Hospital Receptionist Claims She Was Fired for Smelling Like Cigarette Smoke

KSTP.com ^ | 07/26/2012 | Mark Saxenmeyer

[Daffynition]

I have a dear friend who I do a lot of stuff with ...unfortunately, she wears tons of perfume. It’s overpowering. I like her so much, I’ll never say a word...I value her friendship more than her pungent perfume. I swear I can smell it, even when we gab on the phone!

[MrEdd]

http://cancer.about.com/od/chemotherapy/a/managenausea.htm

http://www.cureourchildren.org/nausea.htm

Keeping cancer patients from vomiting is not a political issue.
Yes, every one producing strong odors there would be fired. No exceptions.

If I wanted to bother, I could have pasted thirty or forty links on nausea in cancer patients. I should not have to. Instead, you should learn how to use a search engine.

[Durus]

I never said that it was a political issue. If they had fired everyone that every produced strong odors they would have a written policy concerning the issue and they do not. The simple fact that they don't have an odor policy in this particular facility idicates that it is not as sensitive of an issue as it is in some other facilities.

I didn't need a search engine to figure this out. I also don't need a search engine to figure out they probably will have a written odor policy by the end of next week.

[MrEdd]

You posted that my actually being aware of the medical hazards odors present to cancer patients, and then chastising you on pretending that this was a freedom issue instead of the medical necessity it actually is ...meant that I was a liberal.

Sorry to have to correct you again but “liberal” is a term referencing a political ideology.

What did you think the word was when you typed it?

As to whether a policy existed heretofore, most of those policies are cut and paste things provided by hospital management consultancies and while there might have been administrators unaware of it, this one is a standard feature for cancer centers and I am willing to put up a hundred bucks that it was indeed buried in there somewhere. No way their insurance company took them on as a client if it was not there at their initial review.

[GSWarrior]

I smoked a pack a day for 20 years and quit cold turkey in 2003, but I still enjoy a blast of second hand smoke even now and then. I weaned myself off tobacco with second hand smoke and gummy worms.

The smell of tobacco on people is not very appealing, but I'd still rather smell that than cologne or perfume.

[Durus]

What I said was that people that argue using insults rather than facts are typically liberal. Further had I actually called you a liberal I would only be calling you a liberal, I would not be inferring that cancer patients concerns are liberal or political in nature.

Perhaps they have a buried policy concerning smokers or other odor producers and perhaps they don't. If there was a policy in place I don't think this would be a story, further the medical facility in question should have never hired her in the first place. Further yet again is that with the extreme steps she took I sincerely doubt she smelled of cigarettes at all. I posit, yet again, that it was an excuse to fire her because she was a smoker and refused to quit. Her State of residence specifically forbids a company for firing someone for any activity outside of work that is legal. This includes smoking.

[Ditter]

You are nicer than I am. I tell them about it! The only time that I choke up and have trouble breathing (asthma) is when I am forced to breathe strong scents and smoke.
I don’t BBQ or cook on my grill anymore for the same reason.
I hate being so sensitive but I can’t help it. If you can’t breathe you have to do something about it, mostly I just go somewhere else “if” I can.

[MrEdd]

I never used insults rather than facts.
and the odor thing with cancer patientd is not some little known obscure thing.

It is a grat big, in your face, can’t miss it, problem for cancer patients.

You are how old?

You have never known anyone with cancer?

Or is it you never bothered to care for the family and friends you have known who had it, and when they needed help you vanished?

Everyone in treatment struggles with this. It becomed huge to them.

[Daffynition]

I’m sorry for your suffering Ditter...that’s no fun!