This Japanese Company Gives Non-Smokers An Extra Week Of Vacation

Piala Inc, a Japanese advertising company, provides an extra week of vacation for their non-smoking employees. While it may sound like an incentive for employees to quit smoking (helping the company save some money with health insurance in the meantime) Piala claims that they only do this because they’re trying to be fair with all of their staff. 

Non smoking employees have expressed their discomfort over the fact that their smoking co-workers regularly take 15 minute smoking breaks, resulting in them working less than the rest of the employees. The company did the necessary research and provided this option as a countermeasure, giving 6 extra days of their yearly vacation to their non smoking employees.

Fortune.com believes that many Japanese companies will follow Piala Inc’s example. The coming 2020 Olympics are also a reason why the country wants to restrain smoking, planning on banning it in public places before the games arrive.

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Crazily enough, smoking ultimately costs more money than it makes. Studies from the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Cancer Institute estimate that smoking costs around 1 trillion dollars per year, while only earning 269 billion globally in revenues. Maybe you should complain about smoking breaks in your office and get some extra vacation days out of it. If you don’t smoke that is.