http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/27/stephanie-cannon-fired_n_1709915.html
One Minnesota woman is claiming that smoking a cigarette in the privacy of her own home cost her a job.
Stephanie Cannon was fired from her job as a receptionist at the Frauenshuh Cancer Center of Park Nicollet Health Services on the grounds that she smelled like smoke at work, KSTP-TV reports. Cannon is a regular, pack-a-day smoker, but she told the local ABC affiliate that she never brought her habit with her to work.
Six weeks into her job, Cannon's boss told her she could no longer show up to work smelling like smoke. Despite efforts to eliminate the smell from her clothing -- which she claims included bagging and spraying her clothing with air freshener before work -- the stench just wouldn't go away, and the hospital let her go.
So called "third-hand smoke," or the residue that remains on smokers' hair and clothing, has been shown to put infants and children that come in contact with it at risk, according to The New York Times.
Cannon isn't the only person to find herself out of a job for smoking in the privacy of her own home. Three EVAC paramedics in Volusia County, Florida, were fired last year after they were found in violation of the county's anti-nicotine policy, The Daytona Beach News-Journal report.
Many employers may not go so far as to fire their workers who smoke, but they can be penalized in other ways. Companies are increasingly requiring that employees who smoke, have high cholesterol or are overweight pay more for their health care, according to The NYT. In Michigan, several hospitals have recently started not offering a job to applicants who smoke or chew tobacco, according to MLive.
Stephanie Cannon has smoked almost a pack of Camel Menthols a day for the past 18 years. She got a job as a receptionist, ironically, at the Frauenshuh Cancer Center in Minnesota. Before starting, she learned that it was hospital protocol to not smoke anywhere on the premises, a rule by which she obliged. But six weeks into her stint, she was told by her boss, "We don't want you smelling like smoke when you come here." Okay. Pretty understandable. It is a hospital after all.
But then, she was fired.
Cannon says that she went above and beyond to avoid smelling like smoke. She stopped smoking on her lunch breaks, avoided doing it in her car, kept her work clothes sealed in a plastic bag and sprayed them with air freshener before going in. But still, nothing. According to Cannon, eventually, she was told to "avoid her husband in the morning" because he too is a smoker. And when that didn't work, she got the boot.
Now. According to Minnesota law, you can't be fired for doing something that's notillegal on your own time, like smoking -- which would make Cannon's termination against the law, right? Well, maybe. See, under this same law, employers actually havethe right to restrict the use of legal products like tobacco if they feel it's creating an job-related hazard. So, yeah.
Being that this is a free country and all, I really am not for firing someone for doing something perfectly legal, no matter how gross it is, on their own free time. But, on the other hand, the second part of that law sort of does make Cannon's firing legal. So then I guess my question is: If it is legal to fire someone for smoking in Minnesota (if it's hazardous), and the hospital didn't want an employee who smelled like smoke, why hire Cannon in the first place? And moreover, if the job was so important to Cannon, why not just try quitting?
