inquisitrlogo

 
Fired For Smoking At Home? Woman Says Hospital Axed Her For Smoke ‘Smell’

Posted: July 28, 2012

fired for smoking

Fridley, Minnesota — A woman says she was fired for smoking at home, well away from her hospital workplace, because co-workers insisted that despite strong measures taken to avoid smelling like smoke, they still knew that Stephanie Cannon was lighting up a cig every once in a while.

If ever there was a reviled activity in our society nowadays, it’s smoking. Smokers are being pushed out of mainstream society and further and further away from the entrances of buildings, in some cases even being prevented from smoking in their own homes.

Private businesses have the right to fire at will, however, and it seems that just for being a smoker — even though she followed all rules and a bunch of really, really oppressive regulations concerning her own out-of-the-workplace smoking — Stephanie Cannon’s habit of smoking when she was all the way back at her house managed to get her the ax.

According to Cannon, the requests to curb the smoke smell — which is seems many people believe, rather than smoke itself, is responsible for smoking-related diseases — began almost immediately. Soon Cannon was adhering to a head-spinning regimen of clothes-bagging, Febreezing and even a request she shower at work instead of at her house, but it wasn’t enough for Park Nicollet Health Services, where she worked as a receptionist.

Cannon says that there were no “performance related” issues, but the center decided to let her go for smoking when even their requests she “avoid” her fellow-smoker husband in the morning didn’t fix the issue.

quitting smoking weight gain

Chuck Samuelson of the American Civil Liberties Union told a local news source that the Minnesota woman is out of luck:

“Basically your rights as a a smoker end where other people’s noses begin. In fact you can make the argument that your rights as a smoker end when other people breathe in the air that comes off of you.”

Samuelson continues:

“Private employers can do things that governmental agencies cannot, to their employees,” Samuelson says. “The Constitution simply does not apply in the same way. If she worked for Hennepin County or Ramsey County Hospital she would be better protected than if she worked for a private hospital, which she did.”

Do you believe that even private companies should be limited in their say over how people spend time outside work if their actions aren’t illegal… like, say, smoking?



Comments


9 Archived Responses to “ Fired For Smoking At Home? Woman Says Hospital Axed Her For Smoke ‘Smell’ ”

  1. Ricky Edgerton
    Jul 29, 2012

    This bimbo works in a hospital, where there are often people who are health compromized. Studies have shown that THIRD HAND smoke is harmful to others. Get a clue, lady. If not for yourself, then for the patients in your workplace.

  2. Stephanie Wodarski Cannon
    Jul 31, 2012

    Ok asshole, why don't you just take your comment and shove it up your redneck ass. Calling me a bimbo, do you even know who I am, just because you see a story on the news and you think, gee I should make a demeaning comment towards this girl because I am a piece of shit who has nothing else better to do. I have a husband, I have 2 children, one with special needs, and if you watched the news story, you would know that they didn't tell me their policy right away, they told me this 6 weeks after I started working there. And frankly Mr. Edger ton, it wasn't the patients who complained, it was 2-3 nurses out of the 100+ employees we had working there who complained and no one else did. So get your facts straight redneck, because you sure as hell don't know what you're talking about and making assumptions like the rest of the dumb shits who live in this liberal, left wing state. Oh and while I'm at it, do you drink from plastic bottles? There are enough carcinogens in those plastic bottles that will build up in your body to give you cancer just like us smokers. Do you eat meat sir? Because I don't, have you gotten a colonoscopy lately, it's probably rotting because of the meat and its by products you eat. Do you drink alcohol sir? Another thing that I don't do, how's your liver enzymes treating you? Oh and you look like you are old enough to get a PSA done, check for that prostate cancer, matter of fact, stick your finger up your own ass and STFU. Go back to your trailer dumb ass because you have no idea what the hell you're talking about. Get your facts straight sir because I am no bimbo and all of my past employers never complained, and this was was never about my work performance, so again, stick it….you might enjoy it.

  3. Larry Hicks
    Jul 31, 2012

    Wow you tell all those sons of a bitches what's up steph tell them lodg says to fuck off and leave you the fuck alone love you all

  4. Sam Munro
    Jul 31, 2012

    Show me these studies, you can't they have never been done and if you do find any propaganda suggesting otherwise have a good look at the money trail, you find find it points towards the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which is a front group for a pharmaceutical company that just buy chance have a vested interest in selling as much NRT as possible while circumventing competition law by creating mass media that shows their competitors in the worst light possible.

    I agree smoking is not the healthiest of lifestyle choices, but it is a choice, and 3rd hand smoke is a laughable concept, like someone becoming a paedophile because 2 weeks ago they walked past a cafe where a paedophile was having breakfast.

    I do however believe that passive stupidity is alive and well.

    The smoker seems the only acceptable target left for people to hate, you can't hate black people any more, nor gay people. If Steph was fired for being Black or Gay there would have been a public out cry. Smoking is a lifestyle choice, anyone that holds a view other than that has quite frankly succumbed to the pharma lie machine. You may disagree but in doing so you only prove my point.

  5. Chad Erickson
    Jul 31, 2012

    wow?

  6. Jim Looper
    Jul 31, 2012

    Right arm, bro! Next thing you know,in Minnesota, they'll be firing people because they smell like fish. What have you been doing at home ?

  7. Ricky Edgerton
    Aug 1, 2012

    What kind of hallucinogenic drug is Sam Munro on? The green acid? That's a bit of a stretch to compare 3rd hand smoke dangers with nascent paedophelia, as he spells it. (Must be a Brit). And yes, passive stupidity IS alive and well. But I claim active stupidity. Think I'll have another drink. Single malt Scotch, thank you.

  8. Xys Yz
    Aug 2, 2012

    @Ricky Your breath of scotch is making me ill and causing harm to my liver and is bad for my mental health… Your Single malt breath stops where my nose begins!

  9. Sam Munro
    Aug 2, 2012

    Classic Anti tactic, can't provide evidence to support 3rd hand smoke being at all dangerous thus having to resort to insulting, classic, bravo sir.