Should non-smokers get more annual leave?

There is an ongoing feud between smokers and non-smokers, which relates directly to your workplace.

As it turns out, non-smokers believe they should be entitled to three to five extra days annual leave to compensate for all the time their smoking co-workers spend on ciggie breaks.

This is the finding of a new study, which found 42 per cent of non-smoking participants and 28 per cent of smokers agreeing to the idea of extra leave.

According to Joe Mercurio, the project manager for the study, the average smoker spends the equivalent of about six days per year on cigarette breaks at work.

Despite this statistic, only 14 per cent of non-smokers said six or more days was fair, while 25 per cent said one to two days is a fair amount.

Although, more than 38 per cent of smokers opposed non-smokers getting any extra vacation days.

The concept is already in practice for employees of Japanese marketing company Piala, with the initiative known as "Sumokyu" — wordplay using "smoke" and a Japanese word for "break" — rolled out by the Tokyo-based company last September.

It was devised after an employee complained about the time lost because colleagues went out for regular cigarette breaks, which took between 10 to 15 minutes after the employee went from the 29th floor to the smoking area in the lobby and back.

The company believed instead of addressing the complaints, it would be better to compensate non-smokers.

In an unexpected twist, the initiative has led to four of the 42 smokers — from a workforce of 120 people — to quit smoking in order to receive extra leave.