Allowing current employees to smoke while new employees can't opens a whole can of worms of unequal protection. Just think about these instance and will see why this such a huge problem.
1. Husband and wife both smoke. Husband works at hospital and can smoke. Wife gets a job at the hospital but she is no longer allowed to smoke. Highly intrusive to intramarriagal affairs of couples.
2. Your best friend works at the hospital and smokes. You do as well but you don't work at the hospital. You spend lots time hanging with your friend in bars and nightclubs. Now, you want to get a job at the hospital. The hospital tells you can no longer smoke but your best friend and COWORKER CAN. You can see how this would be extremely and Highly disruptive to lives of both individuals. The 2 friends would have a very difficult time trying to hang out together. So in this case, the policy is highly disruptive to close bonded friendships.
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