their opinion) for their employees, dictate how much exercise they get per week, dictate that they do not own horses, dictate that their employees not have sex unless they are married and dictate that they do not ride motorcycles.
That was quite a lengthy rebuttal. Would you mind paring it down a bit?
LoL! I have no experience with either.
But that is funny.
Maybe we should disqualify people who do those at home, as they are prone to fritter away time?
As I said, no one is requiring anyone to work for Baylor. Or for Hooters, for that matter.
Sorry, I just don’t think I can, without losing the gist of it.
LoL
“Just about anything can be said to affect our healthcare costs under some insurance plan. It seems to be a slippery slope to have a mindset that they will screen out people who don’t adhere to someone’s idealized version of good health.”
EXACTLY
Wow. That’s not at all what I said.
I have no problem with surgeons (one of my daughter’s surgeons chews tobacco) saying that a patient has to quit smoking for valid medical reasons.
I’m saying that I resent anti-smoking nazis shoving their agenda down my throat. I have to quit, I want to quit, but they make it harder.
I’ve spoken to many, many smokers who say that anti-smoking ads and commercials make it harder for them to quit. Every person I’ve asked about this said that they have to intentionally avoid these things when they’re trying to quit.
I think that it’s human nature to be contrary.
....or FReepers who spend exorbitant amounts of time posting/reading/lurking on FR....[that wouldn’t be *me*]
It’s strange, but I don’t feel thinner. I just feel... longer. :)
It’s like things are missing. When i stand up and my arms don’t touch my sides or when I sit on concrete and there’s no padding... I still do a double-take when I look in the mirror.
Honestly, the pain overshadows everything else. I’m ready for this surgery.
yes, true. Like I have the right to dump all Penn State resumes in the trash can because of Michael Mann....maybe adding Baylor to that list....
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