The safe thing for me to do this week, I suppose, is to riff about the economy. Or at least weigh in on the Feds' latest attempt to rearrange the deck chairs on the sinking ship. See, the IRS began dropping those much-ballyhooed stimulus checks into the bank accounts of taxpayers this week.
And while that should be great news for the country's shopping malls — for all of a weekend or two — most consumers won't use the money in any way that might actually have a lasting impact. On their own fortunes or the economy's.
Weary cynicism aside, one thing most people probably won't be doing, though, is stimulating tobacco sales. Or handing a chunk of it over to their employer for the privilege to do so.
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You hear about this? A couple of weeks back, Whirlpool Corp. tried to suspend nearly 40 workers for fibbing on their enrollment forms about their cigarette habits. Seems the addicted employees wanted to avoid the company's annual $500 tobacco-use surcharge.
It's avoided the glare of the mainstream press — otherwise occupied reporting bigger news stories, such as teenage pop star photo sessions — but companies across the country have quietly snuck aboard this bandwagon.
But the latest trend appears to be one of regression. Displaying a lack of commitment normally reserved for the Beltway, some companies are blinking, backing away from the fees. The Tribune Co., for example, is dropping its own $100-a-month smoker fee.
Perhaps most disturbing, though, is that in this new era or employee responsibility, employers really are having second thoughts. A new Hewitt Associates study revealed that less than 20 percent of employers said that employees who aren't making an effort to stay healthy should pay more. That's a drop of nearly 10 percent from just last year.
So the employees shouldn't be held accountable. And employers can't afford to be. Who does that leave? Maybe we do get the health care we deserve.
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