Bangkok's Chatuchak Market Becomes Non Smoking Zone

[kuffki]

As an employer I refuse smokers and that will rattle the dickheads in the prejudice labour camps.

Simple deduction. Smoker needs a puff every hour at least - let's limit this to one. Building in Asoke 22nd floor. Takes the lift to smoke outside. Allow 3-5+ minutes to get down to the ground - a smoke and chat to his other puffing mate allow 5 and then 3-5 to get back up. 15 minutes per hour. I lose 2 hours a day in a normal working day. 5 day week = 10 hours. So 40 hours becomes 30 and a 25% drop in productivity apart from holding up other departments due to slow through put delays.

So last time I asked a man if he smoked and he said yes, I asked him if he would take a 25% drop in salary as he would work 25% less time? He walked out as they have all done since. Now I get my PA to do the interviews as I am still supposed to put up with applications but I love the look on their faces. None of them has a brain so far to figure out the 'why?'

But also as already mentioned, they smell, they offend clients and their clothes always reek (apart from their breath - just add coffee to the breath and its enough to make anyone puke). I have also noted most have extremely dirty fingernails and personal hygiene leaves a lot to be desired.

Sorry smokers - its a 'dying' habit and you are all losers.

-i hope you apply same rule to asthmatics because they need to use their puffer.

-To people who are overweight because they slow to move

-Older people, because they slow to move

-people on medication, because they need to take their medicine

-and give bonuses to those who sell more then average.

-you also pay extra for those days when its busy

-and pay over time for every 5 mins employee stays back

-Once sick days are used up, you still pay the full rate and so on

I am a smoker and whenever i worked for a company, i get my lunch break for 1 hour and that is when i smoke.In what company in the world employees allowed to have a smoke break as you claim?

Now you refer to personal hygiene, i am sorry but that has nothing to do with smoking. If you in the industry where most "pigs" work-then no need to blame it on the smoking.

My finger nails are clean at all times, so are my fingers. being aware of the bad breath there is thing called mouth wash, breath mints etc.

Really makes me wonder why you have the need to get so close to your employees to smell their breath.????

As for clothing, ever heard of deodorant and eau de toilettes?

I am sorry but your latest argument has to be the most ridiculous one i ever heard

Here's the best solution to please you both:

To asiawatcher:

1. You allow your employees to smoke.

2. You have a policy in place that requires your employees to purchase their cigarettes from you at a ridiculously high price.

3. You also require the use of mouthwash after each smoke.

4. They must purchase this from you as well (at a ridiculously high price).

5. On smoking breaks, your employees must use the stairs.

6. You take life insurance policies on your smoking employees.

You will make up for the losses of 'smoke time' on the cigarettes, mouthwash, and as a bonus, if they 'expire' from emphysema or running up and down the stairs you're covered and more after collecting on the life insurance.

To kuffki: You can smoke at work.

LOL, excellent solutions. But i do smoke at work already just not infront of the customers, little fringe benefit of being your own boss for the last 12 years or so

[Randee]

Another step in the right direction. Smoking should be banned from all public places, it is a filthy and disgusting habbit

do you drive a motor vehicle? do you think motor vehicles should be banned? they are far far far more dangerously unhealthy than a little cigarette.

just because you don't smoke, don't try to ruin it for those of us who love it.

you give up motor vehicles and walk and i'll quit smoking.

and you know very well that ain't gonna happen.

[nisakiman]

As an employer I refuse smokers and that will rattle the dickheads in the prejudice labour camps.

Simple deduction. Smoker needs a puff every hour at least - let's limit this to one. Building in Asoke 22nd floor. Takes the lift to smoke outside. Allow 3-5+ minutes to get down to the ground - a smoke and chat to his other puffing mate allow 5 and then 3-5 to get back up. 15 minutes per hour. I lose 2 hours a day in a normal working day. 5 day week = 10 hours. So 40 hours becomes 30 and a 25% drop in productivity apart from holding up other departments due to slow through put delays.

So last time I asked a man if he smoked and he said yes, I asked him if he would take a 25% drop in salary as he would work 25% less time? He walked out as they have all done since. Now I get my PA to do the interviews as I am still supposed to put up with applications but I love the look on their faces. None of them has a brain so far to figure out the 'why?'

But also as already mentioned, they smell, they offend clients and their clothes always reek (apart from their breath - just add coffee to the breath and its enough to make anyone puke). I have also noted most have extremely dirty fingernails and personal hygiene leaves a lot to be desired.

Sorry smokers - its a 'dying' habit and you are all losers.

