The Smoking Crowd - at work or school

[trinacriabob]

Every place I've ever worked (and college/univ., too, for that matter) had those cliques that went out and took their smoke breaks together. It's a weird cult of sorts, in my mind.

I've also noticed that, working for architectural firms, most of the "smoking circles" were the less productive employees (in the firms I've been employed by)...and they seem to have more Jerry Springer type drama in their lives.

Yeah, I know, I'm a stereotyping jerk, but now having worked for a handful of architectural firms, this pattern seems to hold up.

Any observations about smoking cliques?

[tmp]

The only thing I miss about smoking is that break- where else in the known universe can you take 10 minutes out of each working hour to go off and feed your drug addiction?

I wish I could take 10 minutes out of every work hour just because I'm sick of working.

[mustang84]

I always got pissed at the smokers at my old job in the meatpacking plant. We would be working like crazy trying to get 8,000 lbs of patties out that day, and they would rotate every couple hours to go smoke, putting the rest of us farther behind and screwing up the system we had going. Some of them would take six breaks a day, sometimes up to 15 minutes each...that's a lot of time they're getting paid for when they're not doing jack squat besides taking a couple drags out on the fire escape.

Also, at the hospital back home, I would do meat deliveries down to the kitchen and right by the dock was a little covered bus stop type shelter. It never failed...everytime I backed in past it, there were at least 5 doctors/nurses in there smoking. One time a few years ago we cleaned up the hospital grounds for some thing through our church, and I and a couple others had to clean out that shelter....there was tar everywhere. The hospital this summer finally banned all smoking on the grounds after people began complaining.

I've just never seen the appeal of smoking. Maybe it's because I grew up at school with them pounding it into us that smoking is bad, but I'd say at least 90% of the people I know that are my age don't smoke. It probably helps that neither of my parents smoked either, but my dad chewed tobacco for the longest time and it royally f'ed up his teeth. He finally quit about 5 years ago and has never looked back.

[regfootball]

I've also noticed that, working for architectural firms, most of the "smoking circles" were the less productive employees (in the firms I've been employed by)...and they seem to have more Jerry Springer type drama in their lives.

Yeah, I know, I'm a stereotyping jerk, but now having worked for a handful of architectural firms, this pattern seems to hold up.

Any observations about smoking cliques?

196243[/snapback]

yes.

[Drew Dowdell]

I agree that the smoking cliques tend to have all the drama going on. Most of it seemed to be internal workplace drama though.

I'm so glad I'm my own business these days and don't have to deal with people like that.

[Croc]

I was definitely part of the smokers clique last semester in Theta Chi...but I had to quit due to surgery. I miss it...

I would say that in our case the smokers were some of the most level-headed of the bunch simply because if we had something we wanted to say...we kinda had to wait until we exhaled...thereby kinda forcing us to think before we spoke? Our group is pretty dramatic sometimes, but the smokers weren't at all. So relaxing...

Of course though...in college nearly everyone smokes just to relieve the stress. And if not tobacco it's pot or hookah.

[the_yellow_dart]

Guy I was un school with chewed tobacco. So gross! I tried it once just out of curiosity. Interesting feeling, but I could never put up with having to carry around a bottle to spit in.

He was holding his spit bottle one day when another guy pushed him, horsing around. The spit bottle ended up getting dumped all over the pusher's girlfriend. She was covered in smelly brown spit and definately NOT impressed.

[FAPTurbo]

When I was in Austria on a Grade 12 exchange, pretty much all the girls bought cigarettes from the vending machines there and all lit up. Some guys did too, but I knew they casually smoked.

After the trip, the guys who smoked just quit no problem, yet all the girls who lit up now smoke, some up to a pack or two a day. It's funny because they all said they'd just quit at the end of the trip so their parents don't find out.

They all had to stand out in the rain, outside the school grounds (My province some of the strictest smoking laws in the world) just to get their fix, and I never once saw them talk to each other. The looks on their faces were painfull to see, because I knew they were miserable.

However a guy from work who smokes does happen to parallal what Croc mentioned. This guy always said the right things, never sounded stupid and usually said what needed to be said, likely because he had time to think it over between puffs.

[Croc]

My hypothesis is that the people who smoke because they run on a high frequency DUE TO drama are going to be dramatic about it...but that the people who smoke because they enjoy it and feel it helps keep them grounded prolly won't be all drama on their cig breaks. I run at a fairly high frequency, but not due to drama. Same with my smoking buddies, though all but one is trying to quit.

