By Gene Veler

In the paper of November 23 the Editor’s Opinion Column berated Bon Secours for making smoking a consideration for hiring. I’d like to take an opposing point. I think Bon Secours is right on this issue.

I have 26 years of direct experience in management in hospitals in eight different states. I have presented training programs in person to management personnel from all walks of life such as airport executives, food manufacturing management people, school and college administrators, etc. I also have presented seminars via telephone to hospital department heads all over the U.S. and Canada. I have written magazine articles concerning management responsibilities. My direct experience has been with hospital service departments.

These departments are ones where time is money. There do not have to be any “extra” personnel to handle emergencies because the emergencies are not “life or death” such as they would be for medical personnel such as nurses.
In service departments such as Environmental Services (housekeeping, laundry, maintenance, dietary and others) there is a finite time to do any certain job. The amount of time for housekeeping can be allocated by the number of square feet, the number of beds and other furniture, the type of floor covering, the use of the room, etc.

Various states have differing laws regarding break times and lunch times. In those states requiring break times (fifteen minutes coffee break normally) the fifteen minutes is the total time the employee is to be off the job. There is no added time for hand washing, movement to and from the break area, etc. By the way, these breaks are paid breaks!

Employees are allowed to use their break time as they see fit. They can have coffee, a snack, a cigarette or just rest, etc. Whatever they can fit into the time allocated is okay (if it’s legal). The problem is when smokers try to cram too much into the time allocated. It’s very difficult to wash your hands, go to the cafeteria for coffee, go outside for a cigarette, talk to your fellow employees, go to your locker to change your shirt, go to the restroom, take a quick nap, etc. and do that all in fifteen minutes.
By law, all hospitals in the United States must be non-smoking so it is impossible to have that cigarette while you’re sitting in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee. You have to go outside!

Another factor to consider is that hospital patients develop keen senses of smell during their stays. Imagine if someone goes outside to smoke surrounded by many other employees who are also smoking, When they return to their work area their clothing and their hair have absorbed the odor of smoke. They go into a patient room, where the patient with the acute sense of smell is now exposed to that smoke, and the patient is made even more uncomfortable by that exposure.

What if that employee had been drinking liquor on their break and smelled of alcohol? Would that be okay? Does it make a difference whose ox is being gored?

One other thing to be considered is that this break time is not “their own time”; it is paid time.

I can tell you from experience that employees who smoke do not follow break rules. They almost always extend their break time privileges. It makes no difference what their level of education, their job, their responsibilities, their seniority, their sex, their age - they break the rules. In their eyes, they only bend them, but how much bend can be allowed? How long before such bending requires more employees to fill the gaps created by this bending?

Those extra employees are added into the costs and passed on to the patients and their insurance companies. Do you see the correlation to complaints about health care costs?

I have written only about health care and hospitals. I am sure other businesses can relate to Bon Secours not wanting employees who smoke.

There is also the health insurance provided (in part or wholly) by the employer, If Bon Secours can reduce its costs by not having smokers, then they can pass the savings on to their patients.

Most employers, including hospitals, make concessions to employees who have special needs. I know that I have made special arrangements for employees who have problems scheduling public transportation, or who need a special time to take prescribed medications, etc.

Management is willing to make these concessions where necessary, but they should not, and will not, be responsible for granting them to employees who want the whole world to revolve about them to the detriment of other employees.

People must learn to take responsibility for their own actions. No one twisted the arms of those smokers to take up the habit. Now it’s time to pay the piper for that bad habit. You not only have a bad habit - you don’t have a job!
I applaud Bon Secours for taking a leadership role in hiring pracrices,

My Point of View welcomes submissions that pertain to life and issues in Powhatan County. The views expressed in the column are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the editorial views of the staff of Powhatan Today.