What can we do about our new colleague who smokes heavily?

Naturally, we have a non-smoking policy at work. The majority of our team in our office do not smoke. However, we have a new team member, a very capable individual, who smokes heavily.

When this person returns to the office from their frequent smoke breaks we have to suffer their nauseous toxic nicotine smell which permeates the office and has forced some of us to walk out or stay and gag or feel like throwing up. I have advised HR. Advice?

Just because someone is excellent at their job doesn’t mean they’re a good fit for the company. Credit: John Shakespeare

I asked Dr Xiaoshuang Lin, a senior lecturer in the University of South Australia’s Centre for Workplace Excellence, about your question, and she told me that advising HR was the right course of action. Discussing it with the smoker in person probably isn’t the best way to go, at least not at the moment.

Now that you’ve let HR know, it’s really up to them to solve this problem. They might respond in different ways, and to understand what they could be, a little primer on human resources theory might be useful.

“In human resource management, we focus on different types of ‘fit’ between employees and their work environment, such as person-job fit, person-team fit, person-supervisor fit and person-organisation fit,” Lin explained.

Your new colleague, someone who is good at their job, is an example of a strong person-job fit.

“However, when we consider the person-team fit, things are different. Other team members working in the same office suffer from the unpleasant and harmful smell, which leads to a poor person-team fit. Additionally, the organisation has a non-smoking policy, meaning this employee also has a poor person-organisation fit.”

Now that you’ve let HR know how badly the stench affects you and others, you can expect quite different approaches depending on what your organisation values most. And you might get a sense of what that is by having a look at a strategy document or, Lin suggested, simply considering the company’s culture.

“If the company has a culture that prioritises employee wellbeing, often referred to as a people-oriented culture, the smoking employee should not negatively impact their colleagues.

“To protect the wellbeing of others, without forcing the employee to quit smoking during work hours, the organisation could offer flexible working arrangements, allow[ing] the employee to work from home and attend meetings online. If there are in-person meetings or events, the employee could be given notice to ensure they arrive in a clean and non-offensive state, free of the smell.”

Lin said that if your organisation is more profit or task-driven, you may see a very different response.

“[I]t may place greater emphasis on person-job fit and maximising work performance. In this case, the organisation could offer the employee a private office with a balcony, allowing them to smoke outside without disturbing others.”

Lin acknowledges that each solution has potential risks.

“For example, in a people-oriented culture, the smoking employee might feel excluded or unfairly treated if they’re not welcome to work in the office. In a task-focused culture, other employees may feel it’s unfair that the smoking employee gets a private office while they share a workspace. It’s impossible to please everyone in an organisation.”

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