Forest office site goes smoke free
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at 14:45 Twenty years ago Forest moved from a leased office in London to a substantially cheaper serviced office in Cambridge.
In January, as I explained here, the site previously known as Castle Park was rebranded as Journey Campus (!) and the building previously known as Sheraton House was renamed The Quad.
When we moved to Castle Park in February 2004 I’m pretty sure that smoking was already prohibited in Sheraton House. Instead, staff would go outside to smoke.
Later, smoking directly outside the building was banned too and smokers were given a small smoking area 20-30 yards away.
Today I received this message:
Journey Campus is now a NON-SMOKING SITE. Please be aware that smoking is now not permitted anywhere on the Campus.
If staff members do wish to smoke, they will need to leave site. To confirm, this also includes vaping.
I’m not sure that was in the terms and conditions I signed last year!
Reader Comments (2)
Well if it was not in your agreement you signed in Feb, do not adhere to it, it could be construed as a breach of contract.
If something goes against your rights, you should demand their respect by others. What is right is what you want to do, and that may be judged if necessary after it's done and not in advance. The point is to do what you decide for yourself and not to be told by others, giving instructions and issuing commands to you.
You have the inalienable right to smoke outside that premise because the air belongs to everyone and not only to some instead of others, and that rule is not valid and is excessive and must definitely not be punished. It is a rule that the actions of anyone concerning themselves form instructions for the others to follow when they respect your freedom.
Okay, maybe you are not allowed to smoke inside, or anywhere inside, but you can smoke outside everywhere and that is your right. The air belongs to everyone and there is no rule about how it is used to breathe and to dispose of waste in the open. The Earth belongs to its inhabitants and not only to some of them instead of others, and justice should be conferred to that rule.There is no rule from anyone but everyone can do whatever they like with the air that they breathe to live. So long as you are not interfering with others by deriving your actions from them you are free to do what you are entitled to do on your own. Just like they think they have the right to punish you when you are not responsible for anything and your actions have no consequences, or just like they think they have the right to impose that unnecessary rule on you, in the same way you have the right to be the master of yourself and that means deciding about what you will do on your own.
It is most rude of them like they should not be to send you along the pavement from the surrounding space in order to smoke on the street. People do not only smoke on the street, they smoke because they live and exist. The figure of speech, tell them with my regards, that somebody was smoking on the street is depictive of a crook and has no place on paper or on their bloody mouth.