Where There's Smoke, There's Fired!

No that's not a typo in the title line. A company here in Michigan has implemented a policy that allows the company to fire employees for smoking even if they do so on their own time and property. In fact, they are testing employees for nicotine and have already fired four employees for refusing the test.

Guess what, they are not alone in their quest to rid their company of smokers. Our local community college has a hiring policy, which became effective 01 January 2005, stating that tobacco users will not be considered for full-time positions.

Folks, I am not pro-tobacco, not even slightly. I do not smoke or use any form of tobacco, nor do I think I could ever feel ok about working for a tobacco company. I even hate being around people who are smoking. However, I find both of these policies to be absurd.

The reasoning behind these policies is that smoking causes higher medical claims, which in turn causes higher cost for benefits, and that smoking increases the number of days lost to sickness, which in turn decreases productivity. As always, it's all about the money.

This isn't the same as banning smoking in public places. No one is forcing his cigarette smoke on you while you try to enjoy a meal in this case. Companies are firing or refusing to hire people for doing something legal on their own time, in private.

I understand the argument the companies are making, but I disagree vehemently with them on this. I have two issues regarding the logic behind these decisions.

First, if the issue is that smoking increases the cost of health insurance at your place of business, why not simply take that into account when putting together a benefits package? If there is an increase that is due to each of the smokers on your company's insurance, charge a higher premium for those that smoke. This is essentially a universal policy with life insurance. Smoking=higher risk=higher chance of the insurance company paying out=higher premiums. Why not take care of your problem by increasing the health care premiums rather than firing people for their habits? Besides, is it really cost efficient to pay for nicotine testing, firing people, hiring replacements, training replacements (what happened to that loss of productivity thing we were so worried about?), having some employees dedicating a large portion of their time to the program and dealing with the ill-will that will be brought on your company all to avoid an increased health insurance premium?

Second, and more importantly, if we can start firing people for smoking because that increases health care costs, where do we draw the line for other activities? After all, smoking isn't the only thing that causes people to use health insurance more or miss work more. Should we begin firing people for being overweight? There is a preponderance of evidence that obesity is a contributing factor to many health problems, any of which could cause an employee to miss work or dare to make insurance claims. What if any employee has a pre-existing health condition that will cause them to occasionally miss work and go to the doctor? Oh, that's different because it's not a choice? Well, one could argue that obesity usually is, but for now we'll just assume that neither of these are choices employees make, and therefore shouldn't be compared. What about one choice that typically causes employees to make insurance claims for enormous amounts and causes employees to miss huge blocks of time: pregnancy? How much does the insurance company have to pay out for a hospital birth? Visits to the OB's office before the birth? How much time is missed during pregnancy? How much time do people take for maternity leave? How much time do mothers and fathers take off because the kids are sick or have an appointment here or there? I hope I don't have to convince anyone out there how despicable the concept of firing an employee for choosing to have a child would be. While I agree that there is a huge difference between pregnancy and smoking, my problem is that once we begin to accept one, we are that much closer to the other.

My 0.015 Euros (two cents ain't what it used to be) for companies worried about health care costs increasing due to smoking: Educate don't terminate.

Until later...