This Company Gave Non-Smokers Six Extra Vacation Days to Compensate for Smoke Breaks

Pity the smokers. Ostracized for their habit, they're barred from engaging in it almost anywhere in public. And now comes another indignity: After employees reportedly complained about their colleagues' smoke breaks, a Japanese company is granting its non-smoking workers an extra six days of paid vacation time a year.

According to the Telegraph, a spokesman for Toyko-based Piala Inc said a message left in a company suggestion box claimed smoke breaks were causing resentment among non-smokers. The marketing firm's head office is on the 29th floor of an office building and smokers had to venture to the basement level for their breaks, which each lasted about 15 minutes. The non-smoking employees claimed they were working more than the smokers. The spokesperson told the Telegraph that the CEO agreed and the company introduced additional time off for non-smokers in September.

But lost productivity wasn't the company's only concern. Takao Asuka, the Piala CEO, told Kyodo News, "I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion." Extra vacation days, then, are a way to nudge employees toward healthier habits.

Other Japanese firms have tried to lower smoking in their ranks as well. Lawson, a convenience store chain, banned smoking in its head office and regional offices. In fiscal year 2016, 33 percent of its employees smoked (in a country where 21.7 percent of adults smoke, according to the World Health Organization), and it hopes to bring that number down by 10 percentage points. Sompo Japan Nippon Kowa Himawari Life Insurance has also banned smoking at its offices during the day, while offering employees subsidies if they enroll in smoking cessation programs. (The company previously had smoking rooms; they're now resting roms.)

These changes may be well-intentioned, designed to help a workforce lead healthier lives and, incidentally, save the company money on healthcare costs. But they do raise ethical questions about how much control companies should have over their employees. Researchers have already criticized organizations that refuse to hire smokers (the World Health Organization and Cleveland Clinic among them), saying that kind of discrimination hurts an already disadvantaged population. They're similarly skeptical about rewards and penalties that treat smoking as a matter of willpower and personal choice, rather than an addiction.

Still, one human resources consultant doesn't see any problem with this policy. "I do not see any concerns here as this policy is simply rewarding a healthier lifestyle while recognizing those who are not taking any unnecessary breaks during their normal work hours," says Bahaudin Mujtaba, a professor of management at Nova Southeastern University who specializes in human resource management and has written about the ethics of health and wellness policies in the workplace.

But Mujtaba could see where it might get abused. "If non-smokers also take short or equivalent breaks to rest, then there can be an ethical concern regarding this additional incentive to encourage smokers to quit. Some employees may be tempted to lie about their smoking habits in order to receive the additional days off," he says. "However, if non-smokers are working while smokers get a smoke break, then this change in policy seems fair."

Though increasingly, companies are offering additional breaks during the workday. "Over the past few decades, many managers and departments have provided equal time off for breaks, such as coffee or tea breaks, so non-smokers can enjoy and relax their 15 minutes during each 4 hours of work, even when the law does not require the offering of such breaks." So perhaps if a company has something like this policy in place, then extra vacation time for nonsmokers might be a bridge too far.

Ethics aside, Piala says employees are taking advantage of the new policy. According to a spokesman, at least a quarter of the company's 120 employees have used extra vacation days since the program was introduced and four people have quit smoking.

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