Gamer Fired for taking "Pokemon Breaks."

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

Almost nobody smokes at my current workplace. But I used to work at a factory where not only did people smoke, they did it on the job. The boss did too so it was acceptable behaviour, people smoked in the offices and the forklifts all had ashtrays. I eventually quit for other reasons, but I think I'd rather they just took the extra few minutes out of their day to do it outside, whether it's fair to the rest of us or not.

 

[Kunzer]

I have indeed seen this situation unfold before in my own life, what with other employees getting breaks to smoke for 5 minutes every hour.

My stance on this issue is quite simple:

I'm okay with not having the breaks for the small price of "not killing myself with cigarettes".

 

[manic_depressive13]

I've never encountered this 'smoke break' thing where I live. At my work, people got their lunch break and if they wanted to smoke then, they could. They didn't get extra time.

Having said that, it's pretty fucking childish to get butthurt over someone getting an extra five minutes. Some people at my work (non-smokers) would often overstay their breaks by five minutes or so and I never resented them.

 

[LHZA]

At my work us non smokers are allowed an extre ten minutes at lunch time because we don't smoke. Doesn't really mean much though because technically we don't get a lunch break (understandable because we work with the disabled, and are expected to cater to them so long as we are working, and also we get plenty of time to relax, when they're relaxing).

 

[mirage202]

I do smoke, and yes it is a choice to continue to do so.
I don't however expect special treatment for it.

Being granted a smoke break is a luxury, not a right, so it's asking for a favour. What do I do to earn that favour? I work faster, and a little harder. By putting in that extra effort, and staying ahead of the "game" I have never had a manager, even a non smoking one, deny me a few 5 minute breaks throughout the day.

Lazy sods that whine about it though as if being punished, should just GTFO.

On other side of the coin, smokers choose to smoke, same way non smokers choose not to. The non smokers have already forced their views on smokers with the bans now in place in many countries. Your choice, has forced a law upon us. I personally feel, smokers should be allowed short breaks through the day, it is fair after all, if your choice is valid, ours must be just as valid, if that is denied, it stops being a legitimate health issue, and starts veering towards persecution.

OT: Guy simply should have asked, if he was a good enough worker, any half decent manager would allow it. Certainly shouldn't be fired for it, at least, not at the first incident.

 

[mooncalf]

It's a fine case of smart-assery, and all smart-ass behaviour necessarily constitutes the two titular elements, that of being smart, and of being an ass. I've had coworkers almost constantly wandering off for a cig. Ultimately it's not fair, but I believe I should not model my professional conduct on those who's conduct I do not feel to be appropriate.

 

[Sandjube]

Well a lot of people at my work smoke during the lunch break and stuff, they don't get extra time off, so I think that no, people shouldn't get time off to smoke.

 

[Little2Raph]

It's been my experience that there are two kinds of smokers in the workplace. There's the smokers who also happen to be bludgers, who will use their habit to swindle as much extra break time out of the company as they can; and there are also the smokers who are normal workers who have a smoke during their usual smoko/lunch time. For example, I happen to work at a munitions factory where smoking (or any means of procuring a naked flame) is strictly prohibited on site, so effectively the smokers can't smoke while they're at work. But the guys who do smoke seem to get by just fine with only taking a smoke break during their lunch.

I don't see why this principle wouldn't apply to gamers as well. If you want to play games then do it on your lunch break (or even wait till you get home). In my experience managers don't like smart-arses, so if you're going to take breaks without asking to play Pokemon then you're going to come into conflict with your boss, irrespective of what the smokers are doing.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

So they take a few minutes out of their day to mitigate the effects of a medical condition that can influence their work performance, just like a smoker.
How is it not the same? When broken down to that level, it is the same as far as wasting company time is concerned.

I'm all for Smokers Rights (I have some friends who smoke) but really - a medical condition? Bullshit.

Smoking is not a medical condition - it's an addiction. Nothing wrong with that - I'm addicted to caffeine. I get headaches if I don't get my daily fix.

