You Can Be a Leader: Leadership Principles to Achieve Excellence

Chapter Sixteen How to Lead Smokers

First off, don't hire a smoker if you can hire a non-smoker. Why? Smokers are less productive. They use more sick days due to suppressed immune systems, and unfortunately are more prone to major medical issues, such as heart attacks. Two of my colleagues who were smokers had heart attacks which resulted in several weeks of missed work. This was the catalyst that made them stop smoking. Their performance at work was never quite the same after their heart attacks. But then again, it probably wasn't any worse than the accumulated time they had taken away from their desks during their smoke breaks.

A major issue is the productivity-killing smoke breaks. The smokers gather up their smoker friends and move as one large gaggle to the smoking area. Sometimes the smoking area is five or ten minutes away from the employees' work area. Add in the five to ten minutes at the smoking area, and you have now lost fifteen to thirty minutes of productivity. Here's the rub; most smokers don't feel obligated to make up the time they spend during smoke breaks. Five smoke breaks in a day and you lose an hour or more of productivity.

What about the other workers? In one word: Resentment. Other employees resent the fact they need to make up the time they take to go to the gym at lunch or go out to eat. They look at the smokers using up all of those free smoking minutes, and they know it is not fair. They look to their leader to fix this problem, but the leader is helpless. Their hands are tied by union or company policy. So your other workers might say, "Hey...time to surf the net or my phone during smoke break time. Why should I pick up the slack for these workers?"

Now think about the time you were trying to make a sale, someone was trying to sell you something, or maybe you were interviewing a potential employee. Then it hits your nose. That stale cigarette smell lingering on the smoker's clothes, hair, and breathe. The odor steals your attention away from what's important at the moment. Try to remember how it made you feel? I can tell you, I find the smell is a distracter. Is this the person you want to represent your company? Not my company if I have a choice.

My advice is to avoid hiring smokers at all costs, and, if you have employees who smoke, sponsor a company paid cessation program. Best yet see if you can also get a tax credit or the like for doing this good deed for society.