ARmy Rumour SErvice

Edited to add: Anybody reading this for the first time I've changed the title from 'Smoking - Should it earn a black mark on OJARs/SJARS? When I initial wrote this I felt that the balance of potential good versus potential harm might be in favour of what I was suggesting. After reading what some other posters had to say on the subject I came to the conclusion that the balance is probably tilted the other way and the problems would not be outweighed by the good. The rest of this page is as I originally posted:

On another thread discussing fitness a number of people have commented on the poor example set by officers and NCOs (and medical personnel) who are unable to pass a PFA and who are fat.

I have also said that I think officers and NCOs and medical personnel who smoke are setting a bad example.

Smoking is discouraged and the tax payer spends money on measures to help smokers give up should the 'system' be more discouraging?

Should smoking be taken into account on OJARs and SJARs? I'm not suggesting that smoking should necessarily be a block to advancement but where candidates are otherwise equal then the non-smoker should get the job.

Why? If some one is good at their job why should their private and personal habits matter? Smoking is not private and personal, its very public. The behavior of commanders influences their subordinates. Some people will start smoking because they are emulating an admired superior and more will justify continuing to smoke because 'if its good enough for the bosses its good enough for me'. Being a good commander makes it worse because the example is so much stronger.

I know that the smokers will howl that this is an attack on their civil liberties - it is not. I am not proposing that their right to smoke be infringed merely that there may be consequences.

Others will say: so what if soldiers smoke, where's the harm? They will point to their own levels of fitness as proof that there is no harm. So I agree having a few tabs will not do you any harm, but nobody does have a few tabs do they? The damage that smoking does is relatively long term.

Smokers will usually try and draw a parallel with drinking and other poor lifestyle choices and suggest that drinkers (and lets face it most of us are) have no right to criticize smokers. They are not equivalent and even if they were the fact that nothing is being done about one problem doesn't not mean that another should be tolerated. And being fat, unfit and drinking too much are being dealt with.

I wonder how much dereliction of duty could be put down to smoking. We all know that smokers tend to take more breaks than the rest of us to fed their addiction. We have all been on exercise where the smokers have lit up as soon as the DS disappear.

Lastly an observation. I am a qualified motorcycle instructor. Many people find learning to ride a motorcycle 'stressful'. Its always the smokers who shake. Its always the smokers who have to stop and have a fag to calm down. The shaking hand on the roll up. I never see it in the non-smokers.

I've been in stressful situations before and I've observed this nervousness before from smokers, I expect we all have but it so much more apparent when you have a small group of people in front of you all under the same stress. What I don't know is whether nervous people turn to smoking or whether smoking makes them nervous.

Discuss... (if you want to)

Originally Posted by BuggerAll

Smokers will usually try and draw a parallel with drinking and other poor lifestyle choices and suggest that drinkers (and lets face it most of us are) have no right to criticize smokers. They are not equivalent and even if they were the fact that nothing is being done about one problem doesn't not mean that another should be tolerated.

I've never known anyone who failed to turn up for work the morning after smoking too many cigarettes. In fact they tend to be on parade early at least once...for the grim reaper.

As for the "well they go out for a break" argument that's complete pants as long as the smoker's work is completed within the agreed schedule. I actually find my productivity imporoves if I go out & have a walk round the block with a tab & I frequently come up with new ways of approaching a problem when I've stepped away form it for a while.