Please take a minute and respond to the poll above.
If you have a smoking policy in place what is it?
Personally, I don’t hire smokers if I can help it but I have a guy now who hid it from me and I caught him today smoking when I pulled up to the job site. Not sure if I’m going to let him go over it yet. He signed a pre-employment agreement that said he would not smoke at work.
What would you do?
No smokers but we all chew
had a buddies worker help us on a massive
condo complex gutter job, kid was amazing.
Saved me from humpin the 40
all day as he did it from the roof.
Kid smoked every 10 mins. We finished
the job I paid him for an extra
day of work and said goodbye.
I allow smoking…for now. No smoking around customers, and they must smoke in or next to the van when taking a break. And of course never leave their butts on the customers property.
I haven’t had any major problems enough to ban smoking. As I gain more employees the policy will probably change.
I smoke, and the few employees I"ve had havent taken advantage of the fact that I allow smoking.
Just as long as its not excessive, its done out by the truck (I never park in customer’s driveways), and the butts are disposed of properly I really don’t see it being an issue.
Unfortunately I’m still a smoker, but try and smoke between jobs while on the road. Now if I am on a large job, I make sure to go out to the work van, far away from the house. I throw my butts into a water bottle or the like.
Never smoked in front of a customer, or their house, or in their view.
It’s very hard to completely ban smoking for employees. Even if you did completely ban smoking, a smoker would still find a way to smoke. I tell them that they can smoke in the van between houses if they want. If they are on a job for more than 3 or 4 hours, I let them take a short break and smoke in the van. Never while actually working and always out of the customers sight. It really hasn’t been an issue.
Not to mention, letting a smoker smoke will invariably make the day go by in a less stressful manner
I quit, but I do let the guys who still do, smoke in/near the truck and like the rest of you out sight of the H/O, or store management, even if they are smoking.
We do the exact same thing as Kurt… Although we try really hard to hire non smokers, they slip through the cracks…
Can’t smoke at work site or in company vehicles. I don’t want you entering someone’s home or dealing with a customer smelling of smoke or drink.
I don’t care what you do on your time, but I don’t want you smoking at work
I agree, 1 cig and you wreak for the rest of the day, very unprofessional.
I don’t hire smokers myself. Anyone I do hire I already know, so that will never be an issue for me. Of course, that seriously shrinks my pool of candidates.
I smoke and I do it well away from the customers house. I know smoking is somewhat gross to some non-smokers, but I wouldn’t ever not hiring someone if they were a smoker. I am biased, but a good person is a good person, whether or not they smoke. Just don’t have a cig hanging out of your mouth when your cleaning the kitchen window.
Additionally, I think most customers(if they noticed) would not care. At all…
Still allowed to be a flawed human in the service biz, no?
Jeez, when I first started cleaning windows I had a daily ritual to make sure my co-workers weren’t drunk or stoned.
Now were up in arms about smoking a cigarette…
Me too…I still have a guy who drinks prolly a 12 pack every day after work. He passes out by 9 pm every night and shows up for work every morning. Hasn’t missed a day in 8 years. I think I have sent him home twice in 8 years for reporting to work hung over and stinking.
I have a couple who have the “reefer cough,” but they never smell of pot and I have never seen them under the influence, (trust me, I know when) so as long as they do their jobs and don’t give me a reason to test them…
For me it is strictly a professional image thing. I am so anal about protecting our name and brand, I drill it into everyone. When my business was only 1 truck with me and another cleaner, I used to think that parking the truck out in the front of the tavern was advertising…
Funny how things change…
What did that ritual consist of?
Although its only me and my very part time assistant, I have a very VERY strict “no drinking the night before residential” rule. I know if I have even just 2 scotches the night before and don’t even catch a buzz, it’ll still be on my breath the day after, and I think its #1 an embarrassment and #2 uber-unprofessional.
As far as the herbs go, I don’t blaze myself (just not my thing), but I absolutely think it should be decriminalized. Just don’t show up zooted on MY jobsite with MY company name on your shirt and its ok.
Other drugs, however, are a different story… wouldn’t tolerate recreational use of say, heroin or Xanax by my employees because I’ve learned from experience that hard drugs (opiates especially) lead to shady-ness / theivery / scammery.
I smoke but I am trying to quit. Seeing my mom have a 1/3rd of her lung removed this weekend is helping thats for sure. As far as the on the job goes. I do not allow smoking around the customers home. My helper can smoke in or around the truck or trailer. Only one smoke per 2 hour job. I don’t care if a person smokes when I’m hiring. I honestly think most people who want work on their home, don’t care. Those that do I also think are screwed up in the head. Who cares if someone wants to kill themselves. As long as the work is done correctly. I would rather have a smoker work on my home then most contractors out there. When you look at these one man bands, most of them are drunks and drug addicts. Not saying window cleaning guys. Just contractors in general. I can drive by 3 local bars here at lunch, see lettered trucks in the parking lots that are still there at dinner time. But that’s me and this is a touchy subject for me. I know I should quit but I hate being told what to do. A few months back I was at the base and I was walking out the door for a smoke. The states head dog (2 star general) was walking in an surpised me. He saw I had the cig in my hand and said “You know those things will kill you!” I responded with “Really? I had no idea.” and kept walking. I’m 40 years old and it’s like, hey get off my back. I had 3 uncles who died from liver problems do to drinking. There are many things that can kill you. **** in a couple of years I’ll be in Afganistan and there are plenty of things there that will kill me faster then a smoke will. It just get’s annoying to hear it. I’m already stuck with going outside 50 ft away from a building to smoke, what more you want from me? lol
How do you enforce your very strict no drinking the night before a residential job rule? Alcohol is not OK, but getting “zooted” the night before a residential job, just not the day of, is OK?
Employers drug and alcohol policies intrigue me. I’ve never had any problems with any of my employees, thankfully, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I’m always curious what others are doing.
Sorry Seth, I guess I should clarify… I didn’t mean anything formal, just a suspicion.
My concern wasn’t so much a hang over, it was more of a “liquid breakfast” concern.
It was a real shame, because 99.99% of the time they were really, [U]really[/U] good window cleaners.
