Relaxing on the Job

Nearly 30 years ago, I began a job with a publishing company that was one of the last holdovers to have a designated smoking room. Basically it was a re-purposed conference space but for those employees who still smoked, it was a welcome alternative to having to go outside and light up – especially during the throes of a New York winter or during a raging thunderstorm.

Despite complaints from us tobacco-free folks that the second hand smoke was regularly wafting into the work area, the CEO (ironically a non-smoker himself) steadfastly refused to close it down.

Finally, someone complained to one of those workplace safety watchdogs and management was told to either padlock it or face a hefty fine. Since cost is always far easier to judge than policy, it was eventually cleaned out and the acoustic ceiling tiles which had turned an ugly shade of yellow from years of smoker abuse were mercifully replaced.

But that was then and this is now.

I thought about those days of literal cloud navigation after coming across an article where some accounting firms have taken the traditional lunch and break room one step further and set up “relaxation rooms” complete with games and gargantuan TV sets with surround sound speakers, as well as massage chairs to help employees to de-stress.

What sort of frustrated me about this new trend is this was something a committee that I had been part of at that former company had proposed to management when the office was undergoing a much needed renovation.

While flat-screen TVs and surround sound were still years away, the committee had suggested setting up an employee lounge, with comfortable chairs and reading materials where folks could linger either before work or during their lunch break.

You would have guessed by management’s reaction that we had just proposed giving each employee a $5,000 raise. Absolutely not we were told. There was a lunch room and that was sufficient. And besides they said, it was not in the budget.

This mind you was from a business that depended on advertising revenues and yet had more six-figure vice presidents in its New York office than actual sales people.

But better late than never with regard to relaxation rooms as accountants no doubt are still in recovery mode from the 9-15 and 10-15 deadlines and the promise of another grueling tax season in the very near future.

And between the $12-15 price tag for a pack of cigarettes I doubt we’ll ever endure a smoking room again.