Can you fire an employee for smoking?

Recently several companies have fired or suspended employees that were caught smoking on company property. Some states have passed laws stating that employers have the right to fire employees for smoking. Other states have rules about smoking stating that you cannot fire an employee for smoking as long as they are in designated smoking areas. Whirlpool Corporation is just one company that suspended employees because they were caught smoking or using tobacco on company property. They were able to suspend them because these employees had claimed they were not using tobacco on their insurance documents. People lie on forms like this so they can reduce their health insurance costs because several employers have begun penalizing employees that make lifestyle choices that increase healthcare costs.

Companies like Whirlpool actually fine their employees for smoking. Each year, the smoking employees must pay an additional $500 a year to the health insurance plan. If an employee claims they do not smoke or use tobacco and they are caught, they can be fired. Since Whirlpool has taken a large stand against smoking, other employers are stepping up and penalizing their employees that smoke.

Some companies feel a penalty for a lifestyle choice is a little harsh so they opt for incentives to help their employees keep smoking. Incentives are nice, but they actually cost your company more money up-front. You will need to supply your employees with a cash reward or another reward for quitting smoking. If you don't want to invest in the incentives, it may be better off just to penalize the employees that cause the healthcare costs to increase.

Another downside to incentive programs is that there is no way to track the efforts of the employee. An employee can claim to you that they have given up smoking, but you aren't with them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to know if they have quit smoking. They may be able to reduce their cravings while they are at work, but they still smoke when they are at home and in the car on the way to work. The only way you can fire employees for smoking is if you catch them in a lie, like Whirlpool did.

If you want to encourage your employees to quit smoking, you need to give them a timeline of when they need to stop smoking. There are several support groups out there that can help your employees stop smoking. Start with the web site, SmokeFree.gov; this is a government web site with hundreds of tips on how to quit smoking for good. It can help your employees push through the cravings and truly give up smoking for the rest of their life.

When your employees quit smoking, their bodies will begin to work to cleanse the smoke from the system within 20 minutes of their last cigarette. The blood pressure will decrease and your pulse rate will drop. After 24 hours of quitting, your chances of having a heart attack will decrease. Everything with your body starts to improve and you will start to feel better. Over time, your heart will function better and your chances of having lung disease will decrease.

Quitting smoking not only benefits you, it benefits all the people around you. What about your children, your spouse, your friends, and your co-workers? Did you ever stop to think about what you are doing to their bodies? Not only are you increasing their risk of lung cancer and lung disease, you are exposing them to harmful toxins that can cause heart problems and a handful of other dangerous problems. You are stealing your children's time on earth simply to feed your addiction to cigarettes. If you can't give up cigarettes for your own health, consider giving them up for the sake of your loved ones.

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Categories: Smoking,

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