A novel way to get around the smoking ban

[darmstadt]

Apart from that being a tad impractical they make so much tobacco revenue that I doubt that will happen.

Like in the USA? Although not banned per se, you can still lose your job for smoking at home. See some states want to ban smoking in certain outside areas. When I was last in NY there were signs on buildings stating not to smoke within a certain distance of the building which meant I ended up standing in the middle of the road.

[Sysman]

They did this in a lot of pubs in Germany when the ban came in, they were bloody awful, you came out stinking like an ashtray. Now that the ban has, kind of, been rescinded then you can continue as pre-ban times. A couple of sites I've been to recently have little cubicles built for smoking in corridors or in the case of one, right by reception where the cafe is so you can have a fag and coffee. Civilised...

I worked at a place in the 80s that had a smoking room. It was equipped with decent sized desks so that you could spread out your compiler listings and do constructive work (no carping from non-smokers about you skiving while having a fag). It also suffered from inadequate ventilation, but the idea was sound.

The last few places I have worked have had a coffee/smoking area and it's quite a good way of meeting folks you wouldn't normally come into contact with - networking at work, if you like.