Oh But It Works Both Ways
I don't think some people think through their stupid little ideas and while at first it annoys the hell out of me, I do quite enjoy watching them cry and squirm when their own brilliant idea comes back to haunt them.
It would appear that some companies have decided to fire their employees who smoke.
That would be smoke cigarettes.
Four employees of a health care company have been fired for refusing to take a test to determine whether they smoke cigarettes. Weyco Inc., a health benefits administrator based in Okemos, Mich., adopted a policy Jan. 1 that allows employees to be fired if they smoke, even if the smoking happens after business hours or at home.
First of all, it is none of the employer's business what I do at home in my spare time as long as it's not illegal. Smoking is not a crime. If I want to go home and smoke an entire pack of cigarettes, that is none of my boss' business. Second, these people already worked for the company but now, suddenly, they are being fired if they don't quit smoking? That makes this company one jackass of a business and I would totally boycott them.
Company founder Howard Weyers has said the anti-smoking rule was designed to shield the firm from high health care costs. "I don't want to pay for the results of smoking," he said.
Fine. Then I, as a smoker, want them to start firing all the fat asses at work for eating fast food or high carb, high fat, high caloric diets even on their own time or at home. I don't want to have to pay the high health care costs related to diabetes, heart disease and other ailments which come about by being fat.
No more smokers? No more fat people either.
You can't smoke a cigarette but you sure as hell can drive your fat ass through the McDonald's drive through every day for lunch and hork down a value meal, then go home and sit on the couch in front of the television, shoveling potato chips into your maw, getting fatter and fatter and fatter with each passing day until you suffer serious medical problems because of your shitty diet and have to go to the doctor to get your insulin or get a by-pass or suffer a heart attack....THAT'S ALL OKAY just as long as you don't smoke a cigarette!
There are many things people do that drive the cost of health insurance through the roof but to start firing people for doing those things is not a smart idea. If your claim is that you are firing smokers because of the high cost of healthcare, then you have to start looking at what else causes high health care costs and fire those people as well.
In America, 60% of the working population in considered obese, while 22% of Americans are smokers. (Google the shit yourself.) If we are going to start targeting smokers and forcing them out of their jobs if they don't quit, then let's get after the fatties too. So, you have 60% of fat asses out there and 22% smokers. Some of those fat people also smoke so let's be generous and say only 5% of the smokers who can work are thin, (because I can't find any figures), include the 5% unemployed and you have a good 70% of the work force without a job.
That's fucking genius! That's not going to bring the cost of health care down, it's going to bring it up. Further, we will now pay more in taxes so that this 70% of people without jobs will have welfare or unemployment benefits while they whittle down their waists or go through the process of quitting smoking.
People are actually happy about this. You want to cheer this shit? It's just the start of a nanny state which will try to control EVERYTHING you do. Keep rejoicing idiot. One thing at a time and soon we'll be a third world country because we have no economy but hey! At least everyone is thin and smoke free!
Then we can fire absolutely everyone who has a drink on their own time, slugs down coffee on their own time, drives like a fucking lunatic on their own time, doesn't clean their house or wash their hands on their own time, has premarital sex on their own time, participates in extreme sports on their own time, doesn't brush their teeth correctly on their own time....the list goes on.
Any company who targets only the smokers claiming they are doing it because of high health care costs is a company run by one of the biggest idiots alive.