Fired for Smoking

[Khirmint]

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/26...eut/index.html

The owner of a Michigan company who forced his employees to either quit smoking or quit their jobs said on Wednesday he also wants to tell fat workers to lose weight or else.

I was pretty surprised to read this article, and I'll be even more surprised if he actually manages to keep going like that.

I think its a good idea, but I a little too far. Having a work place encourage healthy living and even helping their employees do it (vouchers for the gym, bringing in specialists, etc.) is a great thing. Firing someone for not going with it though, I'm not so sure about. So long as it isn't adversely affecting the rest of the staff, what right does he have to fire someone for it?

Or is rising health care costs sufficient?

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Khirmint

I think its a good idea, but I a little too far. Having a work place encourage healthy living and even helping their employees do it (vouchers for the gym, bringing in specialists, etc.) is a great thing. Firing someone for not going with it though, I'm not so sure about. So long as it isn't adversely affecting the rest of the staff, what right does he have to fire someone for it?

I also wonder what kind of employees he is going to end up with eventually? Anyone willing to work under such conditions is probably not the "best person for the job."

I've heard of people giving gym vouchers or longer lunch breaks so people can excercise. Those sounded like good ideas. This guy is just stupid.

[Raeghin]

I feel bad for the ulgy people that work there. They must be next.

[Blog]

Company founder Howard Weyers has said the anti-smoking rule was designed to shield the firm from high health care costs. "I don't want to pay for the results of smoking," he said.

Sweet, after the fatties fire the high blood pressure people, diabetics and the asthmatics! Then he'll start saving some serious money.

This guy is going to have to pay out more in legal fees than he would have had to in health insurance for those smokers, no question about that.

[Gadiantor]

The Air Force does this exact same thing, only from a slightly different approach. We don't fire people for smoking. We make smoking so inconvenient that people are encouraged to quit. It is a great system! Smoking is also banned for Airman at Basic Training and their AFSC awarding Tech School (for at least a portion if not all). We're definitely trying to free up your tax dollars to buy more planes and bombs by cutting the health care costs, so I can definitely understand why business would do the same thing, though this guys approach sucks ass.

As for fat people...We used to have weight standard, but the system wasn't perfect. Now we conduct an abdominal measurement and it is part of our physical fitness score. Some team of doctors decided that abdominal circumfrence is related to all sorts of health issues. Basically they said if you have a small waist you'll be healthier. I'm not smart enough on biology and medical mumbo-jumbo to have an opinion on the matter. The approach this guy is taking to slim up the office seem reasonable and could be effective. If all goes well the quality of eye candy should increase...maybe that's his game!

[Pae]

Originally posted by Raeghin
I feel bad for the ulgy people that work there. They must be next.

And after them, the people who typo.

*hands Raeghin the classifieds*