One company has created an incentive to get employees to stop smoking. Non-smoker vacation days may become a thing of the future after one Japanese company, Piala, Inc. has decided to give employees who do not take smoke breaks six extra vacation days during the year. This is to offset the smoking breaks of their cigarette-addicted co-workers.
30 of the company’s 120 employees have already taken advantage of this new incentive since the change was made in September. The extra vacation days have also encouraged four employees to stop smoking completely.
“One of our non-smoking staff put a message in the company suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems,” Hirotaka Matsushima, a spokesman for Piala said. “Our CEO saw the comment and agreed, so we are giving nonsmokers some extra time off to compensate.”
The office is located on the 29th floor. This forces smokers to take an extended amount of time to go outside and smoke. Non-smokers felt they were working more than their co-workers who headed outside multiple times a day to take a drag.
That actually makes a lot of sense. If the smokers are entitled to time off to smoke, then non-smokers should be entitled to the same amount of time off work. Six days off seems like a lot, but when you consider that they skip 15-20 minute breaks a couple times a day or more during each workday, that time adds up quickly.
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This company’s policy change wasn’t done just to reward non-smokers. Management wants to also incentivize non-smokers to give up the habit. “I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion,” Piala Inc CEO Takao Asuka reported.
It will be interesting to see if American companies follow this lead. In addition to being good for morale, it would help with health-related expenses such as sick days or medical care.
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Source: Bored Panda