Gamer Fired for taking "Pokemon Breaks."

[Char-Nobyl]

1. Do you think people should be allowed to take breaks like this? Is it unfair that just because someone smokes, they get to take extra breaks? Even if they're only for a couple minutes at a time.

I see cigarette breaks the same way that I see handicap parking spaces: if you want one, too, you'd better fulfill the same requirements as the people who get them (taking up smoking and handicapping yourself, respectively).

Why do you think people excuse themselves for a cigarette? Do you think that they just decide that they want one? Or that they see the line getting big, so they step out and smoke while their coworkers take care of it? When someone says "I need a cigarette," they're not exaggerating. It's a physical craving.

2. Given some of the news stories we've seen on this site, would you actually be surprised if a story like this popped up for real, and what do you think the general reaction would be?

The same as what I saw in the first few posts: he got fired because he deserved it. To use the same example as used above, it's like saying that you should be able to park in the handicap space because the guy in the wheelchair gets to do it.

EDIT: Oh, and also because cigarette breaks aren't a 'Do it whenever you want' sort of thing. It still has to get cleared by the manager. So if you were randomly stepping outside to play on your DS, you're damn lucky you weren't fired.

 

[Electric Alpaca]

In your hypothetical situation, one should be extremely grateful for having a job and one is playing with fire if they go out of their way to a nuisance.

There's plenty of McDonald worker fish in the sea, and that kind of behaviour could be construed as gross misconduct.

Relating to you - if you did something similar count yourself lucky you weren't fired and don't let individuals 'gaining' fifteen minutes on you bother you quite so much.

Further, one doesn't get far in business by buying an idiot to his superior - and likely only attracts humiliation and donkey tasks as thanks.

 

[Digitaldreamer7]

Labor laws are different all around but the typical law is that for every 8 hours you work you get two 15's and a 30 minute lunch. as long as that person isn't screwing their coworkers by leaving to take the smoke breaks during rush times and/or taking more then the 30 mins that the law abides for in breaks (two 15's is 30 mins total), I don't see why smokers and non smokers should't get the same privilege. smoker want's to use his/her time to smoke, so be it, non-smoker want's to take DS breaks, so be it.

As for the whole "smoking is an addiction and should get special privilege" people. That's a load of bullshit. If that were the case there wouldn't be laws prohibiting smoking in public all over the US now. In all reality, if smoking is illegal in public where the OP is the company could be held liable for letting it's employees take said smoke breaks. I work in a hospital. In the city I live in it is against the law to smoke ANYWHERE on a hospital campus. If you get caught smoking on campus it's like drawing a go to jail card in monopoly in the sense that you are fired on the spot. So, this whole bullshit about people not being able to/shouldn't be made to go without a smoke for 4-6 hours is just that, bullshit. If your addiction is that bad that you can't function for at least 4 hours (since 8 hour shifts get a lunch about half way through) you aren't fit to do the job you signed up for and need to seek help or employment that supports your habit better. Most people here have to wait til lunch and drive off campus, not walk, drive somewhere and do it, and find time to eat lunch.

 

[RedLister]

Im a smoker and heres what i do at work. In say a 9 hour day i take 3 smoke breaks during said day for 5mins each time. Say the average lunch time im allowed is for an hour.

Since i took 3 smoke breaks at 5mins each i would only have a 45minite hour lunch. May or may not be the most ideal solution to please every side in the matter but its the best compromise i can perform and is better then nothing.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It isn't like they're going off and having super-happy-fun-time anyway. They're out their, poisoning their lungs for five minutes. What the hell do people think they're doing on a smoke break? Riding a T-Rex while fighting aliens?

Depends what you're smoking

It's posts like this that make me wish there was a like button on this site.

 

[Fappy]

Oh, that's what I was saying. If you give smokers 5-minute breaks every hour or whatever on top of the 15-ish minutes every couple of hours, non-smokers should get them too.

Okay, cool. Just clarifying, mostly. Though it's good to find we were on roughly the same page.

Smoke during lunch breaks? If you can't wait that long then you should quit anyway.

Should, but people don't.

Actually, it's kind of funny. I can get fired if there's is a picture on my Facebook profile (Or I'm tagged in a photo, correctly or not) of me holding a drink.

But people are allowed not only to smoke at work, but take extra breaks to afford said smoking time.

Your employers monitor your Facebook? Oh man I am so sorry D:

 

[LordFisheh]

His boss confronted him and he continued his pedantry? Sounds to me like he was trying to see how far he could push it and it blew up in his face.

