cannot automatically assume his or her right to serve. And even the American with Disabilities Act allows that all employers cannot necessarily accommodate all conditions, of all employees. The Weyco website, in response to criticism, defended its position, stating that smoking employees of Michigan businesses each drained their companies, and thus shareholders and fellow workers as well as company owners, of an additional $4,000 a year in absenteeism, medical benefits and the earnings that are lost to sickness and premature death. (McConnell, 2005) but handicapped employees who can still do their jobs effectively cannot be discriminated against, nor can an employee with a predisposition, genetically, to cancer, be excluded from an employee health care policy simply because he or she is more costly.

Again, these costs are not choices like smoking. But federal laws protect workers with conditions such as obesity and alcoholism, where there is at least some 'choice' or physical, off the job actions, while no such protections for smokers exist, even if a predisposition to addiction may exist in one's genes. In fact, many...

(McConnell, 2005)
This article raises important questions about the impact of one's off-hours habits, hobbies, and pursuits impact one's fellow employees during the workday, financially, and in a company striving to create a healthy and productive workforce, in terms of morale as well. Weyco's policy may be too punitive for a civilian organization, but its commitment to the fitness of its employees, as is evidence by its extensive health care benefits plan, its free fitness center for all of its workers, and other amenities show that it has made a critical moral if not legal point -- one never truly leave's one's own personal health and safety issues at home.

Works Cited

McConnell, Beth. (8 Feb 2005) "Fired smokers, state senator protest Weyco policy." SHRM. Retrieved 9 Feb 2005 at http://www.shrm.org/hrnews_published/CMS_011315.asp#P-11_0

Weyers, Howard. (25 Jan 2005) "Why Weyer is Serious about Smoking?" Weyer Official website. Weyer News. Retrieved 9 Feb 2005 at http://www.weyco.com/web/company/news/012520050002.jsp