Kicking Butt

You’d think it would be against the law to fire someone because of a perfectly legal habit they practice away from the workplace.

Think again. In Michigan, if you choose to smoke cigarettes in the privacy of your home, you could find yourself jobless. This week it was revealed that a Michigan health care company fired four employees because they continued to smoke cigarettes at home.

On Wednesday January 25^th, The Abrams Report on MSBNC interviewed David Houston who wrote the zero-tolerance policy on smoking for WEYCO.

The entire transcript is available online. You have to scroll a bit. It's the second story.

The company founder says he‘s tired of paying exorbitant health care costs because of his employees who are smokers and he wants a healthy workforce. WEYCO told employees about the new policy over a year ago and paid for treatment programs like acupuncture and focus groups for employees who are willing to quit.

The company claims 14 of its employees have stopped smoking thanks to the policy. But as of the new year employees were told that they had to take a Breathalyzer to make sure they weren‘t smoking anymore. Those who refused now pounding the pavement looking for work.

“My Take”—I don‘t get it. Once a company starts dictating what is healthy for its employees and what is not, where does it stop? For people who drink alcohol or fail to practice safe sex or eat too much fast food the next targets.

It will be interesting to follow the fallout from this case. Abrams comments about eating too much fast –food were particularly jarring since my post earlier this week, Fat Chance focused on fat discrimination in the workplace.

I’m with Abrams. If this policy is allowed to stand, firing people who refuse to lose weight can’t be far behind.

Abrams contended that the company selected a politically safe vice since few people defend smoking.

Houston countered that they picked the right vice because smoking is a choice. He said, being overweight is not always a choice.

Abrams didn’t buy that argument

ABRAMS: So people can‘t control how much they eat, but they can control whether they smoke? All right. Well, look...

HOUSTON: I think that‘s a line drawing issue and I think...

ABRAMS: Fair enough.

Abrams, like many people, must believe weight is a controllable issue. While the spokesman for WEYCO may be more enlightened on how much control a human being has over their weight, there’s a good chance that one day, in the not so distant future, another company will do a cost analysis of their employees, decide the fatties cost too much, and issue a policy that unless you have a BMI of 25 or lower, you will no longer be welcome as an employee.

So while the head of WEYCO decided to kick out anyone who harbors a cigarette butt, another CEO may decide to kick out the butts that are just too big.