El Kabong: I as a smoker am curious as to the company's justification for this new policy, as I am sure any tobacco users who work for them will be, too. You might want to start by explaining to them WHY the company implemented this policy...will it let the employees get a cheaper rate on their insurance? Doubt that, since it's unlikely most will quit at home too. I've never gone further in management than low-levels of a dozen employees or so, but one thing I've learned is that new stuff has to be explained to people in some way, even if all you do is say "sorry, I have no idea why, I'm just the scapegoat who has to tell you".
I've heard the productivity arguement before, and quite frankly I think it's BS. There are lazy smokers and lazy non-smokers, the lazy smokers would be taking 15 minute breaks whether they were a smoker or not, if they weren't smokers they'd just need some other justification (I've known many non-smokers who took 15-20 minute "bathroom breaks"). One thing that really sticks in my craw over the years is when I work my tail off and deny myself a break until I'm done, then I stop and light up a smoke, only to have some stupidvisor come along and ask why I'm not working (especially if the no-good I was working with, who only did about 1/4 of the work, suddenly acts busy when the stupidvisor comes along, and takes all the credit...).
Now, there are some situations when I agree that it's fully acceptable to regulate such things...if you work around gas tanks, or computer equipment; something sensitive to temperature or contaminants, then of course it makes sense...but for a company to arbitrarily make such a decision rubs me the wrong way. It also seems strange to me that they want to ban ALL tobacco products...I can't really understand what hazard snuff or anything of the sort could present to anything, although I have certainly had my fair share of disagreements with coworkers who thought the whole world was their spitoon in the case of dip users. There's nothing worse than working in construction or some maintenance industry, and laying down on the floor or ground to better reach an access panel or something, only to discover you've laid in a spot some schmuck's been spitting in for months.
"What is so very twisted is that all of these companies will still allow obesity which is every bit as dangerous to your health as smoking is. It's OK to demonize smokers becuase there are not very many of them but try going after obese people and see what happens.
How soon will it be before businesses will be going transfat free. You can have a cheeseburger but you will have to eat it across the street." - BrentR
Have no fear, Big Brother is already on that situation, no need for individual companies to regulate it, NY city was the first to ban transfat completely (ban actually begins in July I believe, but has already been enacted into law) with many others probably to follow soon.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-04-trans-fat-ban_x.htm