If you asked me anything about my private life in relation to a job I was applying for (not that I've applied for a job in 30 years or so - I'm an employer, not an employee) I'd tell you to mind your own dam_n business. Lordy, some people are so self-righteous!

You really believe you command the moral high ground, don't you? I think "holier-than-thou" must be your watchword.

God preserve us from those who would impose their warped morality on the rest of the world...

[F4UCorsair]

Rumblecat sounds like a decent, considerate person. Good on you RC, you area good bloke who considers others when indulging your vice. I definitely won't be pi$ing on you after a few beers!!!

Wallaby (post above) said I hate it when the do gooders impose their own will on what people should and shouldn't do. Harden up and move on to something important in your life than worrying about what others are doing to theirs.

Wallaby, if you were only doing it to your life I wouldn't care in the least, but your smoke ruins my clothes, my rather pleasant personal odour, and my health. I don't worry about what you're doing to your life, but I do worry about what you smokers are doing to mine!!!

Can you read? I DON'T SMOKE.

Yes, I can read Wallaby, but my post was addressed to smokers in general. Let me clarify that. It was addressed to those who smoke, but definitely not you because you don't smoke. There, there, feel better?

Asiawatcher, we need more of you!!!

Edited September 22, 2010 by F4UCorsair

[mca]

So last time I asked a man if he smoked and he said yes, I asked him if he would take a 25% drop in salary as he would work 25% less time? He walked out as they have all done since. Now I get my PA to do the interviews as I am still supposed to put up with applications but I love the look on their faces.

Good to see you treating your candidates with professional courtesy befitting an employer.

[ezythai]

You could always take up electronic cigarettes like i use, can use them anywhere.

[Robby nz]

One of the things that amazes me (or should that be disgusts) is that smokers happily subject their own children to the polution of their addiction.

Me I can, and do, avoid smokers but their unfortunate offspring have no choice but to inhale their second hand smoke.

It is like feeding your own, and other peoples, children poison every day.

The kids go to school with their clothes and hair stinking of smoke, not nice for the other kids in the class and certainly unhealthy for the kids themselves.

Would this be why young people take up the habit, because they have already become addicted from the smoke of their parents?

To try to use other forms of polution as an excuse to add to that polution is like dumping your rubbish in the street because you saw some other rubbish there.

Hope they enforce the ban at J J market and other places.

Perhaps they could build a glass cage like they have at some airports and Mo Chit bus station as a smoking area then parents could take their kids to go look at the smokers, like animals in the zoo.

[bkkjames]

Don't worry, soon they will remove all the rubbish bins.

I can see it now. Green dressed ocifers staking out the entrance to JJ next to the no smoking sign.

A smart business person might open up a little open air bar on the perimeter with beer, ashtrays and rubbish bins for rent-only between 11 and 2pm of course.

[TAWP]

The march of the zealots continues.....

Zealots my cute little hiney, it is about time that this filthy habit is banned from public space. If you want to poison the place, do it in your own house...

Any farang that is so stupid to smoke, deserves to be fined the max amount

Can we also ban everyone that has on strong perfume, talks loudly or is ugly?

[GarryP]

The march of the zealots continues.....

Zealots my cute little hiney, it is about time that this filthy habit is banned from public space. If you want to poison the place, do it in your own house...

Any farang that is so stupid to smoke, deserves to be fined the max amount

Can we also ban everyone that has on strong perfume, talks loudly or is ugly?

That means I'm gone. I fart a lot too.

[Renbe]

The march of the zealots continues.....

Zealots my cute little hiney, it is about time that this filthy habit is banned from public space. If you want to poison the place, do it in your own house...

Any farang that is so stupid to smoke, deserves to be fined the max amount

And I bet you drive a car. Haven't you noticed they stink and maybe you ain't heard they kill millions every year.

Rumor has it they also contribute to global warming, but the self-righteous drivers feel free to slag off smokers. Why?

Pots, kettles, and black springs to mind.

Two wrongs don't make a right, and driving a car is not allowed either on Chatuchak Market ;-)

[sangfroid]

As an employer I refuse smokers and that will rattle the dickheads in the prejudice labour camps.

Simple deduction. Smoker needs a puff every hour at least - let's limit this to one. Building in Asoke 22nd floor. Takes the lift to smoke outside. Allow 3-5+ minutes to get down to the ground - a smoke and chat to his other puffing mate allow 5 and then 3-5 to get back up. 15 minutes per hour. I lose 2 hours a day in a normal working day. 5 day week = 10 hours. So 40 hours becomes 30 and a 25% drop in productivity apart from holding up other departments due to slow through put delays.

