Newspaper editors may have a nose for news, but they’re no match for the The Hound’s sniffer. The Hound can sniff a cigarette smoker a mile away. No brag, just fact.
Maybe The Hound could go to work for the Tribune Co. – on a freelance basis of course – to catch the perps who dare smoke in or around The Tower. You see, Tribune workers who smoke face a $100 deduction per month from their pay next year. That deduction also applies if family members smoke and are covered by the employee’s insurance. This from a mole with the Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune-owned paper in south Florida. They say its for health insurance reasons.
The Hound doesn’t smoke (although he does like to dress up in a deerstalker hat and Sherlock Holmes pipe for Halloween), but he pities the fools who work for The Trib.
To be enforced, this new edict will have co-worker turning in co-worker and supervisors sniffing in places they shouldn’t.
What’s next on the list for pay deductions? Drinking? Driving too fast? Skydiving?
It’s un-American. It’s Nazism. It’s a disgrace. It’s shameful.
That stinks.
And what is the Trib going to do with all that money? Hand it out as rewards to the snitchers?
How about a little positive incentive, like offering a bonus for quitting? My ex (who quit smoking 4 years ago) got $500 from his employer. This policy has been quite successful.
THE HOUND SAYS: Of course it stinks. What else would you expect from the Tribune?