Gardiner Hempel, 48, president of Speedcall Corp., a small electronics firm in Hayward, Calif., was tired of going home each evening reeking of tobacco smoke. A ban on smoking at the plant seemed too harsh a step. So, a year ago, he offered his 36 employees a $7-a-week bonus for not puffing on the job. To qualify, they have to put their names on a weekly sign-up sheet hanging beneath a poster that reads: SMOKERS ARE O.K. NON-SMOKERS ARE O.K.-ER.
One name on the list each week is that of Hempel, who used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. Now he pays bonuses totaling $175 a week to 25 employees—13 who did not smoke in the first place and 12 who have curbed their habits. A receptionist happily reports that everyone is breathing “much nicer air” in the plant these days. “The implications for national health would be tremendous,” Hempel says, if giant corporations like General Motors or General Electric adopted his old-fashioned capitalistic approach to clearing the air.
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