What would it take to get you to stop smoking cigarettes? At Piala, a Tokyo-based marketing company, employees get six additional paid vacation days a year if they don’t smoke. The company says that this policy is not intended to punish smokers, but instead to even the playing field for those who don't take smoking breaks. After non-smoking employees complained that employees who smoke spend less time at their desks working, as much as 40 minutes a day, CEO Takao Asuka decided to institute a tiered time-off policy. And in just one month, four of Piala’s employees had decided to kick the smoking habit.
A thank you for not smoking:
- “We don't give punishment for smoking," said a Piala spokesman. "Instead, we offer a benefit for not smoking."
- Piala officials estimated that smokers spend about 15 minutes away from their desks for each cigarette break. That involves taking an elevator 29 floors to the basement to a smoking area.
- The World Health Organization and the U.S. National Cancer Institute estimate that smoking costs the global economy more than $1 trillion USD a year.