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When You Refuse to Hire Smokers

I am not a smoker.  So it is with relative objectivity that I say smokers are the pariahs of the twenty first century.   You can’t smoke anywhere.  You can’t smoke in restaurants, office buildings, on sidewalks, and at your friend’s houses.    Even the cities have banned smoking in public places.   Hermosa Beach, California, has banned smoking from the beach areas where presumably ocean breezes would waft the smoke to safer places.

As for the job market, in this economy it’s tough competition out there.   With the shaky economy it’s tough to even find a job opening yet alone secure employment.  Many employers have their pick from the jobless pool.  And many will not hire jobless folk, but prefer recruiting for other employers.

Baylor Health Care just made it tougher for smokers. If you smoke, then, presumably, you are a health risk and risk the health of fellow employees.  Baylor will not hire you.   It’s realistic.  With the ever increasing cost of healthcare, you try to eliminate the risk

According to CBS DFW….”The Baylor Health Care System has decided that if you use tobacco, in any form, you won’t get a job with them.”

People don’t like the idea, but that’s how it goes.  Apparently, an employer must serve certain criterion so they do not discriminate against job applicants.  But the refusal to hire smokers is not on the list.

I would expect other employers, other than Baylor, to make the same call.  Best advice if you want to find a job and save your health in the bargain, put out the cigarette.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.

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