Smoking to be banned at all US Dell campuses

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Thoughts? This doesn't just apply to employees it includes contractors, consultants and customers that are onsite. Interesting choice by Dell.
 
Seems reasonable. They're a private company and can do what they want.

Right, Macanudo?
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I don't have a dog in this fight, but the statement that it is a private business, they can do what they want is simply not true. Ask someone who owns a bar, restaurant or other "public place," housed in their own building, in Austin.
 
So their reasoning is ********. As a person who worked for Dell for just under a decade, and finally left in disgust, this decision infuriated me.

Why? They claimed they are doing this to be more green, help the environment and because they care about their employees.

1) If this was an environmental policy, why would they restrict it to US campuses only? Why not put this policy in effect in Ireland, China, Singapore, etc?
2) Dell has taken great pains over the last 6 years to show that it really doesn't give a **** about its employees.

I don't have a problem with their decision, I have a problem with the way they are lying about their justification. They are doing this to work a health insurance discount, guaranteed, and saving that money is the only thing that truly concerns them.

Oh one other thing that pissed me off. Part of this ban includes smoking inside your own car while parked in their parking lot. The next time I let an employer tell me what I can and can't do inside my own vehicle will be the first.
 
If it's to save cost on health insurance, I'm fine with that. If people want to knowingly give themselves cancer, bronchitis, emphyzema, etc. then they should foot the bill, not everyone else.

To be honest, I'm fine with any reason they could come up with. Kudos to Dell from me. More businesses should be doing this.
 
I smoked for over 10 years and quit about four years ago. Though I will never rejoin the ranks of the "smoke-hole," this is ridiculous.

At least have an area where the smokers can go take a break, but those breaks need to be reasonable and not abused. Though Dell can do what it wants, this policy is going to alienate people who are probably otherwise productive workers.

I don't see a smoke break as any different from me surfing Hornfans or other non-offensive websites at work when I need a break, or am checking on personal business occasionally during the workday.

Yes, nicotine is an addiction, but it's not like drinking or pot. People can still function if they're smokers. I'd rather have a happy smoker on my team vs. someone who might be a nic-fitting a-hole/*****!

If you smoke, you pay more for health and life insurance anyway. That's your choice. Pay more now, and possibly "pay" later. I quit, but I'm not going to sit here and legislate others.
 
I have a customer in Ft.Worth that has a huge campus and instituted the same policy.

There are still a ton of smokers there and (imo) their productivity is goiing down the shitter. Smokers still take cig breaks but the have to get in their car, drive off the campus, smoke and then come back. So, instead of a few 5 minute smoke breaks, they have a few 25-30 minute smoke breaks.

And these aren't just peons, we're talking Sr. VPs and C-level folks, as well.

No skin off my nose b/c I'm a non smoker, but meetings there are a challenge b/c many times half the folks we need to talk w/ are down the street firing up.
 
MaceHorn -

That was part of my point and why I addressed Macanudo. There is a history on this topic around here, of course.

TXBabe97 -

I completely disagree with your take on this matter. Dell can limit whatever they want on their property. This is the first I've heard of such a move and it has finally enabled us to see that lots of smokers don't really care about individual autonomy, they just want to be able to light up whenever and wherever they please.

Tough crap. I don't go to places where I know people will be spewing their nasty smoke. So smokers should just not go to places where they know they won't be allowed to do so. Don't like it and you're a Dell employee? Either quit smoking or quit your job. Or figure out a way to get away with multiple 30-minute breaks every day like Diggler discussed.
 
One thing that has always bugged me about smokers. How many smoke breaks a day are OK?

At my office we have smokers who are standing outside smoking at least 15 minutes of every hour. You do the math and tell me about productivity.

I'm not the boss, but if I was my question would be "Do you want to smoke or do you want to get paid?"

We recently had a lay off. Not one non-smoker was laid off. Your bosses know who is out productive and who isn't.

Smoking is not a right.
 
now that the fatty hysteria has started, i expect some companies to start making sure no employee is morbidly obese.... which of course would also be a cost cutting measure. it would not be because we are worried about the fat man.

i understand why people smoke. i am a smoker. and i completely understand while people hate it. it is disgusting. i am just one of those that hasn't quit yet. spare me the just do it references.

dell has every right to do this, no doubt. but hiding behind "green" when they probably use 1,000 styrofoam cups in their office buildings a month, insults me. it is about money. it is probably worth 100's of millions of dollars for them in healthcare premiums. who knows on a company as big as dell.

i still don't understand what the big deal is for non-smokers in the way they ***** about even being around smokers. we smoke in the parking garage. there is no one else around. how is this so hard on people?

restaurants should have the right, especially if they have a patio. this a free market. to kind of follow the path that huckleberry went down. just don't go to restaurants that allow smoking. how hard is that. you do not approve of the atmosphere there and you won't like how it smells. go someplace else. there are plenty of places that don't allow smoking. go there.

also, cigars always get the free ride here. smoking a cigar is smoking. stop acting like it isn't.
 
I'm an ex-smoker but I noticed that smokers were generally more productive. They take their smoke breaks but thats about it, the rest of the time they work hard(er).
There are plenty of non-smokers gossipping, playing solitaire, hanging out in the break room etc.wasting even more time.

The one thing I miss about smoking is the info you learned out at teh smoking section. You always learned what was going on in other sections, stuff about to happen.
 
Now if we can only get smoking banned while driving too.

I say this because every smoker I see driving a car ultimately throws that butt out of his window when he or she is finished. If you are one of these people you should be fined for littering and being a fire hazard. About $10,000 per offense would probably prevent this.
 
I am a smoker and I keep a can half full of water so as to not litter, so not every smoker is insensitive to the above.
 
You are in a very small minority for sure.

I drive 25 miles to and from work each day from Cedar Park to southeast Austin and I have yet to see a smoker use an ashtray. Everytime I see one I watch them. And everytime they throw it, still lit, out the window.

Just look out your car window next to you on the ground the next time you are stopped at an intersection.
 
I'm surprised many are treating this as such big news. I work at a site that empolyees ~5000 people that has been smoke free for 10+ years. The smoking ban is everywhere on company property (including in your car).
 
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