So last time I asked a man if he smoked and he said yes, I asked him if he would take a 25% drop in salary as he would work 25% less time? He walked out as they have all done since. Now I get my PA to do the interviews as I am still supposed to put up with applications but I love the look on their faces. None of them has a brain so far to figure out the 'why?'

But also as already mentioned, they smell, they offend clients and their clothes always reek (apart from their breath - just add coffee to the breath and its enough to make anyone puke). I have also noted most have extremely dirty fingernails and personal hygiene leaves a lot to be desired.

Sorry smokers - its a 'dying' habit and you are all losers.

[Tigs]

As an employer I refuse smokers and that will rattle the dickheads in the prejudice labour camps.

Simple deduction. Smoker needs a puff every hour at least - let's limit this to one. Building in Asoke 22nd floor. Takes the lift to smoke outside. Allow 3-5+ minutes to get down to the ground - a smoke and chat to his other puffing mate allow 5 and then 3-5 to get back up. 15 minutes per hour. I lose 2 hours a day in a normal working day. 5 day week = 10 hours. So 40 hours becomes 30 and a 25% drop in productivity apart from holding up other departments due to slow through put delays.

So last time I asked a man if he smoked and he said yes, I asked him if he would take a 25% drop in salary as he would work 25% less time? He walked out as they have all done since. Now I get my PA to do the interviews as I am still supposed to put up with applications but I love the look on their faces. None of them has a brain so far to figure out the 'why?'

But also as already mentioned, they smell, they offend clients and their clothes always reek (apart from their breath - just add coffee to the breath and its enough to make anyone puke). I have also noted most have extremely dirty fingernails and personal hygiene leaves a lot to be desired.

Sorry smokers - its a 'dying' habit and you are all losers.

If you asked me anything about my private life in relation to a job I was applying for (not that I've applied for a job in 30 years or so - I'm an employer, not an employee) I'd tell you to mind your own dam_n business. Lordy, some people are so self-righteous!

You really believe you command the moral high ground, don't you? I think "holier-than-thou" must be your watchword.

God preserve us from those who would impose their warped morality on the rest of the world...

nisakiman

You make me laugh. asiawatcher is exactly right, and you as an employer should know that. The fact that the western world is drowning in political correctness seems catching to some employers as well. asiawatcher like any employer (and I am one) has every right to choose who the hel_l he likes to work for him as he is spending HIS money. When you go shopping and spend your money on goods, don't you always insist on the best for your money? Or do you buy moldy bread. milk or meat that is past the sell by date, newspapers three days old or trousers with holes in them, maybe electrical goods that work well...some of the time? You don't because you want the best value for your money don't you? Well any responsible employer must be the same. If he doesn't want smokers in his workplace then that is it, period. It is his choice to spend his money as wisely as he can. If he is to be politically correct and must employ the smoker, then he must be equally correct to all the non-smokers and allow them all one day off every week in lieu of time off the smoker takes for fag breaks. Hopefully political correctness is still 20 years away from Thailand by which time I will be past caring.

At interview I would love you to tell me to 'mind my own dam_n business' if I asked if you smoke, because your chance of getting the job would be zero, nada, zilch! It is good you don't need to go for job interviews in your current situation because by the sounds of it you would not be too successful. Perhaps your type are the ones that are self righteous believing that they are entitled to any job on the grounds of correctness.

as an aside 'holier-than-thou' can't be asiawatcher's 'watchword' can it, maybe a watch-three-words, perhaps a word would be sanctimonious but in this case it applies to you as you are displaying the attitude not him.

[tw25rw]

Plenty of good reasons for driving a car. None for smoking.

Only reasons for taking up smoking are youthful stupidity and plain stupidity.

The rest of us are entitled not to have this squalid habit invade our personal space.

[hayden5650]

Plenty of good reasons for driving a car. None for smoking.

Only reasons for taking up smoking are youthful stupidity and plain stupidity.

The rest of us are entitled not to have this squalid habit invade our personal space.

I'd love to blow a big puff of Marlboro in your face.

I'm sure walking around Bangkok you'll inhale many worse things in a day than the smooth, rich flavoured smoke of a Marlboro cigarette.

[way2muchcoffee]

Wow what a bunch of wanke_rs we have unearthed in this thread.

My parents smoke. I don't smoke. I don't care if the guy beside me smokes. My clothes will smell of all kinds of pollution (including my own sweat) so a bit of a smokey smell mixed in doesn't worry me. I can also walk past people in the street LEGALLY smoking without a fear that a couple of breaths of their smoke is going to give me cancer. I'm probably more likely to get cancer from all the preservatives in the food and the pollution from all sorts of things these days than inhaling a little bit of smoke.

