Instead of penalising those who smoke, a company in Swindon, UK has introduced a policy of giving its staff an additional four days of holiday if they don’t smoke.
Managing Director of the company, who himself is a smoker, introduced this policy in the hope that it would inspire employees to quit smoking, and force other businesses to follow suit. In fact, businesses in Japan are already following this policy.
Bryden calculated that if smokers at his business are taking three 10-minutes break every day of the week, it adds up to 16 days in a year. So he decided to compensate non-smokers with additional four days.
A study by the British Heart Foundation and the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that smoking breaks cost British businesses Pound 8.4 billion a year in lost productivity if smokers disappear for 10-minutes four times a day.