Yea, smoking is bad for you and all, and I'm well aware of that...but it's a very cheap way to get a lil buzz, doesn't take much time, and doesn't affect your mental abilities in any way. Also gives you a boost of energy as well as suppresses appetite (stress hunger cravings)...but longterm use can give you cancer. I never got up to a pack a day or anything...usually my packs would last me anywhere between 3-5 days...sometimes up to a week depending on how much was going on and how often I was running on empty.

[american_revolution_2005]

At my high school there is a whole smoker's area. It is quite large and about 1 quarter of the school goes there after school or during lunch. They are mostly kids with dramatic situations or people who do generally worse in school. Some also fall into peer pressure. I have walked through it because it is placed badly so it is the only way to get to the buses from our school unless i would have to walk around the teacher parking lot which is fenced in. I usually try to avoid that area. I never have smoked and never will.

[Robert Hall]

Part of the smoking clique at my office are some of the senior players--the top 3 product architects, the director of QA, director of product development, the director of professional services. I go with them on smoke breaks occasionally and stand downwind so I can catch up on the underground gossip...(at a smoke break a few weeks ago is where I first found out the company was being sold).

And some of these same people are part of my Friday happy hour clique (I've been working and drinking with many of them for 4+ years now).

Though instead of a smoke break I usually try and take a 10-15 minute walk around the outside of the building and through the surrounding office park once or twice a day (when the weather is nice) as a mental break from meetings and working on the computer...

Edited September 22, 2006 by moltar

[I hope GMRULES again]

Your right that most of the smokers tend to be the slackers. I work with a lazy ass who goes for a smoke about 6 times a day and each time he's gone for 15 minutes. At my company they have a smoking room that's kind of outside and everytime I go by there's always the same bunch of slack asses there. But the good news is my company just announced last week that as of Nov. 1st the smoke room will close and there will be no smoking any where on company property, not in your car and not on the sidewalk in front of the company. This is in accordance with new government laws that come into effect Nov. 1st in Quebec and Ontario. I can't wait to see what they're all going to do.

[razoredge]

I never work in these kinds of environments, I dont know how you people can take it. Lots of people, cliques, all the bull$h! involved with all these personalities and priorities. Working pent up inside, I say you all deserve a big fat raise !

When I smoked, I was outside anyhow and always alone. I always deserved the break I took, as most men would never do what I did in the first place because of the extreme effort involved as well as the feast or famine aspect of earning your own keep through production.

My "wife" still smokes and shes real level headed, unlike myself who gets worked up over everything. She also a worker, gotta love her.

Many of the "types" your talking about would be prone to such behavior anyhow, this same weakness leads to smoking, alcholism and many other typical human flaws. Remember too that they are hanging out in a clique of sorts and that just breeds a certain amount of nonsense. It could be seen in any clique, possibly the worse violaters would be wealthy wives clubs gossiping about how everyones screwed up but themselves.

I think if you look really closely you will find good people out there too. I also suspect you'll find some worthless non smokers.

Now Refer ?................. Dudes on Refer will never get worked up nor dramatize over anything.................but more Refer !...............

Dont smoke and if you do the earlier you quit the better. I did after 25 years and it truely was the absolute hardest thing I ever did. Id a rather been hit over the head once a day. I was a far more patient man when I smoked.

Cancer is nothing, many people that never smoked die of some sort of cancer. What is a 100% positive result of smoking is you will have lung & breathing problems even if cancer escapes you. You will become a weezy, coughing, hacking, breathless bitch and the damn things will still be calling your name as you sit there choking. I know where the Devil lives and its tobacco !

[Cory Wolfe]

Agree with Croc. My grandma is a smoker and is like that.

Otherwise, I'm not a real big fan of smoking, but admittedly, when doing it, I enjoyed and it made me feel relaxed. Every once in a while, I'll feel like smoking a cigarette. Luckilly, I haven't fallen to addiction.

[regfootball]

I was definitely part of the smokers clique last semester in Theta Chi...but I had to quit due to surgery.  I miss it...

I would say that in our case the smokers were some of the most level-headed of the bunch simply because if we had something we wanted to say...we kinda had to wait until we exhaled...thereby kinda forcing us to think before we spoke?  Our group is pretty dramatic sometimes, but the smokers weren't at all.  So relaxing...

Of course though...in college nearly everyone smokes just to relieve the stress.  And if not tobacco it's pot or hookah.

196283[/snapback]

why not just skip the smoking and drink more instead and have lots more sex?

