General Electric Co. the biggest U.S. conglomerate has joined drug maker Abbott Laboratories Inc., lawn care products maker Scott's Miracle-Gro Co. and other companies that prohibit their employees from smoking on the job, both indoors and outdoors. Corporate policies, including those of the Cleveland Clinic, go so far as to implement hiring freezes on smokers and others, and penalize smokers by requiring smokers to pay a premium for their corporate insurance programs.

And while they claim the genesis of these policies are grounded out of concern for employees' health and ever increasing medical costs to businesses; they also claim smoking on the job reduces employee productivity and as companies squeeze more out of remaining employees to boost earnings, less smoking breaks makes for more productive employees.