 

[deathzero021]

I'm usually a lurker but i had to answer to this, only because of the responses i'm seeing. People actually thinking it's okay for a smoker to get extra breaks while non-smokers don't? why punish the people who make smart decisions and treat the idiots like they deserve this? If they can't perform with out a smoke and meet the expectations in their workplace, they SHOULD NOT be working there than. Equality is important and this is discrimination for non-smokers. Further more i've seen Pokemon addictions (or similar) so who gets to decide what addictions are appropriate in the workplace and what sort of special treatment do these addicts get?

if we go in this damn direction, where do you draw the line? are we gonna start have heroine breaks?

 

[Slaanesh]

if we go in this damn direction, where do you draw the line? are we gonna start have heroine breaks?

Heroine breaks? Female employees taking 5 minutes to fly around and fight crime?

 

[deathzero021]

if we go in this damn direction, where do you draw the line? are we gonna start have heroine breaks?

Heroine breaks? Female employees taking 5 minutes to fly around and fight crime?

heh meant "heroin"

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I've encountered this before at more than one job. I don't smoke, and my experience was like this: if I was working on a shift with smokers who took 2-3 "smoke break"s, I would take at least one "clean air" break. I had a couple managers bust my chops, saying it was stupid that I was taking a break when I didn't NEED to, but when faced with the logic of "So smokers can take a quick 5-minute break 2-3 times per shift, but I can't? How is that fair?"

In my work history, I encountered one mildly-annoyed mananger, one manager who laughed and conceded that I was right, and another who got pissed but walked away and said nothing; no manager put their heels in the sand and insisted that I couldn't have my "clean air" break.

There are numerous opinions on this issue (obviously), but I say fair is fair: either NOBODY gets quick, small breaks to go outside and smoke/not smoke, or EVERYBODY does. Why should smokers get special privileges?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Actually, it's kind of funny. I can get fired if there's is a picture on my Facebook profile (Or I'm tagged in a photo, correctly or not) of me holding a drink.

But people are allowed not only to smoke at work, but take extra breaks to afford said smoking time.

Actually getting fired for a photo on your facebook is against labor laws in every civilized country out there. Its the same as they cant say they didnt hire you because of whats on your facebook.

Unfortunately, the US is not a civilized country. Between the horribly misnamed "right to work states" and that teacher in Georgia who literally got fired because she had a picture of herself holding a beer on her private Facebook account, stuff like that happens all the time.

 

[Auron225]

I've always thought it unfair that smokers should be entitled to smoke breaks where non-smokers must plow on with their work. I know smokers are addicted to smoking and thus I wouldn't expect any staff of mine that smoke to go all day without it,

but its not fair that non-smokers dont get these breaks too. So Id be fine with the equivalent amount of breaks for Pokemon or anything else along those lines... so long as it is NO longer than time spent smoking by others!

If I'd been fired from doing something like this, I'd sue for unfair dismissal.

EDIT: Wonder what a manager would do if I said I was going for a smoke - went outside, lit a cigarette, didn't smoke it since I don't smoke and they found me out there waiting for a cigarette to burn out =P Would they yell at me for not smoking?

 

[Auron225]

if we go in this damn direction, where do you draw the line? are we gonna start have heroine breaks?

Heroine breaks? Female employees taking 5 minutes to fly around and fight crime?

heh meant "heroin"

When its illegal? Anyone else vote we draw the line there?

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

1. Do you think people should be allowed to take breaks like this? Is it unfair that just because someone smokes, they get to take extra breaks? Even if they're only for a couple minutes at a time.

Nope. Unless they agree to clock out for that period in which case I'd give them a go ahead.

2. Given some of the news stories we've seen on this site, would you actually be surprised if a story like this popped up for real, and what do you think the general reaction would be?

I wouldn't be surprised. People get fired from fast food jobs for stupid reasons because stupid reasons are the only reasons one can get fired from fast food. That they would cite Pokemon addiction as the reason they need a break is silly but I would offer no sympathy. A fast food worker is the ultimate example of expendable asset. This is why they can expect you to follow silly rules and say no to simple offers. Of course, I'd probably also infer that the real reason the person got fired was a matter of context and tone more than the request itself. That is usually an important qualifying detail that gets left out when someone wants to post something inflammatory.

 

[deathzero021]

[quote

if we go in this damn direction, where do you draw the line? are we gonna start have heroine breaks?

Heroine breaks? Female employees taking 5 minutes to fly around and fight crime?

heh meant "heroin"

When its illegal? Anyone else vote we draw the line there?

Alcohol was once illegal, so do you really think it's that far out there that heroin or any other recreational drug could become legal and get a break of it's own in the work place? but than you would argue about the mind-altering effects of said drugs, well doesn't Cigarettes alter the mind as well? maybe not as severely but either way, it's a legal drug that for some reason is so accepted in the workplace that addicts get their own special treatment for being addicts.

so i say, why can't we get some equality within the workplace - we should all get an equal break and i really don't care what your addicted to, there should be NO exceptions.