Employer Tells His Employees That They Can’t Smoke – And Their Spouses Can’t Either
Okay, we all know that smoking is bad for you. And most of us agree that an employer who provides expensive health care benefits to their employees should probably be able to dictate whether or not those employees use tobacco products.
But this guy is taking his authority as an employer one giant step too far:
Howard Weyers tried the “carrot” approach by giving his employees incentives and encouragement to quit smoking. But when that didn’t work, he resorted to the stick. A big stick.
Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees’ spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing.
He’s telling employees spouses, who do NOT work for him, that if they smoke their husbands/wives can’t work for him either. The self appointed health police like the idea, of course:
But participants in a smoking cessation forum hosted Monday by the Commonwealth Club of California found the idea nonetheless intriguing.
“We’re talking about ending an epidemic. This is a global pandemic,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, likening Weyers’ approach to controlling an outbreak of disease.
A little extreme?
You betcha.
