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I am a smoker. I go outside at 10 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m. and smoke one cigarette, which takes about seven minutes to smoke. I have to walk about 10 feet, so let’s just say that I spend about 10 minutes away from desk for one cigarette break.  That is equal to 30 minutes a day that I spend away from my desk, smoking.

To counteract my “laziness,” I don’t take a lunch break. We get an hour for lunch at my workplace, but because I get up every few hours to smoke, I somehow justify giving my employer an extra 30 minutes of my day because I’ve taken 30 minutes to smoke.  Do you follow my logic? Probably not. It’s OK.

I have a problem with is, “If you are smoker, you get more breaks.” Um. No. Not really.  I can only speak for me, but no, no I don’t. I don’t take lunch and while the non-smokers are spending an hour away from the office, I’m taking 10 minute breaks every other hour or so.  I also try to stay after work just to kind of make up for the fact that I do take breaks throughout the day.  Plus, if a non-smoker wants to take 10 or 15 minutes every hour or so and play a game of solitaire, I’m not going to stop you. Just because you don’t smoke doesn’t mean you can’t take breaks.  That is simply not true. My smoking has nothing to do with your breaks.

Now, I can’t speak for all smokers that are working moms, but I would assume that most working mothers who smoke, tries to give back more time to her employer than she takes away because we already feel guilty enough that we are the ones that have to stay home whenever our kids are sick.