Reply #26: I am an ex-smoker and I call bullshit on this one. [View All]

I don't smoke anymore--had my last smoke when they called Ohio for the asswipe--but I have got to call bullshit on anybody telling me that they are FIRING smokers for their own good...

Look, the insurance claims (and costs, ultimately) do run higher over time for smokers. I don't think anyone can deny that--we KNOW smoking is bad for your health. I can understand the idea of some SOB being too cheap to foot the bill for smokers who spent years killing themselves by degrees, but I simply can't accept that firing anybody is gonna help them any.

If the company is too cheap to pay for the added insurance costs associated with smoking, then why not just tell employees who smoke they can't have company health insurance unless they pay more for it? Hell, tell them NO insurance at all if they keep smoking, but you can't just FIRE somebody for what they can legally do off your property.

I hate the entire drug testing thing with a passion--and refused drug testing to get a job at one place--but I also realize they are testing for substances that are illegal. (I'm not gonna go into the entire "legalize it" speech, much as I'd like to) Dammit, cigarettes, however, are still legal to own and consume and it is nobody's business except my Doc's if I want to smoke a carton at night in my home!

My logic is I don't want to work for any asshole that will intrude in my private life like that. If he'll piss on my rights that way, he'll do it in the workplace too.

Everybody needs to call bullshit on this guy. He could give a shit about his employees and he's lying if he says he is.



Laura