Smokers made to clock off

Breckland Council in Norfolk today introduces a clocking off system for smokers who need to smoke during the working day.

Last time I worked in an office was in 1997 and no smoking ban existed but smoking in working areas was not encouraged and there was a smoking room. After 5 pm when most people had gone there was usually one member of staff remaining: an ashtray was pulled out of the drawer and she worked away for another hour or so.

I was a non-smoker at the time but I never had the impression that smokers were getting more time off than I was. I was hardly aware who was smoking and who wasn't. Provided they got through the work they had to do each day, whether they smoked or not was really irrelevant to everything. I couldn't agree more with Simon Clark about this: bad worker discipline is a management problem and not to be blamed on the fact that some people are smokers.

This topic will be covered today on Radio Scotland at 13.05.