However, my addiction to caffeine is not a medical condition. I will call bullshit on my own addiction as much as any smoker's.

If you're a heroin addict, then withdraw symptoms can kill you. If you're a smoker - or a coffee drinker - then symptoms will annoy you. Not the same thing.

And don't bring up the diabetes thing again. It's offensive to everyone with diabetes (comparing it to tobacco withdraw is offensive, not mentioning it for other reasons, in case that wasn't clear).

 

[FallenTraveler]

Well, at least in my state, it is legally required for employers to give employees at least a 15 minute break every 3 hours or so. Smoke breaks add up to count as this and other employees are generally allowed to go off and have their own break.

I think this is justifiable in a way. I can't judge levels of sarcasm and whatnot, but it seems alright.

Pokemon isn't a physical addiction, so I feel he was not justified in his desire for a Pokemon break.

I totally understand your point, but nicotine addiction is completely optional. If this were some other physical restriction like... I'm not sure, but let's say heart problems that require you to rest for a few minutes, it would make sense, but in the case of nicotine it's entirely up to the addict whether or not they start.

 

[Darkmantle]

It's been my experience that there are two kinds of smokers in the workplace. There's the smokers who also happen to be bludgers, who will use their habit to swindle as much extra break time out of the company as they can; and there are also the smokers who are normal workers who have a smoke during their usual smoko/lunch time. For example, I happen to work at a munitions factory where smoking (or any means of procuring a naked flame) is strictly prohibited on site, so effectively the smokers can't smoke while they're at work. But the guys who do smoke seem to get by just fine with only taking a smoke break during their lunch.

I don't see why this principle wouldn't apply to gamers as well. If you want to play games then do it on your lunch break (or even wait till you get home). In my experience managers don't like smart-arses, so if you're going to take breaks without asking to play Pokemon then you're going to come into conflict with your boss, irrespective of what the smokers are doing.

I think the part your missing is that the smokers already take extra breaks to smoke. It's not like he just started with the game boy thing

 

[feeback06]

My job doesn't offer smoke breaks. The only time you can smoke is during your normal break time.

 

[Darkmantle]

My job doesn't offer smoke breaks. The only time you can smoke is during your normal break time.

This is how it should be, plain and simple

 

[VondeVon]

I've run a couple of small businesses and in general I just don't ever hire smokers.

 

[ccggenius12]

On the one hand, I don't see why anyone bothers posting a topic that merits any actual discussion, as the two sides inevitably end up talking past each other within the first couple posts.
On the other hand, I don't believe that smokers should be given additional time to take a break than those who don't when they are working a job that pays an hourly wage. They can re-purpose existing time, but there should be no benefit to it, as it is not something that should be encouraged. If they want additional time to smoke, they better be prepared to clock out for the duration of that break, because they sure as hell aren't working.
If someone is earning a salary, then their pay isn't based on how much time they actually spend working, it's based on them being able to get the job done. Under these circumstances, if you can get your work done in five minutes, feel free to spend the remaining 7 hours 55 minutes at the business doing whatever the hell you want, as long as it doesn't detract from others ability to complete their jobs, and does not violate the terms of the contract you signed when you agreed to work there.

 

[Goofguy]

This all comes down to a question of perception. I've had people give me a hard time because I was standing out in the smoking area with some of my peers and I wasn't smoking. So I get called a 'slacker' because I'm not doing anything but the smokers act as though they are occupied. When you confront some about it, they act indignant about it, like it's their right and it's part of the work routine. They sincerely believed that even though clearly none of us were working at that moment, I was somehow doing less than them because they were 'busy' smoking.

I even approximated the amount of time my co-workers were wasting smoking and it came to about 5.8 days a year. So they basically get an extra week off every year over the non-smokers. Sure, they'll chalk up to a necessity but I only consider it as such if they've tried every means to quit smoking before and none of them worked.

Smoking is an interesting phenomenon. You could walk right by some dude smoking while standing on the sidewalk and not pay any attention to him. You walk right by that same guy who's just standing there with his hands in his pockets looking around and you'll think he's a friggin weirdo.

