St Luke's Hospital announced yesterday that beginning in May, new hires must be nicotine-free. Applicants will be subject to nicotine screening (presumably based on,yellow teeth, bad breath, and burn holes in their garments). Those who fail will have the opportunity to re-test within six months (with sparkling smiles, sweet breath, and an intact wardrobe).
Among the motivators for the new policy were findings that smokers spend 8% of their time at work smoking.
How times have changed! When I began at Air Products in 1972, I was issued a black plastic ashtray along with my stapler, tape dispenser, and other desk accessories. Conference Rooms featured large glass ashtrays. Rest rooms even included chrome ashtrays alongside the urinals much to the relief of the uncoordinated who couldn't safely smoke and pee simultaneously. Smoking was part of working life.
It had its downside, of course. There were several instances of wastebasket fires from hastily-dumped, still-smoldering ashtrays in the 5:00 race out the door. When an errant spark met the polyester clothing so popular in the late 70s, the results were not pretty.
On the other hand, with just the right concentration of smoke, Conference Room lighting became less harsh and almost soothing allowing a tobacco-fueled reverie that some translated into sleep and others into creativity.
This is where St Luke's may be missing the boat. In the later years, I was one of those employees puffing away in the designated outdoor smoking area. If smoking time was, in fact, 8% of my working day (and it probably was more than that), informal interaction with fellow nicotine addicts led to more guidance and good advice than all my Group Meetings and Quarterly Evaluations combined. There is something about shivering in the February wind with your feet in slush that brings a willingness to share one's work expertise with fellow smokers. What St Luke's gains in time at work, it may lose in job knowledge.
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