NOTICE: If you have been developing a plan to help employees move beyond tobacco use, this article may be crucial to your company’s success in creating a healthy and productive culture.
At inDeed Wellness we help employer groups everyday in building a healthy workstyle for their employees to thrive in and reach their potential as people first and, as a result, employees also. Over the past decade, the determination that tobacco use in the workplace should be prohibited has left some employers struggling to come up with policies and procedures to prohibit smoking and at the same time show support for the value each employee (smoker or non-smoker) brings to their organization. While New York State has taken the lead in establishing the simple policy of all smoking is prohibited in workplaces, the challenging work of supporting employees who smoke is still something that all employers face. I’d like to offer some support in this area based on my 15+ years in the health and wellness industry.
There are a few key concepts that are crucial to keep in mind when supporting anyone who is trying to make a positive change in their life.
Permission to be who we are. Before any of us can move in a better direction, we have to understand that we are acceptable where we currently are. The reason this primary step is so important is because without understanding and embracing who we are, we will ultimately end up focusing on who we are not. For example, if a person who smokes is constantly focused on becoming a non-smoker without understanding why s/he smokes and what value they derive from smoking, they will never make a sound decision to not smoke. Wanting to be a non-smoker does not make it so. Deciding I am not a person who smoke requires that I know who I am and why I behave the way I do.
Employers may find it difficult to give their smoking employees the space they need to be who they are and understand their own behavior in regard to smoking. One simple method that can help bridge the gap in understanding between smoking employees and their non-smoking coworkers is to consciously decide to spend time with the smoking employee while they smoke. Can you imagine the powerful message that would be sent to an employee if their manager took a smoke break with them just to get to know them? Rather than feeling ashamed for the stigma of being less productive than non-smoking employees, the smoking employee could feel supported and a greater sense of belonging to the whole team.
Acknowledgement of the value we bring to the team. If your organization employs a person who smokes, it is important to remember that your company does not need that employee to quit smoking. Your company needs that person to do their best and be part of the successful team. By running ‘quit campaigns’ and posting stop smoking messages in front of your employees who smoke, your organization may be sending the exact opposite message you had hoped for. Instead of encouraging that smoking employee to move beyond tobacco use, the message tends to highlight where the smoking employee is lacking which can expand the feeling of shame. Our society already sends very strong messages to smoking people that are intended to induce shame. While those public service announcements can be amusing to non-smoking people, for a smoking person who is not ready to move beyond tobacco use, each ad is a reminder of how silly it is to smoke and how guilty they should feel for lighting up.
If your organization has employees who smoke, here’s a different approach. Let’s say that you have two employees who each do the same job and each produce the same amount and quality of work. One employee smokes and the other does not. Given that, on average, smoking employees take about 5, 15-minute breaks per day, the smoking employee is able to match the productivity of the non-smoking employee and still have 75 minutes of time to smoke left over. It seems that your smoking employee should receive an award for efficiency. While it may be hard to exactly quantify the level of efficiency of each employee, the point is that your smoking employees bring an equal amount of value to your organization. By reminding them of their value and affirming them for the effort they put in everyday, your company will empower them to look at ways to become even more productive and, perhaps, contemplate reducing the number of smoke breaks.
It isn’t personal...and it is. Each one of us behaves in a way that we believe brings us the most value all of the time. There is no difference in the decision-making process between the person who smokes and the person who exercises everyday. Both make a decision to behave in a certain way based on what they believe will bring them the most value. We humans are wonderfully complex in how we think and therefore how we behave. People who smoke are not making stupid decisions, nor are they trying to be lazy and sabotage your organization’s productivity. They decide to smoke each time they light up whether it is a conscious or subconscious decision. A person who doesn’t smoke is no different in how they decide to exercise. The key for both is awareness of why they decide to behave the way they do.
If your organization has one or more employees who smoke and you’d like to support them, one of the most powerful things you can do is listen. Once you’ve developed the relationship to a point where you can ask the following questions, the power of listening will be transformative for both you and the person who smokes.Do you remember the first time you smoked and what you were thinking and feeling at the time?
What prompted you to smoke your most recent cigarette?
What is the biggest benefit you get from smoking?
Would you encourage yourself to light your next cigarette? Why or why not?
As a society we have decided that smoking is unacceptable because of the obvious threat to our health. There is plenty of evidence and research to underscore this belief. However, to keep our employees engaged in our organizations and vested members of our team, it is crucial that we never mistake the behavior of smoking for the person who smokes.