Are your employee smoke breaks costing you money?

If the threat of cancer has not convinced you to stop smoking, then maybe the idea of losing your job will.Not only is it expensive for you to smoke, but it would seem that it is also costing your employer more money than they'd like it to.Smokers pay more for insurance, lost money on resale values of cars and homes, spend extra on dry cleaning, teeth cleaning, and earn and receive less in pension and social security.Not only can it keep you from being hired; it can also get you fired.Many companies today will ask potential employers when filling out applications to answer the question "Do you smoke?"Does it seem fair?Well, if it costing the company money then yes it is fair.Are your employee smoke breaks costing you money?

Insurance and Health Care costs
With the cost of health care rising drastically every year, businesses are looking for ways to contain the costs of insurance for employees by limiting coverage, subscribing HMO's, and increasing deductibles.The Surgeon General's report of 1986 noted that "Policies regulating smoking at the workplace for the protection of employees' health are a trend of the 1980's.The price for insurance that a non smoker will pay in premiums per year is between $570 and $1035.For someone smoking just one pack of cigarettes a day the prices for up to as much as $4250 a year.This is costing your company valuable dollars.The difference in health insurance is also evident when it compares smokers and non smokers.The approximate monthly premium for a 44 year old non smoker is about $239 a month with a $1500 deductible.The same policy for a smoker is $276 a month and almost $444 per year.So while the actual smoking break may not be costing you a ton of money, the smoking habit certainly is.Subsequently it has also been seen that health insurance costs increase for those who do not smoke because they must breathe the smoke inside the workplace.The increase for non smoking employers can be as much as $45 a year for accidental injury and related worker's compensation costs.

There are many other areas where smoking can cost its employer valuable dollars.Some of those other areas are:
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• Absenteeism.On average, employees who smoke are absent from work fifty percent more than those employees who do not smoke.It has been studied and found that employees who smoke miss five and a half more work days that non smoking employees.Finding someone to replace the absent employee as well as lowered productivity and morale among employees' costs the company time and money.


• - Productivity.If you understand the smoking ritual you can understand how much valuable time is lost by smokers.The need to satisfy "nicotine fits" is constant thus decreasing your productivity.Inefficiency and errors due to high levels of CO2 have also been related to smokers as well as eye irritation and lower attentiveness.This greatly affects productivity and costs your company money.


• - Maintenance Costs.Even though you have designated smoking areas the maintenance costs of a building drastically increase.Cleaning is the major issue when it comes down to maintenance.Such things as drapes, furniture stains and smells, and routine ashtray cleanings cost companies a lot of money.

So are your employee smoke breaks costing you money?You bet they are.They might not be directly affecting you, but indirectly there are hidden costs everywhere and you could save a ton of money by banning the smoking all together.