[trinacriabob]

I never work in these kinds of environments, I dont know how you people can take it. Lots of people, cliques, all the bull$h! involved with all these personalities and priorities. Working pent up inside

196528[/snapback]

I, too, talk to the smokers. Most of them are pretty cool and entertaining. I just don't want the smell of their smoke neither on my clothes, in my office nor in my car.

[trinacriabob]

why not just skip the smoking and drink more instead and have lots more sex?

196553[/snapback]

Good call. Sex has a spot on Maslow's hiearchy of needs. Smoking and drinking alcohol do not. Word, Reg!

[regfootball]

You will become a weezy, coughing, hacking, breathless bitch and the damn things will still be calling your name as you sit there choking. I know where the Devil lives and its tobacco !

196528[/snapback]

i doubt anyone can sum it up any more truthfully.

my dad, cigarettes, 50+ year. he hacks so bad you'd swear he was losing innards.

My 80+ yo FIL and late 70's MIL both smoke and they must have been doing it for over 60 years. They don't really hack much though, but BOY DO THEY REEK>!

its just disgusting.

but i do think it would be neet to have a few when drinking. ia lways had fun with that in college. at one of the recent work outings when the ladies at the table were lighting up adn getting lit also, I wanted to join in a get a ciggy buzz.

[regfootball]

trina, do your scary admin staff like the one who opens your mail or the ones that want to hump you, do they smoke?

in college I always said and it pretty mcuh was true that women who smoked were easier and also had no 'oral hangups' if you know what i mean. if you wanted to find a ho who you knew would go H3 on you, just find a smoker chick and you were pretty much there. you knew it was an easy take.

[Croc]

Oh, I enjoy the drink. But as I said above, smoking doesn't affect your mental performance. And cigarettes have no calories >_<

[Northstar]

This pissed me off today. I was riding the bus back to my dorm, and at one stop the bus driver decides to have a 5 minute smoke before going again. I guess he's allowed to, but people have places to go.

[2005 EquinoxLS]

Good call.  Sex has a spot on Maslow's hiearchy of needs.  Smoking and drinking alcohol do not.  Word, Reg!

Sex is not a need it is a want. Neither is smikong and drinking.

196557[/snapback]

[Camino LS6]

<------- Lights a smoke and thinks about all of this.

[LosAngeles]

At my high school there is a whole smoker's area. It is quite large and about 1 quarter of the school goes there after school or during lunch.

196371[/snapback]

::checks left side of post::

Group: Members

Posts: 506

Joined: 3-September 05

From: Ontario, Canada

Member No.: 926

Yeah, I figured this was Canada talking.

They ain't having NOTHING like that in the U.S., where a country that's big on pig is tryna be up in everyone's health (of course for money reasons)

[LosAngeles]

why not just skip the smoking and drink more instead and have lots more sex?

196553[/snapback]

There ain't that much good tail (or head clinics, if you will) in the world....and to drink that much means a headache every single day....

I don't do it anymore, and am not interested in going back either. But them bones were nothing short of enjoyable. I'm trying to be on this planet for a while though....

Now if smoking weed was legal, however......

[I hope GMRULES again]

Now if smoking weed was legal, however......

196622[/snapback]

Come on up to Canada, it is!

[trinacriabob]

trina, do your scary admin staff like the one who opens your mail or the ones that want to hump you, do they smoke?

in college I always said and it pretty mcuh was true that women who smoked were easier and also had no 'oral hangups' if you know what i mean.  if you wanted to find a ho who you knew would go H3 on you, just find a smoker chick and you were pretty much there.  you knew it was an easy take.

196563[/snapback]

This would be our main receptionist. No, she doesn't smoke. She is just FAT. A while back, she had an interview for a job with the City of Seattle. I don't think she got it. I wish she had so she would just move her ass away. With the nature of her 2 brief marriages and her low-life kids, you'd think she'd smoke. Either way, she is a turd.

[razoredge]

in college I always said and it pretty mcuh was true that women who smoked were easier and also had no 'oral hangups' if you know what i mean.  if you wanted to find a ho who you knew would go H3 on you, just find a smoker chick and you were pretty much there.  you knew it was an easy take.

196563[/snapback]

I ashamedly admit, this is NOT true in the case of me and mine, things have improved however, but ....................damn ! I was expecting more way back in the beginning.

2005 EquinoxLS - "Sex is not a need it is a want. Neither is smikong and drinking."

Sex IS a need and those that dont need it, need help. This is one instance in which I love the needy....................

