I use to work in a small office where most of the workers smoked except me.
I would work hard all day with no breaks. Wouldn’t be on my phone. No lunch breaks. Would get everything done ahead of schedule and then take on extra projects. My supervisor called me a “superstar.”
One day I had to make an important phone call. I told my supervisor ahead of time. I expected the call to be like 5 minutes long but it was more like 10 minutes. My supervisor made a snide comment afterwards, to which I resounded “pretend I was smoking if that helps you.” She was confused what I meant at first but then got what I meant. That shut her up.
Next time I needed to make an important call I took the entire day off since that was apparently what she preferred.
I left that job to go back to school and now I have an idea if I ever work in an office setting again:
I’ll pretend to be a vaper! I see ads sometimes for devices used for breathing, or aromatherapy, or relaxation, or whatever that look similar to a vape or I could use one of my sisters broken vape pens.
It’s crazy that I have to pretend to have an unhealthy habit to get a break during work. Non-smokers need fresh air and mental health breaks too