Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 5th Edition by Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, Patrick Wright

Exercise 4

ARE SMOKING BREAKS AN ETHICAL HR POLICY?
The work environment in U.S. offices has changed considerably from the days when ashtrays decorated desks and smoking was an ordinary workplace ritual. Nowadays, many states ban smoking in some or all workplaces, and many organizations prohibit smoking in most or all of their facilities. The result is a challenge for employees who smoke: if they are unwilling or unable to do without cigarettes until the end of their work shift, they need time and space for breaks. Some employers have union contracts that require breaks. Organizations without such contracts have wide latitude in creating policies for smoking breaks.
Creating such a policy opens up several ethical issues. Some organizations allow smokers to go outside or to a designated area for smoking breaks. Often, at those organizations, nonsmoking employees complain that they get fewer breaks than their colleagues who smoke. The nonsmokers see the policy as unfair.
Another issue relates to the negative health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke. If smoking breaks take place near a doorway, nonsmoking employees may complain that they have to pass through a cloud of smoke every time they enter and leave the building.
Also, some people see employers as having a responsibility to protect the health of all their workers, and they may believe that the smoking breaks make it easier for smoking employees to harm their health.
Some employers see business reasons for forbidding smoking breaks or smoking areas, and these may take precedence over the ethical questions. From this vantage point, allowing any smoking breaks or smoking areas would hurt the organization's image and disrupt the workday, so the organization prohibits all smoking on the premises and during working hours.
As a human resource manager developing such a policy, would you create a different policy for a hospital and for the offices of an advertising agency? Why or why not?
SOURCE: Peter Done, "Burning Issue of Smoking Breaks," Financial Adviser , October 13, 2011, Business Company Resource Center, http://galenet.galegroup.com.