Get Paid to Quit Smoking

Like what we’re doing?

What’s the Deal?

1) Hearts Pest Management will gladly pay you to attend the cigarette smoker cessation clinic of their choice.

2) Hearts Pest Management will gladly pay you a $500 bonus for remaining smoke free for one year.

People ask me, “Gerry, What are you doing? You’re running a pest control company! What’s with all these benefits?”

I have a few answers for the pest control industry and employers generally.

Smoking is Very Personal for Me

Early death due to common illness and disease was the fate of mankind until the rise of modern medicine. One should add that pest infestations were perhaps the major cause of death until the modern era of pest control.

With the dawn of industrial era and the rise of the tobacco industry, smoking became a major cause of early mortality. Everyone I know has a parent or immediate relative who died an early death – those Marlboro Country men and Virginia Slims women. My father had his first heart attack at age fourty, the result of three packs per day of Chesterfield King. He managed to live several more years, having stopped smoking immediately after the heart attack, but eventually died from the weakened state of his heart. So I dedicate this smoking cessation program to my father, Bernard Weitz.

Smoking is a Huge Problem for Employers

“If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

The problems of absenteeism, disability and the cost of health care is a huge topic beyond the scope of this webpage. So let’s keep this short. Smoking cigarettes sends toxins via the bloodstream throughout the body, destroying bodily tissues and functions, creating both acute and chronic illnesses. Here is one list of diseases caused by smoking that I am sure is not complete:

• Aortic aneurysms
• bladder cancer
• cerebrovascular disease
• cervical cancer
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• coronary heart disease
• esophageal cancer
• kidney cancer
• laryngeal cancer
• lung cancer
• complications of pregnancy
• oral cavity and tongue cancer
• pancreatic cancer
• peripheral vascular disease
• pharyngeal cancer
• stomach cancer.

I would add one more item to the list that is not usually considered – obesity. People say that you gain weight when you quit smoking. That may be true for some due to the oral nature of smoking. But smoking is a greater contributor to obesity, because all the ailments of smoking will cause you to be less physically active. That lethargy can indirectly cause obesity.

Can anyone argue with me that these results from smoking won’t damage the investment employers make in their workers? Besides, I don’t just employ my workers, I deeply care about them. I want them to be successful with Hearts Pest Management and be proud that I have helped them far beyond just providing them with a paycheck. My workers are not replaceable parts.

Pest Control Industry Problems with Smoking

Pest control work is very strenuous. Our pest control workers do their jobs under adverse conditions that even with the best personal protective equipment (PPE) can place a toll on your physical well-being. These issues are controllable, but much less so when you add additional risk factors that stress the body.

A few years ago, after examining the truck of a terminated worker, I found numerous cigarette burn marks in the cab of the truck. The smoke odor eminating from the truck was horrific. For months I tried different applications to remove the odor to no avail. Eventually, I sold a perfectly good truck due to the smoke odor. I am sure many other industry operators have experienced similar issues with unsightly and damaged trucks due to smoking habits.

Smoke odors are a red flag for customers. You’ve all heard the good smelling plumber commercial. Why should we think that our pest control customers expect pest control technicians that don’t smell fresh. There are many people who would not buy pest control from a smoker because they don’t want the cigarette odor in their home.

It’s just one opinion, but it’s my belief that the pest control industry has done a poor job of promoting worker health, under the subheading of doing a poor job of promoting our workers generally. I do happily admit that there has been an enlightenment by many employers, who are now promoting an environmental awareness and employee professionalism. At Hearts Pest Management, we have taken it several notches further by raising the broadly based economic prospectus of our employees with a professional benefit package that separates us from all other pest control companies – targeting even the biggest and most able companies in our industry with this challenge. It is my firm belief that the returns more than adequately pay off for Hearts Pest Management.

If you liked this article about the Hearts Pest Management Get Paid to Quit Smoking challenge, you might be interested to hear about our “Big Losers” Benefit Challenge or our “Paid in Blood” Donations program.