When a company looks at its sucess I assume there's a number of things they use to measure productivity. I doubt companies are tracking the number of their employees who are smokers. If I owned a company, I sure would. Many of the "smokers" in my company spend approximatey 20% of their work day outside of the building, on the loading dock, smoking like chimneys. Do keep in mind that this is above and beyond their normal breaks. One would think an employee who's stepping away from their desk every 45 minutes is not the most productive -- especially if their job is not analyitcal, but more systematic. I don't doubt they're good people and good workers, but they sure do cost the company a lot of money while they're outside feeding their addictions.

When I was in college I worked as a waitress (a job that singlehandedly beat the crap out of me and made me a more compassionate person), and EVERYONE on staff was a chain smoker. Keep in mind, this was actually a somewhat good thing since they had all once been alcoholics and drug addicts (it's one addiction for another I guess). I know it sounds odd, but understand, the restaurant manager was a former alcoholic and invited most of her AA meeting buddies to come on staff. When I noticed that I was being shafted in my break time because I didn't smoke, I started demanding "clean-air breaks". I'd go outside and just breathe. This of course, bothered my co-workers, but they took the hint. Employees and their "issues" can most certainly have an impact on the bottom-line. Like for example, the number of employees who have personal weblogs. Now that could really affect productivity.