Butt Out, Employers!

Fired for smoking?!  Sounds like fiction but it's true.  It happened to Anita Epolito, at Weyco Inc., an insuance benefits administator company, according to a previous news story from this year. 

Many states allow companies to legally hire and fire based on your life outside of work. Now with the push for health conscious staffers, companies have expanded the list of taboo off-hours endeavors to include smoking.  Weyco started testing its employees for nicotine last year and stopped hiring smokers entirely.  Employees who test positive are suspended without pay for a month and could lose their jobs with repeated violations. Weyco also recently expanded its regulations to include employee spouses, making the employee pay a fine if their spouse tests positive.

This “at-will” law is imposed in 20 states (the other 30 limit an employer's judgment to inside the office), but it's 20 too many.  How is that legal? I'm an adamant non-smoker and I am all for companies encouraging employees to be healthier--we all need a little push in that area. But to base someone’s job and livelihood on a non-work related habit is utterly preposterous. 

And to legally test an employee at work for nicotine, a legal drug, invades so much personal privacy that I am enraged -- for those who smoke and those who don’t.  I don’t like where this seeming “Big Brother” movement is going. Who's next? Employees who don’t eat rounded meals? Drink after-hours? Get too many speeding tickets? View television that isn’t particularly PG rated? Do you see what I am driving at? 

Work is work. Life is life.  Companies should not be allowed to penalize workers on their after-work activities, so long as it does not affect their productivity or representation in the office.  I think what really has me bothered is that the law backs up these tests and subsequent fines and firings—no penalties or litigations.  It makes me feel helpless in a way.  What ever happened to the law protecting human rights? 

Companies should incentivize employees to live healty, not threaten them.  Read how Dow Chemical's HR staff employed their employee wellness plan on ManageSmarter.com.

Comments

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I'm entirely with you on this. I have never known a company that hires/fires based on smoking. While I am also a non-smoker, I can't imagine that even when legally permitted, a company would stoop so low to increase profits as to exclude someone based on something so external to their productivity. It seems very short-sighted.