Where There's Smoke...

I had an unpleasant exchange today with one of the guys who occupies the office suite next to mine. After months of tolerating the odor of cigarette smoke coming through the vents into my office, I finally decided to ask that he kindly take his cigarettes outside. One of the reasons I reached that point was that an employee finds cigarette smoke very offensive, to the point of seeming to have allergies to it.

Anyway, initially I encountered one of the guy's colleagues and asked, "do any of you guys (3 of them, maximum, usually 2) smoke in your office?" He said, yes, CI smokes sometimes. I told him the odor was really driving me crazy and, worse, it was driving my staff crazy. He looked very uncomfortable and told me to talk to CI.

I did. After walking in the door and seeing he was on the phone, I went back to my office...the young guy at the front desk came over a few minutes later and told me to come on over to talk to CI. I went back over and waited in CI's office while he finished a conversation with a dentist about fillings.

When he got off the phone, I told him, as politely as I could, that his cigarette smoke was really driving me crazy and I asked if he would mind going outside when he wanted to smoke. His expression changed from smiling to scowling and he said he had a real problem with that, since he paid for his office space and he's not smoking in my office. I said I understood, but I explained the smoke was really bothersome and we would appreciate it if he would be considerate and smoke outside. He said he had a major problem with that because "this is the only domain where I can smoke." His attitude rather pissed me off, so I said "fine, I'll deal with it another way" and started to turn to walk out. At this point, CI got huffy and suggested I was being impolite and disrespectful. I growled something back at him and said I did not intend to do that, but it appeared to me he was not interested in discussing it. He assured me he was. After some superficial pleasantries, he agreed to look into getting a fan that "sucks up" the cigarette smoke. I thanked him and left.

Here's the issue that irks me; he is within his rights to smoke in his office. Despite the fact that I am bothered by it, he can smoke...it's in his office. In my view, a person should be able to smoke in their offices only if they invest in filtration systems that ensure no one else has to deal with it.

I smoked for god-knows-how-many-years and before I quit I had realized it was simply respectful to keep my bad habits from interfering with people who didn't. Even before cigarette smoking in offices was essentially eliminated in the Dallas area (in the mid-late 90s), I made it a policy that no one could smoke in the office...including me, a heavy smoker. If I wanted a cigarette, I went outside with everyone else.

Now, to find someone who runs a company that offers motivation training (yes, the guy is a motivational speaker and trainer) behaving like a simple-minded jerk really annoys me. I will give his solution a little time to work. If it does, fine. If it does not, I will file a formal complaint with the building's management and will also inquire of the appropriate legal scholars about whether I have any standing to insist that the guy stop on the basis of exposing me and my staff to second-hand smoke.

I always loathed ex-smokers who were so nasty to smokers. Now, I am an ex-smoker (coming up on 2 years)...but I try not to be nasty about it...but sometimes I have to. I have two brothers and a sister who still smoke (I wish they'd stop!). I'd be awfully disappointed in them if they behaved the way my office neighbor behaves.

I'll quit grousing for the moment...I may come back later and write something with a little more cheer...or maybe not!