Cigarette breaks in offices are far too common and often lead to non-smokers bitching about how it’s unfair that smokers get to take so much time off work. 

So, employees at Tokyo-based Marketing firm Piala Inc’ decided to do something about it. After speaking up against the injustice, they were surprisingly rewarded with 6 extra paid leaves each year in comparison to their colleagues who smoke. 

Company spokesman Hirotaka Matsushima told The Telegraph, “One of our non-smoking staff put a message in the company suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems”.

The CEO was quick to act on the suggestion and decided to grant 6 extra leaves to nonsmokers.

The office is situated on the 29th floor and a break like this lasts for 15 minutes at the very least as the employee has to go to the basement and come back.

Interestingly, 4 such breaks make it an hour a day and a whopping 15 days in a year, which is still a lot in comparison to what non-smokers are getting as compensation.

Takao Asuka, CEO of the company, told The Telegraph that four people have already quit smoking since the implementation of this policy. 

The spokesperson said that till date, as many as 30 people have availed these leaves and he, being a non smoker himself, took his family to a hot spring resort for a couple of days.

Japan stands 21st on the list of countries with the highest cigarette consumption whereas India, with approximately 120 million smokers, is 159th.

Hoping that India follows suit and my company is the first to do that. 

Yes, I don’t smoke and yes, I like my holidays.