More On The Hiring of Smokers

Since I recently posted about an article regarding the hiring of smokers, I thought I'd add the (very short) Freakonomics Podcast episode that tackles the same subject. Fun fact: Seventh-Day Adventists are mentioned.

"Spiritual Smokers" In The Church?

A recent article on health care organizations refusing to employ smokers got me thinking about how we sometimes refuse to "employ" people that have committed certain sins ("spiritual smokers") in our churches. In The Ethics of Not Hiring Smokers, Harald Schmidt, Kristin Voigt and Ezekiel J. Emanuel argue that the whole point of health care organizations is to care for those with health problems.

...it seems paradoxical for health care organizations that exist to care for the sick to refuse to employ smokers. [...] It is callous -- and contradictory -- for health care institutions devoted to caring for patients regardless of the causes of their illness to refuse to employ smokers.

Why Loneliness Is Worse Than Smoking

Everyone hates loneliness.

I'm not talking about being alone here. Every now and then we may choose to be alone - so we can think, reflect, ponder, pray, read or just enjoy the silence it brings. But nobody chooses to be lonely. Loneliness is that feeling of emptiness that overcomes you when you want to share something with somebody - an experience, an emotion - but nobody is there to share it with you...

Definitely bad for your emotional well-being, but as Daniel Goleman notes in his book Social Intelligence, the negative consequences go further than that: