Slacking Issue II: Smoke Breaks

I know I won't be able to keep this pace of a post a day in my new "Slacker" series of posts but I figured I do want to get some things up as they come to me and since this topic is fresh in my brain right now, here is my second installment of slacking in the workplace...

I use to smoke cigarettes but quit several years ago and don't regret it one bit ... but the one thing I didn't do, for whatever reason, was smoke at most of the places I worked at, but there were some, for the most part I was a "social smoker" and would only smoke cigarettes when I drank or went out...which was all the time as to give me an excuse to smoke cigarettes.  I have always wondered why I would never take advantage of being a smoker at work, especially in this day and age when smoking is so taboo you need to make a trek on foot a distance that is equal to the state of Texas to enter the "designated smoking area" for where ever you work ... which will usually be in an alley or behind the building, at the loading dock, next to the garbage ... all usually really pleasant places to be at to smoke.

So if you work in job that allows you to essentially take a "smoke break" as needed with no restrictions you should make sure you take full advantage of that.  I had one such job where one coworker was the master of the "smoke break".  I am fairly confident he took a smoke break at least once an hour, if not more, and each smoke break was a minimum of 15 minutes ... because on your way back from a designated smoking area you might as well swing by the break room and grab a cup of coffee ... since your on a break anyways.  So right there, this smoker is literally shaving 2 hours of "work time" off of his 8 hour work day every day...but that's just where it begins.

Being a 'known' smoker also has it benefits in the workplace when someone comes to you with a project or asks for your assistance because every reply you have will be "Sure, just hang on, I'm gonna run and have a quick smoke and be right back."  Of course you make sure that smoke break is at least a half an hour and the coworker that wanted your help, unless they specifically want YOUR help, may have just left or been helped by someone else and you can resume slacking.

Smoking has so many "bad" things correlated to it that most people won't even challenge your need for a smoke break.  And with smoking being banished out of most work places a savvy smoker can easily get a smoke break in as well as their "normal" breaks.  I worked at one place many, many years ago where we had several smokers but I would never see any of them outside smoking on their lunch or coffee breaks and I asked one of them why. They chuckled and stated that it was silly to smoke during your breaks because you could simply go outside and smoke while you were suppose to be working...I think it was around this time that I took up smoking and also began to become wise in the ways of work slacking.