  Croc -" smoking doesn't affect your mental performance"

actually thats not true Croc, the longer you smoke the more distracting it becomes and with distraction comes less focus and that impares mental performance. It doesnt seem this way when younger, thats why some, like myself just kept on going. That superman thing, "its not really affecting me" well one day that all catches up with you and besides the health issues you realize how much of your time and focus is wasted due to this distraction. No, it doesnt make you stupid, but it will not allow you to be all that you can be.

In the same breath (weeze) I will say that I was a smoker during the most successful part of my life. Still my productivity did improve after I quit but that could be because I was running around "like a chicken with its head cut off" fighting the nicotine withdrawal and nervous figiting by keeping very, very busy.

[Dsuupr]

At my high school there is a whole smoker's area. It is quite large and about 1 quarter of the school goes there after school or during lunch. They are mostly kids with dramatic situations or people who do generally worse in school. Some also fall into peer pressure. I have walked through it because it is placed badly so it is the only way to get to the buses from our school unless i would have to walk around the teacher parking lot which is fenced in. I usually try to avoid that area. I never have smoked and never will.

196371[/snapback]

Wow, they don't even allow kids to smoke near the school, let alone in the school.

[Dsuupr]

In PM, if you smoke you get breaks, if you don't, you don't get breaks.

[trinacriabob]

Sex IS a need and those that dont need it need help.

196860[/snapback]

Agreed. It is a very basic human need. Just because we are highly developed and intelligent animals does not undo the fact that we are ANIMALS. Right on.

[regfootball]

Agreed.  It is a very basic human need.  Just because we are highly developed and intelligent animals does not undo the fact that we are ANIMALS.  Right on.

196939[/snapback]

word. now tell your wives that.

[razoredge]

Im working on that very same ideal right now............as you can see, Im not doing well.

[capriceman]

"Who really wants to live to 90 any way"

[razoredge]

"Who really wants to live to 90 any way"

197065[/snapback]

I'll tell ya. My Mothers father lived to be 94

He retired from General Electric in 68

Then he rebuilt old farm houses for an older realestate man to supplement his pension until that man died. I think Grandpa was early 80's when that happened.

He smoked a pipe and cigars most of his life but one day the doctor told him he better quit or else and he did. Later he had throat cancer and had it removed when he was in his early 80's

For his remaining decade or so he puttered around in his wood shop and built this and that for the school, the local Churches, and firehouses and all us "kids".

In the early 90's they build an addition to the local volunteer fire department and put it in his name. He was there throughout the construction. There was a big ribbon cutting and the state senator from our area came and presented him with a plaque to commemorate 75 years of community service.

It took him 5 minutes to walk to the car or truck but he was still sharp as a tack in conversation, knowledge and skills. He was ornery............. Hard of hearing from the punch presses at GE. Otherwise perfect health. Died at Christmas time 1995 of old age, just went to sleep.

I have a band saw he made back when he was young, everything but the motor and belt pulleys was hand built. I also have a oak desk he made when young too. He had many tools and such but when my Uncle asked me what Id like, I said those two items would mean the most to me.

Some people know how to make the most of one life and my Grandfather was one of them. He had a whole second lifetime after his retirement.

Case you cant tell - he was my "big guy" I wrote this for him and I after

Grandpa did you think

the boy might be

just a little bit like you

carvin' his way by the fruit of his hands

Its not the path you take

but the tracks you make on your way, once you get there

that proves your worth

as a man

[I hope GMRULES again]

"Who really wants to live to 90 any way"

197065[/snapback]

Depends on what kind of shape your in. I know of two men in the 90's who are active and still drive.

[Paolino]

Every place I've ever worked (and college/univ., too, for that matter) had those cliques that went out and took their smoke breaks together.  It's a weird cult of sorts, in my mind.

I've also noticed that, working for architectural firms, most of the "smoking circles" were the less productive employees (in the firms I've been employed by)...and they seem to have more Jerry Springer type drama in their lives.

Yeah, I know, I'm a stereotyping jerk, but now having worked for a handful of architectural firms, this pattern seems to hold up.

Any observations about smoking cliques?

196243[/snapback]

Those that smoke together, die together. Sorry, I'm a bit bitter on the subject. WAY TOO MANY people in my family have died of cancer.

Seriously though, I hate smoke, I've tried cigars, but really, other than the smell, not a fan. My friends that do smoke (and there are few), do tend to go outside together and spend looooong amounts of time together just gabbing away over multiple cigarettes. I get asked each and every time to join (just to stand there), and refuse almost always.

I was extremely glad when they banned smoking in establishments in Suffolk County.

[Croc]

Those that smoke together, die together.

197270[/snapback]

Yea but everybody dies eventually...

