George Angel 
Leave it to the Japanese to lead us non-smokers into a future of equal rights at the work place. A company in Tokyo has decided that their employees are not being treated equally when it comes to vacation days for smokers and non-smokers. And they’re right – each puff break lasts around fifteen minutes. Add all those together and you got six days of R&R while your healthier colleagues are at their stations, doing their jobs.
It’s pretty logical, if you think about it, yet to this very day smoking is taken as something between a right and a medical issue and not a choice. Well, not any more, not at Piala Inc, where the idea originated.
All it took was a suggestion from an employee, who had done the math and had the courage to make a stand against decades of inequality on this subject. His bosses listened and righted that wrong. Plus, giving a non-smoker six more days of vacation is a great way to encourage the smoker to think on his destructive habit and perhaps do something about it. Or at least that’s how the CEO of the company sees it.
By his count, at least a fourth of Piala’s employees are happily using their extra days and he is no exception – this new rule has allowed him to spend more family time which is a win-win for everybody. He also added that ever since this system was introduced, 4 of the smokers in the company actually quit smoking.
Still, there is a long road ahead. Stats in Japan show that around 22 percent of adults living there still smoke. That number is bigger among males and especially those from previous generations.
Yes – the war on smoking is far from over, but Japanese businesses are on the front lines, increasing their efforts to safeguard their work forces from the tobacco industries. Case and point – Lawson Inc, who are banning the deadly habit altogether on their territory.
H/T – Telegraph
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