No sign of trend against smoking

Press, 13 February 1979, Page 22

No sign of trend against smoking

The findings of a big British employment agency that job seekers there stand a better chance of employment if they are nonsmokers, do not appear to apply to Christchurch.

Spokesman for several Christchurch employment j agencies say that 'few employers who ' approached them stipulated I that they wanted to employ only non-smokers. The branch manager of Drake Personnel (Mr P. W. Montgomery) said persons were employed for their efficiency, not because they were non-smokers. In his experience of Christchurch few employers said they specifically wanted nonsmokers.

Mr P. Macdonald, the manager of Wareham Associates (N.Z.), Ltd, a firm of employment consultants who provide mainly executive staff, said employers wanting staff rarely mentioned smoking. One thing his firm noted was the way prospective senior employees for. client companies smoked — if they asked other people if they minded them smoking, for instance.

However. the general manager of one employment agency, Mr B. T. Knight, of Key Personnel, Ltd, said Christchurch people were becoming more conscious of smoking, and he had noticed more “smoke-free offices.” His firm was asked to supply “non-smokers only”, for some temporary jobs. The British survey showed that more and more employers wanted new staff who were non-smokers because they were not so often absent through illness. A survey by the British Employment Bureau found that 79 per cent of office workers complaining of ear ailments were smokers. It found smokers were more likely to complain of feeling tired and listless and to suffer eye fatigue, back pains, aching feet, toothache, ind earache.