A company in Japan is levelling the score for it’s non-smoking employees giving them an extra six days off compared to their non smoking counterparts.
Marketing firm Piala Inc, where roughly 35% of Piala employees smoke, made the change to its paid time off policy, opting to no longer reward their habit with 15-minute breaks.
The move was influenced by some fed up non-smoking employees who formally complained about how smoke breaks were affecting productivity and how they were working harder than their peers who smoked.
Hirotaka Matsushima, a spokesman for the company, said: “One of our non-smoking staff put a message in the company suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems.”
“Our CEO saw the comment and agreed, so we are giving non-smokers some extra time off to compensate.”
CEO Takao Asuka hopes the scheme will be enough motivation to quit smoking for the company’s staff.
