Article
The Moscow News, 1 Ôĺâđŕë˙ 2010
Russia's ban has smokers fuming
A new wave of tolerance has swept through workplaces in Russia, as staff worry more about job security than their colleagues’ bad habits.
But even as comradely feeling envelopes offices, a survey by the SuperJob recruitment portal found that the unholy trinity of smoking, gossip and tactlessness still breeds smouldering resentment at work.
A similar poll two years ago found only two-thirds as many people were tolerant towards their colleagues — with the change being blamed on the financial climate. «We agree that the recent economic crisis, which made many employees worry for their jobs, also forced them to spend less time observing their colleagues’ behaviour», Yulia Lysenko, head of the personnel provision department at the Moscow office of ANCOR recruitment, told The Moscow News.
Smoking, and possibly smoke-breaks, generates most resentment — with 13 per cent of pollsters finding it a drag. But employers remain largely apathetic about stubbing it out. According to Lysenko, a standard job application form doesn’t contain questions related to smoking or other «bad habits». «So, often an employer would learn about a person’s bad habits — or those which are not very congenial to their colleagues — only once they have been hired,» she said.
«Employers very rarely request that a prospective employee should be a non-smoker», Ulyana Trifonova, territory director for mass projects at Kelly Services, told The Moscow News. «The only time we had a request of that kind was when a company in the luxury goods sector was looking for sales personnel.» She added that sometimes companies looking for warehouse and production personnel make a condition that applicants shouldn’t have «bad habits», but that is usually aimed at weeding out alcholics.
Indeed it’s the smokers themselves for whom it’s a burning issue, Trofimova said: «Often, applicants for production jobs ask if there are cigarette breaks and how often.» According to Lysenko, if «bad habits» affect employees’ work or the company’s image and lead to waste of time, the employer has the right to punish them. «However, it is always advisable that the employer should discuss the situation with the employee first, before going ahead with any serious steps,» she said.
Meanwhile, employers have even slimmer chances of learning about other qualities of their potential employees that could be unpleasant for colleagues, such as gossiping and idle talk, pointed out by 9 per cent of the pollsters, and tactlessness — including «interest in colleagues’ incomes», «intrusiveness» and «excessive curiosity», mentioned by 6 per cent of the survey’s participants.
Among other types of irritating behaviour, «superiority complex», applying makeup and trimming nails at one’s workplace, «endless tea breaks», «loud talking and yelling», being late and «asking silly questions» were high on the list. Meanwhile, profanity, showing up drunk and untidiness, although mentioned by some, seemed not to be a big problem for the majority of the pollsters.
Fifteen per cent said they are totally tolerant towards their colleagues and pay no attention to their bad habits. «What irritates you in other people must be present in yourself as well», was the most common explanation of this type of tolerance.