 

[Therumancer]

Jeff Barnes, an employee at a McDonalds in Augusta, GA was recently fired from his job. The circumstances themselves are unclear, but from what sources gather, Mr. Barnes spent a week recording the times each day that his fellow employees were allowed to take for smoke breaks while still taking a lunch break.

At the end of the week, he averaged it out that employees that smoke were getting roughly three five minute breaks a day just to smoke a cigarette, and decided to take a few breaks of his own to bring out his DS and play Pokemon.

After being confronted about this by his boss, he explained his point to her that allowing employees to take extra breaks just because they smoke was unfair, and that he should be allowed his own "smoke" breaks to come outside and play video games, so long as they were kept about the same length of an average cigarette.

Mr. Barnes was fired for his behavior and his attitude.

Now before anyone says anything, lemme be clear. The story you've just read is completely fictional. (mildly based off an experience from my own life, but I didn't get fired, just kinda yelled at and got called a smart-ass...)

But to me it raises a couple questions

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.
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?

It's a real issue minus the whole "video gaming" thing. The end result is that in a business where management or supervision has smokers, your going to see smokers given special treatment to smoke. You'll also notice a lot of the "backroom" business being done on smoke breaks in terms of favortism, planning backstabbing, and similar things. One thing you might notice is that once you have smokers in positions of management and supervision soon just about all of the positions under them will be filled by the same, with a lot of that being based on socialization when everyone is hanging out smoking and joking on breaks.since that's one time supervisors and employees tend to directly fratrenize "off the record" while still on the job.

The result being that a non-smoker who complains about it gets laughed out of the ballpark, no matter what point they make. Official complaints tend to lead to the person getting fired, but typically it involves going to your paid rat running something like the security monitor room to pay attention to the breaks taken by the person making the complains specifically and log their times and provide video records (when normally close attention won't be paid). Coming back a minute late or whatever is no big deal.... unless your supervisor or manager has it in for you to begin with.

Basically if a business has a policy allowing for smoke breaks, it means people in positions of authority are smoking to get that policy, and that means complaining about it or trying to make a point is great way to get fired. Is it fair? No, it is not, it amounts to special treatment. Can you do anything about it in a practical sense? Nope, you can't.

The absolute "best" case you can hope for is that if you have upper top-tier management that doesn't smoke and an oppertunity to approach them in a way that wouldn't be seen as violating the chain of command (ie you can't sneak them out). If you mention/prove the smoke breaks you can get them to shut them down (they will not grant the same to everyone) because it's probably backdoored into policy anyway, but that tends to wind up with everyone hating you as an actual rat as opposed to someone who is an official rat (ie they understand your in a position where you have to do jobs your assigned to watch and record other employees at times, which is rat-like, but more a matter of not covering for people to hold your own job, basically nobody expects an official rat to get fired by refusing to follow a manager's order to log someone's breaks for example... an important distinction in many places). Ratting out the smoke breaks means everyone, even the non-smokers are likely to want you gone, not to mention lower management who won't like you going over their head even if you didn't actually jump chain of command. It's one of those things where a few months later you'll probably be set up and fired, and then a few months after that the smokers will just backdoor the breaks back in anyway.

 

[Don Savik]

So what a lot of you are saying is that if I'm addicted to something that I subjected myself to VOLUNTARILY I can take time off work to deal with it? You know how stupid that sounds?

 

[Little2Raph]

I think the part your missing is that the smokers already take extra breaks to smoke. It's not like he just started with the game boy thing

I understand that it was the smokers who were already taking extra breaks. If I understand correctly he's seen the smokers taking extra breaks and just assumed it's okay for him to do so as well, without consulting his supervisor or manager first. No company I've ever worked for has considered this an acceptable attitude. My point is that who did what first is irrelevant. Smoker or gamer, when we're at work we're supposed to do our jobs, not indulge in our habits or our hobbies. If I start taking extra breaks to play games just because I see other people take extra breaks to smoke, then all that proves is that I'm just as unprofessional as they are.