News, No smoking at work. Or at home.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by Dee74

Thank you, you stated it PERFECTLY!

Whose right is the poster referring to, the rights of the employer to fire the employee, or the rights of the employee to smoke at home and not lose their job? Individual rights are always over lapping each other.

[karlking85]

I love an intelligent conversation. It's great to see so many people taking note of this, and I enjoy reading all these posts, on both sides of the fence. Keep em coming!

[Dee74]

Whose right is the poster referring to, the rights of the employer to fire the employee, or the rights of the employee to smoke at home and not lose their job? Individual rights are always over lapping each other.

I would hope those of the employee to be able to live their life as they choose at home. While on the job I thoroughly respect my employers right to have rules and policies and I abide by them at work or when representing the company in a public fashion. However when I do a good job for my employer I expect to be able to live my life as I see fit on my time in my home.

I'm very sorry but I thought I was born in the United States and could expect some level of privacy in my castle, since I can shoot them if they break in I fail to understand what I do there is any of their business if I perform as expected by my employer while on the job.

The employment contract in this country has changed greatly. Companies today are not offering pensions but 401k the general society at large is not capable managing the money well enough to secure a good retirement.( we won't get into fund mngr's ripping them off)

Health benefits are much less comprehensive than in the past and I am required to pay a great deal towards my health insurance costs and they deny coverage at ever increasing opportunities.I wish a system would form to get health care out of employer hands as they also would love to do.
So much for life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness and to be free from unreasonable search of my body and maybe now my home.

[karlking85]

Dee put it best. It just doesn't seem like we are living in a free country anymore. And though everyone is entitled to their opinion, I don't understand why so many are siding with the corporations, as if they are doing the general public a favor. They are only accomplishing one thing: SAVING THEMSELVES SOME MONEY.

I wish someone would tell me why it is okay for these companies to have total control of our lives, and how it is a good thing. I don't care if you hate smokers. I don't smoke, and I'm against smoking, but I don't HATE smokers. It is an addiction, they cannot be blamed for the fact that they are hooked, and should not be discriminated against for that fact.

Keep this in mind: While smoking may be an unfortunate habit that is certainly unhealthy, it is NOT illegal. There is no legible reason a company should have a right to screen potential employees on these grounds.

There are many different answers to the problem, and other solutions to the health care situation, as well as the health of coworkers. I bet Mr. Seigel would not even take a second out of his day to consider those options. And as president and CEO, he does not have to, don't get me wrong. But he should seriously stop claiming that his company is community-oriented, because it most certainly is not.

[HockeyMom72]

You mght be interested in this. Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness:

Raleigh, N.C. -- A state judge has ruled that North Carolina's 201-year-old law barring unmarried couples from living together is unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued last year to overturn the rarely enforced law on behalf of a former sheriff's dispatcher who says she had to quit her job because she wouldn't marry her live-in boyfriend.

Deborah Hobbs, 40, says her boss, Sheriff Carson Smith of Pender County, near Wilmington, told her to get married, move out or find another job after he found out she and her boyfriend had been living together for three years. The couple did not want to get married, so Hobbs quit in 2004.

State Superior Court Judge Benjamin Alford issued the ruling late Wednesday, saying the law violated Hobbs' constitutional right to liberty. He cited the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case titled Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down a Texas sodomy law.

"The Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas stands for the proposition that the government has no business regulating relationships between two consenting adults in the privacy of their own home," Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the ACLU of North Carolina, said in a statement.

[Floridabound09]

To put a new twist on it, DW owned her own business for 11 years, she paid for insurance for any employee who had been with her for more then 1 year.
When she did a cost analysis of her insurance and its cost, the most cost went to those who were smokers, they were far more costly to her for minor medical problems then those who didnt.
The office visits were almost nil for non smokers and smokers office visits were insane.

Simply put you have the right to do whatever you want in your own home, but an employer has the right to stop insurance coverage if you are doing things that are proven to cause you health problems that in the end cost them money.

DW had to stop paying for health insurance for her employees because the cost went out the roof when the insurance companies came to her and told her they would be adding extra money on her bill to cover those who smoked.

It's a cost thing for employers to pay for someone who chooses to smoke. Smokers are far more costly and hurts the companies profits. Then in turn maybe your paychecks.

I am for less government telling us what to do in our homes, but I am for companies who pay for ones health insurance when they are doing things that are proven to cause health problems.

Remember I went to my employers and asked for a job, they didnt come to me, when I can do things to make myself more valuable and not less valudable to my employer I get paid back in great health care, nice pay and nice raises and a great retirement package. Those who dont cost me those things.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by HockeyMom72

You mght be interested in this. Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness:

Raleigh, N.C. -- A state judge has ruled that North Carolina's 201-year-old law barring unmarried couples from living together is unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued last year to overturn the rarely enforced law on behalf of a former sheriff's dispatcher who says she had to quit her job because she wouldn't marry her live-in boyfriend.

Deborah Hobbs, 40, says her boss, Sheriff Carson Smith of Pender County, near Wilmington, told her to get married, move out or find another job after he found out she and her boyfriend had been living together for three years. The couple did not want to get married, so Hobbs quit in 2004.

State Superior Court Judge Benjamin Alford issued the ruling late Wednesday, saying the law violated Hobbs' constitutional right to liberty. He cited the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case titled Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down a Texas sodomy law.

"The Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas stands for the proposition that the government has no business regulating relationships between two consenting adults in the privacy of their own home," Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the ACLU of North Carolina, said in a statement.

Every state has lots of stupid laws that somehow got passed and are all but forgotten but still on the books.

[SKB]

The Palm Beach Sheriffs Department will NOT hire you if you smoke (and up to two years prior to work for them UNLESS you are a school crossing guard, apparently it's ok to smoke around children.

Go Figure.

[karlking85]

Hahaha SKB, that's hilarious! Unfortunately, that's about the state of the world we live in these days.