A friend was having a smoke out on the footpath a few weeks ago. A woman wasn't watching where she was going and bumped his smoke and slightly burnt her arm. The woman went off on a rant and my friend just stood there and took it. In the end I just told her that we were standing there talking, if she can't watch what where she is walking then it's her fault, suck it up and <deleted> off.

If a person is smoking in a place that isn't banned that's fine, nothing to do with anyone else because it is LEGAL, if you don't like it then tough.

As for the poster saying the bars in Australia didn't have a problem being smoke free. I suggest you crawl out from under your rock. The smoking ban is the biggest reason many bar owners have gone bust. When it was first being determined most bar owners wanted the choice whether to place a smoking ban or not. Surely if it would be such a money spinner to be smoke free then all bars would have jumped at the chance, but that wasn't the case. All bars were made to be smoke free.

How about they be given a choice, if a bar has smokers, then non smokers have an option not to go there. If a bar doesn't allow smoking then smokers have the option of not going there.

I hate it when the do gooders impose their own will on what people should and shouldn't do. Harden up and move on to something important in your life than worrying about what others are doing to theirs.

Very good post. Sums up my own opinion on the matter quite nicely.

[whybother]

Plenty of good reasons for driving a car. None for smoking.

Only reasons for taking up smoking are youthful stupidity and plain stupidity.

The rest of us are entitled not to have this squalid habit invade our personal space.

I'd love to blow a big puff of Marlboro in your face.

I'm sure walking around Bangkok you'll inhale many worse things in a day than the smooth, rich flavoured smoke of a Marlboro cigarette.

It would be good if we could ban some of those worse things too. But reducing cigarette smoke is a good start.

[whybother]

<snip>

As for the poster saying the bars in Australia didn't have a problem being smoke free. I suggest you crawl out from under your rock. The smoking ban is the biggest reason many bar owners have gone bust. When it was first being determined most bar owners wanted the choice whether to place a smoking ban or not. Surely if it would be such a money spinner to be smoke free then all bars would have jumped at the chance, but that wasn't the case. All bars were made to be smoke free.

How does making all bars smoke free make some of them go bust? Are you suggesting that people aren't going out because they can't smoke?

How about they be given a choice, if a bar has smokers, then non smokers have an option not to go there. If a bar doesn't allow smoking then smokers have the option of not going there.

"Choice" doesn't work.

Drinkers fall into a number of groups:

1- full time smokers

2- social smokers (particularly when they are drinking)

3- non-smokers that put up with smokers

4- non-smokers that don't put up with smokers

So bars that don't allow smoking potentially lose 3 groups. Group 3 are more likely to follow groups 1 and 2. So a bar won't go with the non-smoking option.

In Thailand it is illegal to smoke in bars, but because some bars allow it (paying the right people to turn a blind eye), all bars need to allow it.

I hate it when the do gooders impose their own will on what people should and shouldn't do. Harden up and move on to something important in your life than worrying about what others are doing to theirs.

I tend to agree with you here, except where something you do directly affects other people.

One difference between Australia (and other western countries that have banned smoking in bars and other areas) and Thailand is the cost to the government of health care for those affected by smoking related diseases. The governments try to reduce the amount of smoking because it costs them too much to look after the smokers (and passive smokers) when they get sick.

[tw25rw]

Plenty of good reasons for driving a car. None for smoking.

Only reasons for taking up smoking are youthful stupidity and plain stupidity.

The rest of us are entitled not to have this squalid habit invade our personal space.

I'd love to blow a big puff of Marlboro in your face.

I'm sure walking around Bangkok you'll inhale many worse things in a day than the smooth, rich flavoured smoke of a Marlboro cigarette.

This will come under the plain stupidity category.

[JatujakShopper]

I'm gone overseas for four months, I come back, go to my favorite market and learn that I can't buy a freaking beer on a hot day while shopping. Welcome back to LOS! I'm going to have to change my dam_n handle now, and I won't be shopping in Jatujak (or Chatuchak) much anymore. Another stupid law where there wasn't a problem to begin with.

[globalmenace]

As an employer I refuse smokers and that will rattle the dickheads in the prejudice labour camps.

Simple deduction. Smoker needs a puff every hour at least - let's limit this to one. Building in Asoke 22nd floor. Takes the lift to smoke outside. Allow 3-5+ minutes to get down to the ground - a smoke and chat to his other puffing mate allow 5 and then 3-5 to get back up. 15 minutes per hour. I lose 2 hours a day in a normal working day. 5 day week = 10 hours. So 40 hours becomes 30 and a 25% drop in productivity apart from holding up other departments due to slow through put delays.

