Air Is Far From Cleared in Workplaces : Most Smokers Fume Over New Pack of Rules

Rollie Spicer puffed hurriedly on a cigarette as he anxiously paced an isolated hallway. When co-workers at Fender Musical Instruments Corp. in Brea walked past, the 45-year-old telephone salesman averted his eyes.

“It isn’t fair,” Spicer groused to an observer.

Spicer, a smoker for 28 years, was complaining about Fender’s 3-month-old ban on smoking in his department that has brought to a halt his usual habit of leisurely smoking about four cigarettes an hour while taking phone orders at his desk. Instead, he has to ask a colleague to answer his phone while he takes smoking breaks in the hall.

Since last year, a spate of local ordinances and rules adopted by private companies in Orange County have eliminated or restricted much workplace smoking. Spicer and many other smokers now find they can light up only in such designated areas as hallways, sections of lunchrooms, or outdoors.

A sampling of employee sentiment at large and small companies in Orange County indicates that most smokers resent these restrictions.

Most nonsmokers say they are relieved that they no longer have to breathe smoke-filled air.

Tough times for smokers in the workplace began last year with the passage of anti-smoking ordinances by the Orange County Board of Supervisors and nine of the county’s 26 cities--Brea, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Newport Beach, Tustin, and Westminster.

All of the new laws spell out rules for workplace smoking in government offices; some also apply to private firms in their jurisdiction. Others leave smoking policies for private firms up to local chambers of commerce.

While local ordinances and rules differ in details, they generally bar smoking in conference rooms, restrooms, elevators and other common areas.

Chamber Assistance Sought

About 54% of the 5,300 companies operating in the county now have policies on smoking, according to a survey completed late last year. Orange County Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Beverly Cearley said another 34% are drawing up such policies or have requested Chamber of Commerce assistance in doing so. Only 12% of the companies surveyed expressed no interest in developing a smoking policy.

Spokesmen for the county’s five largest private employers--Hughes Aircraft Co., Rockwell International Corp., McDonnell Douglas Corp., Pacific Bell and Disneyland--with work forces ranging from 5,400 to 17,400--all said they don’t have companywide policies. Since they operate satellite plants in different jurisdictions, each individual facility simply abides by the smoking ordinance of the city in which it is situated.

Orange County government, with 13,000 employees, has prohibited smoking in its buildings since June, 1985, except in designated areas such as lounges or outdoor areas, a spokeswoman said.

Interviews with company managers and visits with employees at medium-sized companies, which the Chamber of Commerce reports employ the bulk of the county’s work force, show that smokers generally are having a difficult time adjusting to the new smoking prohibitions.

The bans are so controversial that some companies turned down requests for on-site interviews with employees.

“If you come out to talk about this, it would stir up things with those people who complained about the changes,” said Ruth Ruyle, manager of administration for Elpac Electronics Inc. in Santa Ana.

Ban in Open Office Areas

At Admar Corp. in Orange, management last March banned smoking in open office areas, according to personnel manager Sue McInerney. Most of the company’s 160 employees work in such shared office areas. Smoking is permitted only in the firm’s handful of private offices, sections of two lunchrooms and outdoors.

The impetus for the no-smoking policy, McInerney said, came from employee complaints about cigarette smoke at the health-care cost-containment firm, located in two separate buildings in a one-story office park.

“Any significant workplace change is often difficult for some employees, and in this case it’s been tough on smokers,” McInerney told a visitor during a recent midday visit.

In one large room, 20 employees work at separate desks, separated only by shoulder-high, movable walls. Smoker Renee Jamerson, who works in one of these cubicles, said she has drastically altered her workday to maintain her cigarette habit.

The 31-year-old medical claims examiner said that before the new policy went into effect, she began work 30 to 45 minutes before her scheduled 8 a.m. starting time; she enjoyed getting an early start on the day while smoking at her desk.

Now, however, Jamerson said she arrives at her desk precisely at 8 a.m. “I’m so used to smoking and the taste of cigarettes that I can only go about three hours without one,” she said as she finished a cigarette that would control her urge to smoke until lunch at 11:30 a.m.

During the four and a half hours between lunch and quitting time at 4:30 p.m., Jamerson said, she takes one quick mid-afternoon cigarette break.

Asked if the anti-smoking policy was needed, Jamerson replied: “I suppose there were a few cases which made people feel like it was necessary to ban smoking at desks. But I think any problems could have been solved by using common courtesy. . . . Instead, sometimes a nonsmoker would get upset and emotional and complain to the supervisor without first talking to the smoker.”

Jamerson acknowledged that occasionally during her year at Admar, colleagues had complained to her about the smoke from the four or five cigarettes she smoked daily at her desk. “They’d ask me to move my ashtray because the smoke was passing over the room dividers to where they were working.”

In a large shared working area in Admar’s other building, 60 employees review medical records and make phone calls.

“I’m really pleased with the no-smoking policy,” said Marita Liebesmon, who supervises the department made up mostly of nurses. “In our type of work there is very little separate space that belongs to individual employees. . . . Separating smokers into certain areas is impractical because the smoke is dispersed throughout an air-conditioned building like ours; you can’t open widows to let the smoke filter out.”

Liebesmon, a nurse and nonsmoker, said that during the two years she’s headed the department, where most employees are nonsmokers, she’s received repeated complaints about cigarette smoke from half of them.

“The smell of cigarettes is offensive, and even when you go home you can’t get away from it because the smell clings to your clothing and hair.

“A lot of people are allergic to smoke,” Liebesmon said. “And even if you’re not, it causes breathing problems and headaches.”

