Smoker burns over ‘rights’

512

Dear Joan:
So your terribly mistreated correspondent feels victimized because her fellow workers smoke, does she? Poor baby! To think she actually has to walk through a room where people have been smoking to get to the refrigerator--how does she bear it? We are indeed becoming a nation of victims.

I have a much better suggestion for her than yours: Why doesn't she get a different job, where she need associate only with the morally superior? Or better yet, make the investment and take the risks of starting her own firm? I can assure you that her employer will be overjoyed to see her go.

So you can tell I'm a smoker, even when I'm not smoking? Guess what Ms. Lloyd, I don't care! Your opinion of me, good or bad, is a matter of colossal indifference to me.

We smokers are offended too: By people who drink too much at athletic events or drive their motor vehicles with elevated blood-alcohol contents; by users of recreational drugs who kill innocent victims in pursuit of their habit; by people whose sexual lifestyle spreads a killer disease that runs up the cost of health care and medical research; by a welfare system that encourages generations of dependency on productive people, and spreads street crime; by motorists producing noxious fumes in the ambient air....[the list goes on].

The difference between you and me is that I'm aware that nobody can get through life without being "offended" on plenty of occasions--but I don't feel that gives me the right to make the rest of the world over in my image.

So "work places everywhere are banning smoking because it's the right thing to do" huh? What drivel! Who appointed you the arbiter of what's right? Do you define "right" as whatever does not offend you personally?

In a free society, where private property rights prevail, "right" is what the owner of a home, a business, a car, or any other property says is appropriate in his/her domain--so long as it isn't illegal. As hard as you've all tried, the Coercive Utopians have not yet managed to pull that off.

I can assure you that if any employee of mine came to me spouting the kind of self-righteous malarkey you advise, that person would be out on his/her ear at the very first opportunity. And I would find that opportunity!

You may know quite a bit about the less-than-savory skills involved in playing politics in large corporations--but I'd suggest that you are a babe in the woods in understanding the culture of small, entrepreneurial firms, where the PC politics have not yet managed to take away all our freedoms. believe me, you have done your correspondent no favors with this naive advice!

Answer:
...I'm reminded of two old tried and true axioms: 1. "Those who have the gold make the rules." 2. "There is none more virtuous than the reformed drinker and/or prostitute." (Add non-smoker). Where are your priorities?

The thing that troubles me about your letter is that you will "find an opportunity" to throw an employee "out on his/her ear" if they come to you with a request with which you disagree. If you would fire an employee because he or she was concerned about smoking, what would you do if an employee had any idea that was different from yours?

As you point out, because you "have the gold" you can make the rules for your business and as a result, I suggest that you warn all prospective employees that you have a smoking environment and that any complaints better be kept to themselves if they are to work for you. Although your business is "in a free society where private property rights prevail" your business environment is indeed public space because other people work there.

Maybe I'm missing something, but from what I've seen, the size of the company doesn't make a difference when it comes to building a great working environment. Whether an employee works for a large corporation or a small, entrepreneurial company, he/she still wants to be treated with respect and dignity. Employees want to have open, honest, two-way communication, they want to have some input into their work and their environment.

What you seem to be suggesting is that you can do anything you want and make any rule you want because you own the company. You can do that but it will cost you. It will cost you good employees. It will cost you because good ideas will never be heard. It will cost you because fear will be the prevailing emotion.

Ironically, you claim that you are offended by "users of recreational drugs who kill innocent victims in pursuit of their habit" and diseases that run up the "cost of health care and medical research." The American Cancer Society and The American Lung Association agree with you...as does the Surgeon General and researchers everywhere. Of course it's your right to smoke--no one is suggesting it isn't--but when you do it in a place where others are forced to be subjected to it, it becomes a more public matter.

You, too, sound like a "victim." You sound defensive and picked on by a world that is making rules about smoking based on scientific evidence: it kills people and second-hand smoke is dangerous...those are simply the facts. This is a health issue; not one of passing "moral judgment" or being "politically correct" or who is "right." You say "I don't feel that gives me the right to make the rest of the world over in my image" yet by forcing them to inhale your smoke, you are forcing them to do just that.

Advanced Consulting Skills for HR Professionals is Joan Lloyd’s intensive, interactive full-day workshop for HR practitioners.  Human resources professionals—both functional experts and generalists—have a new found opportunity to act as internal consultants who can help their organizations with organizational changes, performance coaching, conflict mediation and other value-added services. This workshop focuses on giving HR professionals the tools and strategies they need to help their organizations as well as advance their careers.

As a participant, you will have an opportunity to work on the problems and opportunities you face in your own organization, as well as to hear innovative ideas from other organizations.  Few training opportunities provide this level of intimate, hands-on experience. Call us for information about having Joan Lloyd work with your HR Team (800) 348-1944.  (Occasionally, we run this workshop as an open enrollment training offering.  Subscribe to Joan Lloyd’s “Article of the Week,” where we announce these sessions, as they are scheduled.)