Smoking: To be or not to Be

[UKResident]

Hmmm...that would appear to be a trait that you exhibit also, Billy.
After all, you think it's OK for a boss to supervise his employee's private life, right?

Thank you for that crap Internet.news, welcome back by the way, or did you just forget to sign in as Balamm this time?

[UKResident]

So you can't refute that I have a point

If an employer is within his rights to stop people smoking outside of office hours, because it's beneficial to their health - surely it follows that your employer should be able to tell you to go to bed at a decent hour.

I propose that rather than your initial 'good on him' comment - you would actually be fuming at him daring to suggest that he has any sort of control over what you do when you clock off.

If you're talking about me personally, l don't have an employer, l was the employer, and l'm now retired. Before l employed someone l interviewed them first, what they did in their private lives certainly concerned me, as did the way they looked, how they dressed and their general manners. l also refused to employ smokers, they weren't allowed to smoke in the stores anyway, and if they nipped off for a quick one they stank of it, not good for the customers. As far as l'm concerned, if l pay the money l choose the rules, if you don't like it, go work somewhere else. l never had to advertise for staff, by the way, l had far more applications than l could possibly need, it comes from paying good wages and providing decent working conditions.

[clocker]

Thank you for that crap Internet.news, welcome back by the way, or did you just forget to sign in as Balamm this time?

That's the best you can do?
Must be the crap diet and excessive exercise.

First you post this...

Good on him, he's making his employees healthier, probably happier, and he'll no doubt see less time taken off sick.

Then this...

Why are you so overtly concerned with other people's lives? Worrying about what other people do seems to be an obsession with you, that can't be healthy can it?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander...make up your mind.

[vidcc]

There is one thing clear here.

An employer does not have the right to run your private lives. However if employment laws allow they do have the right to ask for urine tests. As an employee one has the right to refuse and not work for a company that has mandatory tests.
The question to me is what is considered a reasonable thing to test for and should tests be limited to certain types of vocation...such as pilots?

[manker]

l also refused to employ smokers, they weren't allowed to smoke in the stores anyway, and if they nipped off for a quick one they stank of it

Why was it just the stores they weren't allowed to smoke in, why not the rest of the establishment. Surely your business could not have soley consisted of some stores. If you didn't employ smokers why was it necessary to declare a specific area non-smoking at all. If no-one smoked, it would be stupid to say to the workforce 'right, no smoking in the stores'. They'd think you were a mentalist.

Also if you didn't employ smokers, what the hell were they doing nipping off for a quick cigarette and coming back stinking of smoke if they didn't smoke

Methinks a flight of fancy too far this time, cobber.

Edit: Btw, you still haven't answered, what if your hypothetical boss tried to tell you to be in bed by 11pm lest you would be fired - is that OK?

[UKResident]

Why was it just the stores they weren't allowed to smoke in, why not the rest of the establishment. Surely your business could not have soley consisted of some stores.

What else do stores consist of then?

That's the best you can do?
Must be the crap diet and excessive exercise.

Troll!

[clocker]

Troll!

Yeah.

I learned alot from you.

[UKResident]

I learned alot from you.

You didn't need teaching, the credit is all yours, you've gone from a respected member of this forum to just another trolling insult seeker. A pity really.

[clocker]

Thanks, JPF.
It seems likely that we have simply misunderstood the definition of "troll".

As UK uses the word, I believe that it means "Anyone who disagrees with me".

Addendum:
In my long and varied career(s) I have been on both sides of the fence-both boss and employee.
In both cases I believe that one's private life is one's own, as long as work performance is acceptable then there is no excuse for the overlapping of personal and business life.
Certainly we have all been afflicted with the workplace drama queens who insist on dragging personal disasters/tribulations into the office, forcing co-workers to deal with them.
As an employer, this is not acceptable...work is work and while I'm sorry about your current boyfriend/girlfriend disaster, the office ain't the place to work it out.
Conversely, I see no reason why my boss should be looking over my shoulder (or in this case, up my bladder) when I'm at home. I gave an honest day's work and the rest is mine to enjoy as I see fit.

Ultimately, this case illustrates what I see as a sea-change in the perception of how we live our lives.
I always considered my job to be the means by which I financed my real life.
I worked to afford the life I wanted to live.
Now apparently, the reverse is the norm.
Our lives are merely the inconvenient time we are not beavering away for the boss and increasingly, subordinate to the needs of the workplace.

I saw a snippet in the paper that stated in America (which already ranks quite low in terms of days off per year), some 25% of folks don't even take the meagre time off they are offered.
We prefer to be drones.

Using the Vietnam era definition of the word, I believe that "frag" describes what rightly should happen to bosses like Howard Weyers (and wannabes like UKresident).

[UKResident]

Thanks, JPF.
As UK uses the word, I believe that it means "Anyone who disagrees with me".

(and wannabes like UKresident).

See? Trolling, you just can't resist can you? You have done your best in this thread to insult me for no other reason than you don't agree with my opinion. You really should reserve that behaviour for the lounge, it does nothing to further discussion in here.