Has anyone else here ever gotten in trouble at work for taking too many smoke breaks? My boss just chewed me out yesterday because he complained that I take a smoke break like every hour and that its distracting to other people in the office.
Its really hard though because Im like totally addicted to cigarettes, which I know is awful, but I go through these stages where like I totally love them/need them, and I feel really irrational and guilty about the whole thing. Ive gotten to be a pretty heavy smoker, like at least two packs a day most weekdays, often times more on weekends like almost three packs a day, especially when I go out on Friday or Saturday nights - its awful I know, but I started smoking when I was in middle school and Ive struggled with my addiction to cigarettes for almost ten years.
Ive kinda half-heartedly tried different things to quit smoking, like the nicorette gum and the patch, but they dont seem to work that well, and I just end up giving in and starting up smoking again. In fact, earlier this week I decided to get back on the patch again (the 21mg) along with the Nicorette gum (4mg) and was going to try to use them as part of a slow, measured step down where I try to smoke 1 cigarette a day less than the day before - starting by limiting myself to only 40 cigarettes on monday, then 39 yesterday, and hopefully I'll only need 38 cigarettes today...
But yesterday, while I was being so proud of myself for trying to maintain the goal of limiting myself to only 39 cigarettes all day, I was at work coming back into the office after another smoke break with another girl who works here - when my boss pulled me asside and gave me a talking to about taking too many smoke breaks at work and that I always reeked of stale cigarettes among other things like telling me I wasnt dressing professionally enough because I wore too many short skirts and high heels without pantyhose around the office like everyday, which is total bs because I read the dress code and measured my skirt length and also saw that the only office requirement on shoes is that they be black, it didnt say I had to wear socks or pantyhose with the shoes, just that they have to be black - which mine were - so I cant tell if one thing was a pre-text for the other or what - but I show up everyday on time, often times early, and I never leave early, in fact I often stay a little bit extra late to help close everything down for the day.
so I have no idea what gives him the right to complain to me about those other things - especially not when I never take a smoke break alone - I always take a smoke break with one of the other girls in the office - basically, I just join whoever is going out for their smoke break, which I cant see as wrong - about the worst thing I could be accused of is occasionally I will quietly mention that Im headed out for another smoke break and ask or encourage one of the other girls in the office to come have a cigarette with me so I dont have to smoke alone - but thats about it. I always do the rest of my work, and I always do a good job and get my work done on time - so I dont know why he was so hot under the collar about it.
Its hard enough as it is to try and cut back on smoking - especially while Im stressing about other health issues - and my boss chewing me out about smoking too much isn't helping the situation and in fact stresses me out and makes me feel like I need cigarettes even more to deal with the stress from it. I feel like my efforts to slowly cut back on the total number of cigarettes I smoke are being sabotaged by someone else who is complaining about my smoking in a way that makes me stress out about my job - it doesnt seem fair and I was just wanting to know that I wasn't alone in having to deal with these problems.