Health organizations and employers around the world are trying to figure out how to get people to quit smoking. No matter how many “don’t smoke” initiatives get released, people still pick up cigarettes as part of their daily habit. It seems almost as if the more negative news that gets published about smoking, the more people cling to their cigarette habit.People from countries around the globe enjoy smoking as much if not more so than Americans on average. But all the anti-smoking campaigns and legislation shares one thing in common – it punishes the smokers.
Now one Japanese company has figured out a way not to punish smokers but to reward non-smokers. They are giving non-smoking employees six extra vacation days each year. That’s more than an entire week of time off over their smoking counterparts.
The marketing company based in Tokyo, Japan, Piala, Inc. has decided to reward non-smoking employees, the Telegraph reported.
The vacation day initiative started when one employee complained that smokers were away from their desk to indulge in the habit. Because Piala, Inc. is on the 29th floor, it takes a few minutes to get in and out of the building to smoke. This means that the cigarette breaks add up over the course of the year.
That’s when the administrators at the marketing firm had a truly creative idea. Instead of punishing their smoking colleagues, who can choose to smoke if they want to, employees who don’t smoke would be given comparable vacation time.
Because Piala calculated that an average smoke break lasts 15 minutes, they were able to crunch some numbers.
If employees smoke for 15 minutes each work day, which is about 240 days per year, then that amounts to 62 hours and 30 minutes each year that is dedicated to smoking. So the company decided to award non-smokers extra vacation days to compensate for the bad habit.
Hirotaka Matsushima spoke to the Telegraph about the initiative. As a spokesperson for the firm, Matsushima said that the idea was put into a suggestion box from an employee.
“Our CEO saw the comment and agreed, so we are giving non-smokers some extra time off to compensate.”
So what do people at the company think about the wise policy? They love it!
About 25 percent of the company’s employees are taking advantage of the extra vacation time. The non-smokers are satisfied. But it has also helped smokers. Four people have quit smoking so they could get the additional vacation time.
In an interview with Kyodo News, the CEO said: “I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion.”
It’s great to hear that upper management sometimes listens to employees. Because people often feel that the CEO or other executives don’t care about the average employee, people keep their mouths shut. This act proves that putting an idea into the suggestion box can make a difference.
While this idea might only be at one company in Japan so far, it is a great idea. Instead of continually punishing smokers, by rewarding non-smokers, we can encourage more people to quit. Who wouldn’t want an extra week or more of vacation time each year?
