What's a Skiing, Motorcycle-Riding, Cheeseburger-Eating Smoker to Do?

Remember Weyco, the Michigan health benefits administrator that fired four employees who refused to take a test to prove they didn't smoke? The Drug Policy Alliance has put together a ridiculously slanted flash animation show on the topic, followed by an online poll that asks, "Is it OK to fire people because they smoke? or Is what you do in your private time and what you put into your body none of your boss's business?" Notice that one of the options is not, "Regardless of whether you think the policy is fair or rational, should companies be allowed to demand that their employees refrain from smoking?"

DPA says Weyco is setting "a dangerous precedent" by poking its nose into its employees' risky off-the-job habits on the ground that they raise its health insurance costs. Today it's smoking; tomorrow it could be motorcycle riding, skiing, overeating, or lack of exercise. Maybe so, but I find that prospect much less alarming than the government's determination to protect us from ourselves. There are many employers, after all, and those who make what are perceived to be outrageous demands will pay a cost in terms of recruiting difficulty, employee morale, turnover, and/or higher pay.

The same could be said, of course, for drug testing, which, like Weyco's nicotine screen, detects off-the-clock behavior that does not affect job performance. Although this practice arouses a fair amount of resentment, it is nonetheless quite common, partly because it is not usually done in a way that actually screens out illegal drug users: Any reasonably cautious pot smoker can avoid testing positive in a pre-employment urinalysis. But the major reason for drug testing's popularity is the war on drugs: If these substances were not illegal, employers would tend to treat them like alcohol, which they worry about only when it has an impact in the workplace.

The government also contributes to Weyco-style smoking policies: Employers would be less inclined to insist on healthy lifestyles were it not for the perverse policies that link medical coverage to one's job.