So last time I asked a man if he smoked and he said yes, I asked him if he would take a 25% drop in salary as he would work 25% less time? He walked out as they have all done since. Now I get my PA to do the interviews as I am still supposed to put up with applications but I love the look on their faces. None of them has a brain so far to figure out the 'why?'

But also as already mentioned, they smell, they offend clients and their clothes always reek (apart from their breath - just add coffee to the breath and its enough to make anyone puke). I have also noted most have extremely dirty fingernails and personal hygiene leaves a lot to be desired.

Sorry smokers - its a 'dying' habit and you are all losers.

Not that I would ever work for someone else, but if you said that to me you would have to cancel the rest of of your appointments that week for dental work.

[F4UCorsair]

I recall going back 10+ years when restaurant owners in Australia were shifting from foot to foot wondering if their restaurant should be the first to go 'non smoking' on the back on non smoking flights, which incidentally, were forced by Australian pilots and the world followed.

It was popular opinion that the first would go broke, but the owners of Nyonya (Malaysian cuisine) in Carlton took a gamble and declared their restaurant non smoking. It was booked solid for over a year and they made buckets of money until the others in the strip saw the error of their way and went down that path. Nyonya is still heavily booked, but so are the others, and us non smokers can now go there without the discomfort of selfish smokers second hand smoke.

The same was said of pubs when state governments legislated to ban smoking, but they've taken it in their stride, same if not greater patronage, and the smokers go outside or to a dedicated smoking area for a fag. It's not the big deal they thought it was. Incidentally, a couple of Australian states are preparing legislation to make smoking in any public place, even the street, an offence, and the only place a smoker will be able to light up is at home. Now that will be a great advance.

If, as you say, people lose their jobs, and I doubt it because that hasn't been the experience in Australia, then I'm sure somebody has done the economic exercise of having them on unemployment benefits versus on health benefits and enormous medical bills carried by the government, because of the effects of passive smoking, principally heart disease and cancer.

I must ask why people go to bars??? Is it to drink alcohol??? Probably, because they're called bars, traditionally places where alcohol is consumed, and not called 'smoking places'. What do those people do if they can't have a fag there??? Not go??? I doubt that.

Statistically, those who smoke, and more particularly smoke heavily, are at the lower end of the socio economic ladder, those least able to afford it, or afford the medical costs associated with smoking. If a few quit as a consequence, a ban will have been worth it.

Just had to be an australian, didn't you.

Pls explain how a sillyzen of the World's most polluting nation per head can get on his high sheep about a little smoke?

Put your own house in order first before you even have a small % of a right to bitch about others.

Biggoted, hyphocrit, and you know it.

You'll be going on about human rights next, like the right to your own country and government next, but forgetting about your mobs past and current treatment of Aborigines.

Like them you have no right to any opinion or are we expected to respect people who come from a murderously, stolen country?

Soi Sauce, I've just come back to this thread after many months and noted your provocative post.

There are a couple of issues here to which it is necessary to respond.

Firstly, I am not opposed to smoking because of a pollution issue. If you think that, you have serious problem with comprehension. It is about the effects of smoke on non smokers and the benefits of quitting, both for smokers and those whom they smoke near..

It is not about human rights, treatment of aborigines, or stealing countries. If, as someone suggests in another post, you are American, then you're not well placed to talk about stealing countries and treatment of the 'original' inhabitants. You're not American? The Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, Germans, Japanese, and a host of other nationalities do not have records of which they can be proud in that arena either.

Finally, I think you should consider anger management classes if you find it necessary to be so aggressive when replying to others opinions.

Wallaby said, I hate it when the do gooders impose their own will on what people should and shouldn't do. Harden up and move on to something important in your life than worrying about what others are doing to theirs.

My friend, life is all about others imposing their will on you whether you realize/like it or not. Everyday life is run to rules, your boss insists you get to work on time and actually work, if you're in business your clients insists you conform to their requirements, road rules, etc., and if we have no rules, we have anarchy, the survival of the roughest and toughest, and the law of the jungle applies. That would not be a pleasant world in which to live, particularly if YOU are not one of the roughest and toughest.

Edited July 11, 2011 by F4UCorsair

[F4UCorsair]

Soi Sauce,

You really should run your post through spellcheck. Bigoted and hypocrite are correct, biggoted and hypochrit are NOT.

I, like anyone else, have a right to an opinion, regardless of your protestation to the contrary, or perhaps I should assert that anyone who does not have a grasp of spelling, basic spelling, should also have no opinion? That would make me a bigot.

[soundman]

This topic is eight months past its use by date.

Closed.