Thread: Workplace Environment Diminishes

Ross Perot's EDS company famously had a ban on facial hair for its employees.

I work for a mostly muslim organisation, the non-muslims daily expect a decree demanding that all male staff have circumcisions.

???Do they have weekly "short-arm" inspections?

I worked for an Arab bank for a while and you had to sign a contract that you would not drink while an employee.

I said that I didn't mind signing a contract that said I didn't drink while working, but had reservations about a blanket wouldn't drink while as an employee. After all, what's man to do on holiday?

Needless to say, I didn't last long (at least, not long enough to make it to a holiday)....

Also, my missus had to sign a contract that said if she quit in Year 1 she would pay a penalty payment to the company of $2,500

Originally Posted by Dougal

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

???Do they have weekly "short-arm" inspections?

Not so far Frisco. Mostly depends on what the Imam feeds them at Friday prayers I guess.

Talking of prayers, someone told me that Muslim women are supposed to shave their fannies every Friday before prayer - maybe Maccha can straighten me out on that - I've been trying to think up a legitimate way I can raise it as a topic at our monthly management meetings.

So THAT's what's going on under those burkhas!

Is this a trend? I am starting to think so. How far is too far? I agree with the no-smoking with kids in the car, but employers?

Employers ponder tough tactics to halt smoking


Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

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.

Weyers' method, while effective, wouldn't fly in California because the state has laws that prohibit employers from making hiring or firing decisions based on employee participation in a legal activity. 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.

About 45 million Americans, 4 million of whom live in California, smoke cigarettes despite more than three decades of public efforts to encourage people to quit.

California, on both the state and local levels, has been at the forefront of anti-smoking efforts with laws to ban smoking in public places.

A law went into effect in January that prohibits drivers from smoking when children are in the car. Still, smoking costs the state an estimated $8.6 billion in direct medical costs and $7.3 billion in lost productivity a year, according to the California division of the American Cancer Society.

Link: Employers ponder tough tactics to halt smoking