Next: You may be fired because your BMI is not in proper range

Yeah but grandma is an unavoidable expense. Smokers have the choice to quit. I've done it after smoking eleven years at 1-2 packs a day.

If grandma were a smoker on the other hand .... heheh

I quit smoking 2 years ago after smoking for about 14 years. From age 16-30.
Quiting smoking isn't hard at all, you just need the disipline to do it. And most folks who have weak minds give into temptation at the first signs of withdraw... Quiting doesn't kill, Continuing does.

That may be possible in america, but it's certainly not common here.
Around here you have your salary discounted to pay for corporate health care, and then you pay taxes to support the inneficient government-sponsored health system, and since they both suck you end up paying through the nose to get a decent doctor instead of a corpse factory.

Smoking makes you look cool. Everyone knows it.

Smoking is a great appetite suppressant. While smoking is bad for you, being overweight is worse. A lot worse. On top of that, the older you get the harder it is to reverse the longtime effects of obesity on your body.

Tobacco is the most profitable cash crop for small farmers.

Don't blame smoking, blame big corporations. If this country weren't being held hostage by the insurance and drug industries we wouldn't be in this situation.

Lots of things are bad for you. Smoking is just one of them and not the worst.

Did I mention it makes you look cool?

Personally I think smoking makes you look disgusting and stupid. But what do I know, eh?
I'm just an egg.

During work, there are such things as breaks. And sometimes, it is more convenient to do this in the workplace environment (such as a ping-pong table set up somewhere), than have to commute home.

It's a personal choice and I know where you're coming from, but for me, my happiness is my business -- but not only that, it's other people's too. My interactions with other people affect all involved. If I'm constantly pissed-off and dour, that will reflect on poor morale. So even when being professional, I must aspire to be cheery and happy.

Yeah I'm basically in the same boat you are. But I'm personally just tired of everyone thinking they are owed a free ride for bad choices they make. If you know smoking hurts you and you are liable to take more breaks and more days off why do you think you are worth the business's money towards higher premiums! I hear "Ohh its legal and you have to take on my burdens of higher premiums" .. driving is legal too and when you start driving on the wrong side of the road knowing it isn't cool to do so you're gonna run into problems down the line (road)

Breaks? You people are spoiled
Back when I was working as a web developer, I got funny looks for as little as going to the frickin bathroom.
Deadlines were usually "yesterday" and I had to work on weekends and holidays.
Breaks... pfft!

You are such a hard worker, Eggy. But I still think you deserve a break every now and then. Treat yourself to one! Don't be a hard-boiled egg.

They time toilet breaks at our place. A technician was pulled up recently for being away from their desk for too long at a time to go (over 3 minutes, I think was the criteria).

And I agree with Eggy for the most part, but thats a lot to do with my employers attitude towards us being reflected back as 'fuck you too' - my business is my own, as long as I'm doing the work. Which I do - I do exactly what I'm paid for, no more and no less. I have no interest in what they want from me or can offer to me beyond that - to the point I have an email rule to send anything from the 'Social Committee' to the trashcan, hehe.

Actually our place DO test for substances etc, but despite it being compulsory, I simply refuse and the HR department are too inept to notice, let alone follow it up.

My bottom drawer is full of Snack A Jacks and healthy snacks, my desktop pc has cd's and a beanie baby on it, I have a bottle of water and red bull on my desk and I am currently eating a Dark Chocolate Bounty at my desk...

I love my job

I suggest you relocate to America. End Socialism and join with the Capitalist.

Did you star in the Movie Office Space? Yeah, thats you... I knew it..

Red Stapler!

No, dictating behavior is authoritarianism or totalitarianism, if taken to its extreme. Socialism is a point on the economic spectrum. There isn't a direct relation between the two.

Kris! OMG! THREE MINUTES?
I can SO not shit in 3 minutes, for crying out loud. That's nuts!
I guess you must eat a lot of fiber.

While I can understand the corporate train of thought here, the fact is, people shouldn't lose their jobs over doing something that is perfectly legal.

However, this is a very good illustration of why socialized medicine would be such a mistake. With socialized medicine the Government and thus the people are footing the tab. What's to stop them from refusing care to smokers or the obese since these are self inflicted issues?


-Kiamat Dusk
...has health care coverage.

Umm..whats to stop them now? They can just keep raising health costs now. But of course that makes the rich richer. I'm lucky my health care is relatively affordable because I work for a huge corporate entity, but I know many folks that just can't afford to go to the doctor now..

Ok Now we have:

1) They can fire you for ingesting an illegal substance at any time and force you to be tested in order to keep your job. Check.

2) They can fire you for ingesting a substance that is legal but possibly harmful to your body, though still legal and force you to be tested. Check.

3) They can fire you for over ingesting a substance that your body requires [food]. Wonder how they intend to judge overweight? By which/whose standards? Check.

Hmmmm

How soon before they will be able to fire you because:

3) They don't like the legal over the counter medication your taking, say for a cold for example. Oh wait a minute, they already do when they test you for illegal substances they tell you not to ingest X,Y and Z.

4) Your genetic map indicates that you have a > than X probability of getting heart disease or cancer. Well not yet anyway.

5) Or your not married and married people statistically live longer and take less personal risk.

6) Or the kind of car you decided to buy implies that you might speed.

Really they don't have much less to demand from us - as it is they get our piss and blood anyway.

With regard to socalized health insurance - I don't see much difference between corporatized or socalized they will both be just as intrusive except the corporatized health insurance will have more [legal] excuses to deny you health care and get away with it, because they are accountable to no one on a moral basis.

There are unfortunately companies with those type of draconian restroom break and morning/lunch/afternoon break policies in the US as well.

Here's a link to an ILO (The United Nations' International Labor Organization) study concerning hours worked per week, vacation time given, etc. in different countries. I knew some of this info already but it's very interesting. I can say one thing, I am envious of the vacation time that some of my European friends are allowed.

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/08/30/ilo.study/

Wonder when they are going to demand a stool sample from employees - it would give a whole new meaning to giving your boss shit.

Wait a minute, I thought shit rolled downhill.

This is a further example of why, increasingly, it is a much much better idea to work for yourself than bend over for some corporation.

When I did work for other people, my policy on drug testing was this: I'll take it once. Coming in the door. If you want me to take it again, I will and then quit. When the results come back clean dont bother calling me to come back to work - you lost your chance.

Oddly enough, they never asked me to do so at any of the places I worked. Go figure

Not to mention that drug tests are ridiculously simple to pass even if you were smoking pot on the way to piss in the cup.

Corporations & their policies are getting way out of hand. I know someone who was denied a job loading and unloading trucks because he filed bankruptcy 2 years prior. Ridiculous.

Kiddies: work for yourself. Dont be a cog in the machine or you will always be someone's lapdog. And while being a lapdog might be fine for some, it isnt for me.

-AP

Osprey I am going to forward that link the everyone that I know. Awesome!