I’ve seen companies attempt to “encourage” employees to participate in exercise and weight loss programs. The “what I do to relax” is self-evident–the original post is an example (many smokers do so to relax). I’ve also seen companies “encourage” parents to follow specific guidelines about screen time with children, along with other advice on childcare. And before anyone says it, yes, I get that encouragement isn’t forcing you to do anything. I also am not naive enough to think that a manager can’t punish you for not participating–I’ve seen too many people fired for “not being a team player” to have any delusions on this count. And like I said, while many of these come from good intentions and good managers can institute these programs in ways that are beneficial to both the company and the employees, the combination of a company encouraging off-hours behavior and a petty or overbearing manager results in the employees basically not having personal lives.

As for the grocery store thing, my wife’s employer has fired people for jokes the boss overheard an employee’s spouse make to strangers while shopping. It apparently didn’t present the proper moral behavior they expected from employees (she’s a public school teacher). This caused a significant fight between my wife and me–I flat-out refuse to police my behavior to ensure it complies with the expectations of someone I have no relationship with (and which I have no reasonable expectation of knowing), and my wife took offense to that. My view is, if someone’s going to fire you because someone else made a bad joke, they’re looking for an excuse to get rid of you and you should be looking for a new employer anyway.

How does an employer “[get] to dictate how much I exercise, what I do to relax, how much screen time my kids get, and how my spouse interacts with strangers at a grocery store”?

On the one hand, it make sense. An employee that’s injured doing home repairs is no less incapacitated than one injured on a jobsite–it’s not a recordable, but it’s still hurting your business. And it’s nice to see employers take the view that humans have certain needs, and to at least pay lip service to the idea that we should care about that.

On the other hand, there are a lot of petty dictators who enjoy exercising power over others, and this is a perfect opportunity for them to control their employees when they’re off the clock. We have enough of that as it is–just look at what happens if you post something the employer doesn’t like on social media! Now my employer gets to dictate how much I exercise, what I do to relax, how much screen time my kids get, and how my spouse interacts with strangers at a grocery store? (Note that all of those are things that my employer or my wife’s have tried.) At a certain point it crosses a line from “We care about you” to “We own you”.

But, obviously, smoking in the workplace affects others, due to second-hand smoke. Chewing at work doesn’t present the same risk to coworkers. Working from home, there is zero health risk to coworkers. Both practices, obviously, affect healthcare costs, absenteeism, etc.

Yes, that was the question I was pondering. If a company wants to eliminate tobacco then they should restrict all tobacco, not just restrict smoking. Companies should just come out and say it if they want to have a tobacco free workforce. By eliminating smoking, they will drive some to quit smoking, but others will go to alternatives such as chew.
It all depends on the company’s motivation. If it is about healthcare costs, then moving employees from smoking to chewing isn’t going to help. If it’s about PR, then they can get a nice article by just eliminating smoking. But it could also be about a megalomaniac CEO that wants to feel like they are controlling employees in their own homes. If that’s the case, then the CEO is getting their high just by making the rule.

I quit smoking in 2007 with the help of my employer. Encouraging and supporting employees to quit would be a far better place for companies to concentrate their efforts than trying to police private space.

I decided that I too was a “delicate computing device” deserving such pampering.

What’s the difference in the “tobacco habit” between those who smoke and chew? Both are habit-forming and addictive.