Dori debates: Should employees be penalized for smoking?

A company in Japan is offering employees who are non-smokers an extra six days of vacation annually to make up for the time that their smoking colleagues take on cigarette breaks over a year.

Dori approved of this policy, but decided that if he ran a large company, he would take it a step further.

“I’d never hire a smoker,” he said. He added that he would know right away if someone was a smoker because he would “smell their breath, smell their clothes, look at their yellow fingers, and look at their yellow teeth.”

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Dori pointed out that not only would smokers likely ring up higher health care bills, but also would have a much lower productive output than their colleagues due to all of their smoking breaks.

He remembered in the early days of the Dori Monson Show, when smoking was more popular, watching out the window, incredulous at how frequently his colleagues would take cigarette breaks.

“I would watch the same people, 15 minutes an hour — I don’t have 15 minutes a day to spare,” he said.

Then Dori decided that he would hire smokers, but would give them a penalty so as to encourage them to break the habit.

“I would give the smokers and non-smokers the regular vacation, and I would dock six days from the smokers,” Dori said.

What do you think? Should non-smokers receive benefits from their employer? Or, as Dori suggested, should employers go so far as to give regular smokers negative repercussions for their unhealthy habit? Leave a comment below.