mentalrage

Don't Get In The Way Of The Black Lunged Hordes

With the new smoking ban kicking into effect last week my place of work was busy drawing up it's new policy regarding smoking and it went like this *clears throat*

Smoking will not be allowed anywhere within the premises due to the smoking ban coming into effect July 1, this means as of July 1 the smoking room will be locked until further notice, colleagues should also note that due to the centre's policy smoking is not allowed anywhere in the centre premises this includes the carparks.

Bearing in mind that about 95% of the 500 strong workforce where I currently work smoke like chimneys this didn't go down too well so after much bitching, moaning and stamping of feet the following statement was issued by The Management:

"As you should all know by now smoking is no longer allowed on store premises but it has been pointed out that many staff feel that they should be allowed to smoke outside store premises so the management team has come to an arrangement with centre staff and staff are now allowed to smoke outside in the designated smoking area
in their own time please note staff on paid breaks will not be allowed outside due to health and safety issues."

Now you would think that this would be seen as a generous offer from the "management team" but apparently not, after a week of watching their staff cracking under the strain of nicotine cravings and fearing "industrial action" yet another statement was issued and placed on the staff noticeboard.

"Regarding the centre smoking policy the management team have come to the understanding that staff should be allowed to smoke in the designated smoking area during paid and unpaid breaktimes, this does not apply to the night shift as staff can not be allowed out the store due to security issues."

I'm currently waiting for statement number 4 saying the nightshift can smoke too, now if only getting a pay rise was as easy