Recently in Healthy living Category

"Why is it OK for smokers to take breaks all the time? If I want to go outside and hang out once an hour, then I'll just take up smoking."
--Kelly Kapour on NBC-TV's "The Office"

As the owner of an office-products company, I have a special appreciation for the dysfunctional characters and situations found on "The Office." For the most part, the show is funny without, thankfully, having too much in common with ours or most other work places. But Kelly's comment about smoking breaks, in the second episode of this season, hit pretty close to home.

At The Phillips Group, we went cold turkey as of Jan. 1, 2008. We stamped out the use of tobacco products anywhere on our property, from our headquarters in Middletown to our offices throughout central Pennsylvania to our company vehicles.

What prompted the move was our continued efforts to control healthcare costs and, by extension, to encourage the wellness of our employees. To that end, our tobacco-use policy had become increasingly difficult to defend.

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