Sometimes a bad habit creeps up on you, and you don't realise it until it is too late.
Then trying to get out of that habit takes a lot of time and effort.
I did not smoke until I was about 21.
Smoke free at school, smoke free at College.
But when I landed my first job, that was the turning point.
I worked in a small office.
Almost everyone else smoked.
So I started, just to be with the others.
The women seems to smoke a lot more than the men.
Every time the telephone rang, and I did spend a lot of time on phone calls, the packet came out and I lit up.
Before I realised it, I was smoking up to 40 a day.
And this went on for years.
After a change of job, I ended up in a large office building.
Everyone in my office had the same culture of smoking.
But the owner of the building was finding that his maintenance expenses were increasing, like extra costs of filtering because of deposited tar, things like that, so he decided to do something about it.
Simply asking everyone to stop smoking would not work, so he devised a two part plan.
He set aside an area on the ground floor outside the building entrance, and put some large plants there to make it a bit attractive.
He also placed some large ashtrays on waist high pedestals.
That went some way to encouraging people to go outside for a smoke.
Then he implemented the second part of the plan.
Each office lease was for 2 years.
So, when each lease came up for renewal, he included a clause stating that the tenant would not smoke inside the building, not allow any of his employees or visitors to do so.
This caused some grumbling, but was eventually agreed to.
People went outside to smoke, at first quite often, but over time, perhaps 2 or 3 times a day.
We all saved money, and felt a lot more healthy.
Of course, there has to be a downside.
And that was that the non-smokers complained that they did not get time off to go downstairs for a smoke break.
But they got over that when they realised that the smokers were actually working better by getting more healthy.
For those of us involved, being forced to stop smoking turned our lives around.
We felt better, could smell the good smells, breath fresh air.
But these days, there are steps that any smoker can take to make the turnaround.
Then trying to get out of that habit takes a lot of time and effort.
I did not smoke until I was about 21.
Smoke free at school, smoke free at College.
But when I landed my first job, that was the turning point.
I worked in a small office.
Almost everyone else smoked.
So I started, just to be with the others.
The women seems to smoke a lot more than the men.
Every time the telephone rang, and I did spend a lot of time on phone calls, the packet came out and I lit up.
Before I realised it, I was smoking up to 40 a day.
And this went on for years.
After a change of job, I ended up in a large office building.
Everyone in my office had the same culture of smoking.
But the owner of the building was finding that his maintenance expenses were increasing, like extra costs of filtering because of deposited tar, things like that, so he decided to do something about it.
Simply asking everyone to stop smoking would not work, so he devised a two part plan.
He set aside an area on the ground floor outside the building entrance, and put some large plants there to make it a bit attractive.
He also placed some large ashtrays on waist high pedestals.
That went some way to encouraging people to go outside for a smoke.
Then he implemented the second part of the plan.
Each office lease was for 2 years.
So, when each lease came up for renewal, he included a clause stating that the tenant would not smoke inside the building, not allow any of his employees or visitors to do so.
This caused some grumbling, but was eventually agreed to.
People went outside to smoke, at first quite often, but over time, perhaps 2 or 3 times a day.
We all saved money, and felt a lot more healthy.
Of course, there has to be a downside.
And that was that the non-smokers complained that they did not get time off to go downstairs for a smoke break.
But they got over that when they realised that the smokers were actually working better by getting more healthy.
For those of us involved, being forced to stop smoking turned our lives around.
We felt better, could smell the good smells, breath fresh air.
But these days, there are steps that any smoker can take to make the turnaround.