Should you get extra days off if you don’t take smoke breaks? This company says yes

Avoiding tobacco is its own reward.

But one company is taking it further: Employees who do not take smoke breaks get six extra days of vacation each year.

Piala Inc., a marketing firm in Tokyo, announced the policy in September, and a quarter of the workforce has taken advantage of it.

“One of our nonsmoking staff put a message in the company suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems,” a spokesman for the company told The Telegraph. “Our CEO saw the comment and agreed, so we are giving nonsmokers some extra time off to compensate.”

Chief Executive Officer Takao Asuka told The Japan Times that he preferred a carrot to a stick.

“I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion,” he said.

According to the World Health Organization, 21.7 percent of Japanese smoke. The rate in the U.S. is 19.5 percent.

There are other ways to incentivize employees to quit smoking, according to The Midwest Business Group on Health. Some companies reduce health care premiums or deductibles. Others make outright bonus payments to those who quit.

Smart Business reports that smoking causes $197 billion in lost productivity for U.S. businesses each year and secondhand smoke causes an additional $10 billion loss.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Should you get extra days off if you don’t take smoke breaks? This company says yes."