At Fender Musical Instruments Corp. in Brea, department managers have been allowed to determine smoking policy for the company’s 125 employees on a department-by-department basis, said Vice President Kurt Hemrich.

(In August, 1985, Brea banned indoor smoking in public places. However, the ordinance does not apply to private firms; it leaves policy decisions there up to the local chamber of commerce and individual businesses.)

Last May, Fender’s telephone sales department became the firm’s only no-smoking area, after a ban imposed by department supervisor Karen McKee.

“Because we’re on the phone a lot, by the end of the day, those employees who’re allergic or sensitive to smoke end up with sore throats and red and watery eyes,” McKee said. “I even had a file clerk quit because the smoke bothered her eyes so much.”

Another factor, according to nonsmoker McKee, was that only three of the department’s 10 employees smoked, and she felt that it was unfair for the minority to pollute the cubicles of the majority.

The three smokers, McKee said, are allowed to puff away in the cafeteria, outdoors or while visiting one of the four other departments on the second floor--which still permit smoking.

Most nonsmokers in Fender departments where smoking is allowed bemoaned their plight. “I don’t like the foul air,” complained Jo Frede, 46, a nonsmoking finance deparment secretary. “And my clothes reek from the smell of cigarette smoke by the end of the day.”

Frede believes that a ban on smoking in all departments is necessary because smokers really aren’t aware of how much discomfort they cause nonsmokers.

“It’s awkward to ask people to please not smoke,” Frede said. “You shouldn’t have to ask someone not to smoke. Doing so just pits smokers against nonsmokers and creates hard feelings.”

Smoker Peggy Chapman, however, said she is aware of the tension existing between smokers and nonsmokers and attempts to handle it with humor. Visitors entering her cubicle are greeted by a large sign: “Thank you for holding your breath while I smoke.”

Chapman, the accounting supervisor, noted that four employees in her department smoke and two don’t. “I know it’s a bad habit, but I allow people in this area to smoke because they wouldn’t get as much work done if they were miserable because they weren’t allowed to smoke.”

A smoker for 30 years, Chapman said she doesn’t smoke when someone requests that she stop. Nor does she think nonsmokers are making “too big a deal” about the problems caused by workplace smoking.

“If nonsmokers really find smoking offensive, they have every right to try to stop it. We all realize that the habit is bad. . . . It’s just not easy to chuck it.”

Fender computer system director Tony Demarco, a smoker, is adamantly opposed to bans on office smoking. “Most smokers are courteous; they don’t flick ashes on the desk or floor, and they don’t blow smoke in people’s faces. So, I don’t see why they should be kept from smoking where they want to.”

Last May, Chemical Waste Management Inc. in Anaheim adopted a policy prohibiting smoking in common office areas following the adoption of a City Council ordinance limiting smoking in the workplace. However, employees are allowed to smoke at their desks using smokeless ashtrays.

Battery-Operated Ashtrays

Five of the company’s 25 office personnel are using smokeless ashtrays purchased for $12 each by Chemical Waste Management. The battery-operated ashtrays suck up the smoke to keep it from leaving the smoker’s desk, office manager Judy Jones said.

“I haven’t had to change much because I used to smoke mostly at my desk anyway,” said smoker Terri Dewey, 24, an administrative clerk who smokes a pack a day. “If this makes nonsmokers feel better, then I’m all for it.”

The increased number of breaks that some employees are taking in order to smoke in designated areas is causing concern at some companies.

“During our workday we don’t have formal breaks as such,” said Admar personnel manager McInerney. “But in the past, people have been free to take breaks for coffee or snacks anytime they wanted.

“However, with our no-smoking policy, we’ve noticed a lot of people taking cigarette breaks. So, we’re studying whether to extend the workday by one half hour--to eight hours--so that we can institute two formal breaks for smokers.”

Most Admar employees are opposed to that. Smoker Leslie Paskus disputed the claim that smokers are taking too many breaks. The 29-year-old marketing representative argued that under the new company policy, employes are permitted to smoke only when taking cigarette breaks in a lunchroom or outdoors.

But by taking such breaks, Paskus said, smokers now find themselves being accused of not shouldering their fair share of the workload.

Paskus denied these cigarette breaks cause smokers to spend less time working. “The company’s not made enough concessions to smokers. If the company’s concerned about decreases in productivity, smokers should be allowed to take the work to the lunchroom during their breaks.

“People can take breaks to get a snack or coffee, but when I take a break (once in the afternoon) to smoke a cigarette I feel like I’m being looked at negatively by my supervisors. I feel that smokers are being held to a higher standard of job performance than nonsmokers.”

Unmoved by this argument was hospital review supervisor Liebesmon, who believes that the workday will have to be extended by half an hour.

In Liebesmon’s view this would be the kind of concession smokers like Paskus are seeking; nonsmokers would be putting up with a longer workday in exchange for not having to work in a smoke-filled office.

“We’ve got to think about the rights of both the smoker and nonsmoker,” Liebesmon said. “Before it was the nonsmoker who was in the uncomfortable position; now it’s the smoker. Compromise is needed by both sides--with each giving up something.”

Since the headquarters of Builders Emporium in Irvine banned smoking in common office areas five months ago, the company has been plagued with employees taking excessive cigarette breaks, company Vice President Gary Yeats said.

“Smokers (who make up about 40% of the facility’s 150 employees) are taking more breaks. They go outside to smoke or while making coffee runs. People suddenly disappearing all the time is not the best situation. But we’re allowing it--for the the time being.”