Fag breaks

[Francko]

10 minutes every hour can add up to 2 hours a day on top of lunch - just for being a smoker.

You're suggesting that the time people spend going out for cigarettes equates to the time non smokers spend chatting and surfing?

And the smokers don't do that as well?

Every 2 hours you are allowed a break of 20 minutes. That's by law in most countries. How you spend it is up to you. Beside, I'd never work in a company that it's timing what people are doing. It means that they have no clue on how to check the effectiveness of their employees.

* 2 hours of total break???? that means you must work 12 hours then if you take 10 mins an hour? Oh well out of a 12 hours work day you certainly take 2 hours off. If not, your brain will anyway.

[Jog On]

Every 2 hours you are allowed a break of 20 minutes. That's by law in most countries. How you spend it is up to you. Beside, I'd never work in a company that it's timing what people are doing. It means that they have no clue on how to check the effectiveness of their employees.

* 2 hours of total break???? that means you must work 12 hours then if you take 10 mins an hour? Oh well out of a 12 hours work day you certainly take 2 hours off. If not, your brain will anyway.

I know that by law you are entitled to breaks but it's been something I've noticed in a few places is that smokers have breaks that non smokers don't take.

I had to go to the bank the other day and when I asked if it was OK I got frowned at (had to be there before 12 am so couldn't do it at lunch time). I justified it by saying "It will take me about as long as it does for a smoker to go to the lift, take it down to the ground floor, smoke a cigarette, then come back" to which clientco said "Oh yeah fine"

I don't go to the bank once every hour but maybe I will if I'm entitled to. Although somehow I think I won't be not being a permie and all.

What I'm curious about is as a contractor do you take fag breaks, and if so how many and do you amend your timesheet accordingly?

Does the client just let you do it?

How do the non-smoker permies feel about it? I hear permies complain about other permies taking smoke breaks so how must they feel when you do it?

The 2 hours thing was a mistake on my part - I meant 1h and 20 mins (10 mins every hour x8) oops

[El_Diablo]

No, t'is a filthy habit...

WHS

[Bagpuss]

WHS

What have W H Smiths got to do with it?

[El_Diablo]

What have W H Smiths got to do with it?

Who said anything about WH Smith?

[cailin maith]

Hello sailor - oh you mean cigarettes

I was in Alabhama and I said I was going outside to smoke a fag. They treated me like some sort of hero!

TLG - Tea just came out of my nose then

[Bagpuss]

"What he said" sounds wrong, is it actually English or some sad Americanism?

The kids of today like innit!

[kali]

...I had to go to the bank the other day and when I asked if it was OK I got frowned at (had to be there before 12 am so couldn't do it at lunch time).

If I need to do something like that I tell the client, I don't ask. You're not a permie FFS.

[dang65]

What I'm curious about is as a contractor do you take fag breaks, and if so how many and do you amend your timesheet accordingly?

Does the client just let you do it?

I'm off the ciggies at the moment, but I used to smoke when I was at a previous place a couple of years ago. The company had notices posted up decreeing when fag breaks could be taken - one break between 10-10.30am and one break between 2.30-3pm (plus lunchbreak, obviously). Anyway, us contractors who smoked made a point of completely ignoring that rule and going whenever we felt like it. That was probably once every 1 1/2hrs on average, maybe less, so it didn't actually make a difference, it was just the principle of the thing.

It's up to non-smokers to take their entitled screen breaks anyway. It's not the smokers' problem. Personally, I often take "thinking breaks" from my code. I just go for a stroll, maybe put some music on loud in the headphones, and have a little think about the best way to approach some problem or other. Don't think anyone's ever had a problem with me doing that, and I know that other people do it too. Fag breaks are good as thinking breaks too, if you're a smoker. So it should all be claimable as far as I'm concerned.

[Jog On]

Thinking breaks it is then!

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