How smoking impacts your job

Smoking impacts more than just your health, it can affect almost every aspect of your life. If you own a home or a car and you have smoked in it, it automatically depreciates in value. You may have taken good care of the home or car, but you won't be able to make as much money when you sell it because you smoked in it. This is because getting the smell of cigarette smoke out of carpet and other areas is extremely difficult. Even if someone has a professional cleaner come in and deep-clean everything, the smell may still be there. Some people have even had to rip out sheetrock just to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke. Now what about your job? Smoking has a big impact on your job.

First and foremost, employers can legally discriminate against smoking employees. Almost every company has a policy on smoking and they will refuse to hire smokers. Smokers cost employers more money in health insurance costs, life insurance costs, and they have to give them smoke breaks, costing them money in lost production costs. The other bad pat about smokers is they tend to use more sick days, which also adds up for the employer. Some employers won't tell you this, but they often do not consider some employees for career advancement because of their lifestyle habits. This means smokers and obese employees will probably make less money throughout the course of their career than non-smokers and fit employees.

Second, not only do employers need to pay more money in lost production costs, they need to pay more to dental insurance and health insurance companies. The smokers tend to have more visits to the dentist and constantly need cleanings and other procedures done. Smoking does cause the teeth to stain, so many smokers will ask for multiple teeth whitening procedures. Now, onto the health insurance amount you will pay for being a smoker. Employers normally pay a portion of your health insurance, but they will be placed into a higher-risk pool if you are a smoker. If they weren't in a high-risk pool, they would be paying less in health insurance and this money would probably wind up as a higher wage for you. Since there are a lot of smokers out there, employers have decided to start charging them more money for the health insurance costs. This means you will probably pay about 15 to 20 percent higher from your co-workers for the same insurance coverage.

Third, you also will end up paying more money in life insurance coverage. Since smokers are at an increased risk for lung disease and cancer, life insurance companies won't give them a full coverage amount or they will charge them more money than healthy people. Normally the life insurance rates double for employees that are smokers. If you get life insurance from your employer, this money will come right out of your paycheck. Again, this additional amount your employer is picking up could go to your income, but instead they are losing it to the insurance company because of your lifestyle habits.

Finally, as a smoker you will face discrimination in the office. Everyone will say they are nice and they don't discriminate, but they still do. People won't want to ride in your car, especially if you smoke. They probably won't go outside for walks with you because they worry that you will light up on the walk. It also makes the air in the office stink, so you may have a hard time finding someone to sit next to you during staff meeting. If you haven't given up smoking, now is the time to do it. Not only will you be doing your body a favor, you will be helping your career as well.