Can you smoke while teleworking?

Whether you can smoke while teleworking is a debate that is on the agenda, since a Japanese company called Nomura Holdings has announced that starting this October it will prohibit its staff from smoking while they are working, whether in their offices or from home.

10/4/2021

What Nomura Holdings has made clear is that it will not monitor its staff to see if they are really following this ban or not, but rather that the rule is based on mutual trust, and it should be added that there are no punishment measures in case of non-compliance with this rule.

There are other Japanese companies that are already applying this regulation such as Calbee Inc., Ajinomoto Co. or the telecommunications unit of SoftBank Group Corp.

All this raises the question of the extent to which the company can control what happens at home of people who telework, and whether it is lawful for them to prohibit people from smoking at home, even if it is only during the working day. All this controversy can also be linked to the debate about whether to record breaks for rest or smoking, while working or also teleworking.

With our Timenet system, these problems can be solved very easily, because the system allows you to record all breaks, that is, you can indicate that a break was taken at that moment, and therefore it would be time to smoke, or have a coffee, etc., whatever, but without problems because technically you are not working at that moment.

Smoking while teleworking

Furthermore, Timenet is a very versatile system that can be adapted to any type of business situation, whether you work in person, telework, or a combination, since to be able to record working hours and/or breaks, you only need a device with an internet connection!

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