[Paolino]

Yea but everybody dies eventually...

197293[/snapback]

True, but I try to not give death any incentive or assistance.

[Croc]

See I believe when it's your time to go, you're going, regardless of the cause.

[Drew Dowdell]

Yea but everybody dies eventually...

197293[/snapback]

Why not just throw yourself in front of a bus and get it over with quicker then?

edit: I felt I should be more sensative about this. How about...

Why not just throw yourself in front of a bus and get it over with quicker so you don't drive up all our health insurance costs with a lengthy and absurdly expensive for a self induced disease, death.

Edited September 25, 2006 by Oldsmoboi

[Croc]

There already was a thread on suicide, so you should reference that for my thoughts on that

Seriously, what do you want me to say? If you want to discuss this topic, fine...but don't try and bait me into a flame war.

[ocnblu]

Cigarette smokers drive up the cost of health care for everyone. It's a dirty habit and it is archaic. It's just not cool anymore. Jurisdictions across the country are making it harder for smokers to light up in public. When will they get the hint?

[Croc]

Who said anything about "cool"?

I guarantee you people who drink cause more societal evils and drive up insurance costs far more than the smoker.

[ocnblu]

I went out Friday night and had pizza and one Lawnguyland Iced Tea. It nearly knocked me on my ass, I couldn't believe it. I'm not conditioned to tolerate alcohol, and it's expensive. I don't know how people do it. I'll stick with normal iced tea.

[Paolino]

Who said anything about "cool"?

I guarantee you people who drink cause more societal evils and drive up insurance costs far more than the smoker.

197423[/snapback]

The majority of people who begin smoking in Junior High School, High School, and dare I say it, the latter years of elementary, do it because it's "cool"--not because someone held a gun to their heads, nor because they have an insatiable craving for nicotine.

[Drew Dowdell]

Who said anything about "cool"?

I guarantee you people who drink cause more societal evils and drive up insurance costs far more than the smoker.

197423[/snapback]

uh... sorry, without a link I'm calling

Lung cancer, asthma, emphesima are all faaaar more epidemic than Liver cirrhosis.

and even a worst case alcohol involved scenario, a deadly vehicular accident, will still cost less <financialy> than long term cancer treatment.

[Black and Blue Landscaper]

"He who is without a vise may throw the first stone."

smokers are gonna smoke and who should say they can't

the smoking ban started today in Philadelphia as far as being enforced. Well why dont we put the money and man power towards better education for inner city students, working on violence, and building low income housing. instead its lets make it so the people who have the money to go out and eat at a resturant or go to a bar...lets make it so they can breathe easier...

somethings dont make sense to me...

[Croc]

The majority of people who begin smoking in Junior High School, High School, and dare I say it, the latter years of elementary, do it because it's "cool"--not because someone held a gun to their heads, nor because they have an insatiable craving for nicotine.

197456[/snapback]

As a teacher of middle schoolers, you should know better than that! No one starts it to be "cool"; kids are trying to find themselves and therefore try a wide variety of experiences so as to discover who they really are.

I know I tried it first out of curiosity. Never really caught on though until college when it became social/stress-relieving. I never do it over the summers unless I'm drinking.

BTW--Hookah is just as bad as cigarettes if not worse in some ways. Less tar, obviously, but far more carcinogens.

uh... sorry, without a link I'm calling

Lung cancer, asthma, emphesima are all faaaar more epidemic than Liver cirrhosis.

and even a worst case alcohol involved scenario, a deadly vehicular accident, will still cost less <financialy> than long term cancer treatment.

197470[/snapback]

Asthma? People smoking is not a primary cause of asthma at any stretch of the imagination. Why is the asthma rate skyrocketing now when Americans are smoking less than ever before?

Also, the drunk driver has a double whammy on the costs...not only do you get hit for medical insurance hikes, but auto as well.

---------------------------------------------------------

I'm with Black and Blue..."he who is without vice..."

[z28luvr01]

Asthma?  People smoking is not a primary cause of asthma at any stretch of the imagination.  Why is the asthma rate skyrocketing now when Americans are smoking less than ever before?

197499[/snapback]

Asthma is an allergic reaction caused by a number of things, with air contaminants being among the most significant of those. I'd definitely consider cigarette smoke to fall under that category. It's not really a cause (I think you're born with it), but it does aggravate it. Put a cigarette smoker and an asthmatic in the same house, and the asthmatic will definiitely have a tough time. I know that from experience....my father's an asthmatic, and I do remember noticing a change in his health after my mother quit smoking.