I was on GB News yesterday discussing smoking breaks at work.
It followed a report in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday - ‘Cigarette breaks give smokers an extra week of holiday a year’.
According to the paper:
More than half (52 per cent) of smokers surveyed said they leave their desks for a cigarette or vape break multiple times a day, according to research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
If I was surprised it’s because it’s not the sort of research I normally associate with the ONS.
Scrolling down, however, readers were then told that the survey ‘was carried out by tobacco-free nicotine pouch and vape company Haypp UK’, which made more sense.
The true source of the research was also confirmed by subsequent reports in The Sun (‘The amount of time smokers get off work just with cigarette breaks revealed – it’s more than you think’) and The Times (‘Cigarette breaks ‘add up to an extra week off work’).
(According to The Times, ‘In 2021, 13 per cent of people in the UK aged over 18 smoked cigarettes, which equates to 6.6 million people, according to the Office for National Statistics’, so perhaps that was in the original press release and the Telegraph got confused when initially attributing the Haypp research to the ONS.)
Throwing smokers under a bus has of course become de rigueur for the non-combustible nicotine industry, but I’m not sure it’s a particularly clever thing to do.
Vaping, for example, is now prohibited in many places where smoking is banned, which is the inevitable consequence of not fighting smoking bans because, for many people, vaping bans are the next logical step.
Pouches are a different proposition to cigarettes and vapes because it’s virtually impossible to see what someone has got in their mouth, so good luck policing that.
Nevertheless, I think it’s short-sighted to feed the anti-nicotine industry with ammunition that can be used to attack consumers of other nicotine products, including cigarettes, but there you go.
Surely it’s possible to promote the benefits and convenience of pouches without belittling smokers, your potential future customers?
But back to GB News.
I was interviewed by Dawn Neesom, who is a regular guest on both GB News and TalkTV. Yesterday however the former editor of the Daily Star (2003-2018) was presenting her own programme.
The topic of our discussion was ‘Should we dock the pay of smokers?’.
You can guess my answer but the conversation took a surprise turn when Dawn asked me, “Should we allow wine in the office as well?”
This is an interesting question to which there is no simple answer because it depends on a number of factors but, given the fact that the interview was coming to a close, I thought I’d better keep my answer short, hence my reply:
“I don’t see why not.”
I’m not suggesting office workers should be glugging back the wine on a regular basis, or getting drunk at their desk, but the odd tipple?
I know a man (who shall remain nameless) who enjoyed a glass of wine most days in his office, and fair play to him.
OK, it was during his lunch break (he wasn’t taking drink breaks!) but it was always in moderation and had no affect on his ability to do his job.
Perhaps it’s because I’m from an older generation, but I remember when drinking during working hours (albeit not at one’s desk) was perfectly normal.
I started work in 1980 and for several years it was not unusual to have a pub lunch that included at least one pint of beer.
In those days the culture in PR and journalism saw alcohol not as the enemy of work but a vital part of it.
Lunches with clients were expected to include an aperitif followed by wine with the meal.
At the same time many journalists in what was Fleet Street were fuelled by alcohol.
Today nothing makes my heart sink faster than the announcement that my lunch companion isn’t drinking.
Recently that included Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale Restaurants, who was happy to be photographed with a glass of wine, but in reality not a drop passed his lips.
And he’s a restaurateur and wine connoisseur!
As for drinking in the office, there is a time and a place, I know that, but I also stand by my response to Dawn Neesom on GB News.
Likewise, I don’t see why staff shouldn’t smoke at work if it doesn’t interfere with their ability to do their job.
As I said to Neesom, many non-smokers take non-authorised breaks. What matters to an employer is whether they get the job done and, in my experience of working with smokers and non-smokers, smoking has never been a factor in their ability to do just that.
It’s worth noting too that smoking areas at work can be the most egalitarian - a place where staff rub shoulders with senior management on an (almost) equal footing.
In fact, someone once told me that the smoking area was the one place she regularly got to meet the managing director of the FTSE 100 company she worked for because he was a smoker too.