Cigarette breaks give smokers an extra week of holiday a year

Smokers gain an extra week of holiday every year from cigarette breaks, according to new research.

More than half (52 per cent) of smokers surveyed said they leave their desks for a cigarette or vape break multiple times a day, according to research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

A third of those surveyed said they spend 20 minutes of a working day smoking outside, while the average is between five and 10 minutes.

This means the average smoker spends approximately 39 hours on cigarette breaks during the working year, which amounts to an extra six days’ worth of time spent away from their desks.

Around 6.6 million people in the UK smoke, which equates to 15 per cent of men and 12 per cent of women.

The cohort who spent the longest amount of time on cigarette breaks was Gen Z - those born between the mid-Nineties and early 2021, closely followed by boomers, who were born between 1946 and 1964.

Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980, spent slightly less time smoking than boomers, while millennials - those born in the Eighties and Nineties - took the least cigarette breaks.

‘Different companies have different rules’

The survey, which was carried out by tobacco-free nicotine pouch and vape company Haypp UK, found that Belfast and Southampton are the cities where Britons are most likely to take time out of their work day to smoke.

Respondents in Edinburgh and Norwich claimed they do not leave their desks for a cigarette at all.

Markus Lindblad, from Haypp, said: “Smoking laws in the UK have changed a lot over time and different companies have different rules when it comes to leaving work to smoke, with some being stricter than others.

“It’s interesting to see that a large proportion of UK smokers are still gaining some extra time away from work to enjoy a cigarette, with some wasting 20 minutes or more every day.

“And while it would save employers one week per year of working hours, a switch to the less harmful pouches could give a smoker many more years of life.”