A colleague of mine showed me a calculation about nicotine breaks at the workplace:

If a smoker takes 5 breaks per day at 3 minutes for smoking, that is 15 minutes off per day.

In a working week of 5 days that is 75 Minutes.

In a working year of 47 weeks (5 weeks holiday) that is 3.525 minutes or 58,75 hours or 7,3 working days (a working day being 8 hours).

In a lifetime of work at 45 years that is appr. 330 working days or 66 weeks or 1.4 years off.

That is why, he said, smokers should have to work longer before reaching retirement.

I replied: Nicotine breaks are not regulated in the law. If your employer gives you time off to smoke than this is just the same as if he allows you to make private telephone calls, go to get someting to drink, read the newspaper or any other non related work. (Toilet breaks on the other hand are a fundamental human right according to law.)

Actually, I said: “Dude, take it easy.”

I should have said: “Who paid you for the time you spent making up this calculation?”