I know I have spoken of “smoker chick” at work before. She spends too much time away from her desk and outside smoking. It frustrates me – ESPECIALLY when she is behind in her work and the boss asks me to help her!!! But that story is for another time…
Today’s story is about ‘smoker chick’ and being away from her desk. It is not just me who notices her absence. My other co-workers do as well. It is a sticky situation – it really is none of our business – it should be the supervisor who says something…he doesn’t see these things. SIGH….
So the other day, I was FRUSTRATED – she had already been gone from her desk fro 28 minutes – I happened to glance at my watch when she left. So I was composing an e-mail to a co-worker – he and I think along the same lines.
The e-mail went like this…She has been on her smoke break for 28 minutes already.
I GUESS I had HER on my mind when I was addressing the e-mail and I SENT IT TO HER!!!!
OMG – too late now…
When she got back to her desk, she asked – “What is this”. Now I had to make a quick decision – I chose to be adult about it (ignoring the bitchy e-mail to the co-worker complaining in the first place – lol)
I replied that I didn’t mean to send that to her, however, MANY people have noticed the amount of time that she is away from her desk – not just me. I told her that she should watch herself as people are starting to talk about it.
She tried to explain – I said I didn’t want to hear it.
She replied FINE! FINE! FINE! and she hasn’t spoken to me since then.
I am o.k. with the not talking to me part!!
**update** I should clarify that I used to smoke and take smoke breaks etc, but NEVER for 35 minutes (that was the total when she finally came back) and I didn't get behind on my work because of it AND - we are not talking about me - we are talking about SmokerChick!!
12 comments:
I once did a calculation of how much time was lost due to smoke breaks. It came out to something like 10 hours a month per person. It's not fair, especially if you have to pick up the slack.
I'm glad you spoke to her, hopefully she'll get the message.
OOPS! Perhaps the mistake email was just meant to be. Now she knows what you and others think and how annoying it is . . . and maybe, just maybe she'll take shorter breaks and actually get work done. Hmm - in a perfect world right??
Hope it gets better for ya soon.
k
A mistake but it got the words out there. She can suck it...she is at fault and she knows it.
Keep smilin!
Maybe you did her a great favour. She'll at least know that people are aware so maybe she'll be more aware.
I've often wondered how many hours a month are spent on smoke breaks. Thanks for the break down Dolores. Wow that's a lot of hours.
Ugh!! Sorry you had this happen but I'm guessing you're not alone. Never fun though when you're the one who hit 'send.'
Hope it gets better though! You shouldn't have to pull up for her slack.
That's kind of funny that you mistakenly sent it to her...
Hopefully she'll smarten up!
That always bugged me too. When I worked at the bank we got two 15 minute breaks per day plus lunch. How is it the smokers seem to sneak in a couple additional breaks and longer breaks and no one notices? AND they always smell like crap when they come back in.
FWIW I smoked too, but never like that. Yuck.
It's too bad you have to deal with the crap, but I'm glad she got your email! It's so unfair!
And I can totally relate to that sinking feeling after you've hit the send button. I once accidentally sent an email to the bookkeeper of Maia's nursery school (I was on the Board of Directors) saying how unprofessional I thought she was. Yikes!
UGH! I've done that before, but my message was about my manager - and I accidentally sent it to my manager. I think you did a GREAT thing by owning up to it and telling her like it is, whether she likes it or now. I too used to smoke, but I took two breaks for it during the day, each lasting no more than 10 minutes each. Might i add that I always came in 30 minutes early everyday as well, because I didn't want anyone getting ticked at me for it - and then never did.
I think you handled it well. It will be interesting to see if it changes her behaviour.
Oopsie! Yeah I have done that before - sent an email to the wrong person. People who take advantage always get caught ...
I think anything over 10 minutes is too long. We have a smoker at our organization, but she rarely goes over 5 minutes - but she doesn't smoke whole cigs either. Maybe she'll be more aware now that she is being watched! If she doesn't change.....she must not have a conscious.
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