Reply #64: As an employer...

[ultraist]

I do consider if someone is in good health if I hire them. Research has shown that smokers miss far more work than non-smokers due to illness.

If I pay to train someone, pay for workman's comp, payroll taxes, etc. I'd rather have a reliable employee that doesn't call in sick excessively.

It's not a moral issue but a bottom line/profit margin issue. My small business is not a non-profit charity, we are a for profit business and shouldn't be forced to take on low producing employees.

Smoking poses major health risks, not just lung cancer, although lung cancer is the #1 killer of women.

I had an employee recently that I had to fire because he missed so much work due to drug use. He was a very intelligent person, but he would disappear for days at a time and put us behind schedule, which costs us. We don't do drug testing and don't care what people do on their own time, but if it interferes with their productivity, we terminate them.