Most people in the workforce today have never had to answer the question "Smoking or nonsmoking?"
I don't miss those days. Restaurants were the worst. Yes, your smoke is able to go over the invisible nonexistent fucking barrier between your seats and mine.
Yeah man. When I was in the military in the early to mid 90's they hadn't banned it at the federal level at first. It was so disgusting having to work inside. I would go back to the barracks at night coughing if I had to work next to certain people in my unit for any length of time because they were chain smokers and as a lowly PFC I couldn't say shit to anyone about it. I would ALWAYS volunteer for any duty outside just to get away from it.
Second year I was in, they banned all indoor smoking across the entire federal government and I was SO HAPPY. The amount of bitching from those crusty old soldiers though... 😂
I ended up picking up smoking in college in the early 2000s and I have to wonder if the constant exposure to second hand smoke in places I worked, in cars from family members, etc, was a factor
I was disgusted at the time but then I fell into it. I quit eventually, which was a nightmare, but I do think the exposure to second hand nicotine from the age of like 2 was maybe a factor
I don’t know about ”most people in the workforce.” I’m in my mid-30s, and not only do I remember it once or twice from my childhood, I also encountered it once in 2013 (at a brewpub somewhere in New York). You’re right, though, that it becomes less of a thing with each passing year.
So I've since quit, and I understand why even what I'm about to describe doesn't exist anymore where I am, but right at the tail end of smoking indoors there were businesses/buildings doing totally walled off, wellish ventilated smoking areas. Those seemed ok to me, and when I (stupidly) took up smoking I was sad those were gone.
The only, and last, one I saw when I was a smoker was in an airport, which was an unexpected godsend because my fuck does it suck to be a smoker waiting for a flight.
(Yes, it's a gross and deadly habit that's also unhealthy and gross for the people around you and the employees who had to work in/clean such spaces, and it makes sense to have no smoking indoors).
The only good part is there would be a long line out the door and we could get a table for 6 with no waiting. Even though only 25% of tables were non-smoking, that section was empty which made it great for kids as nobody cared how out of line we got.
When I was a kid, I went on a plane with my mum and we had to walk through a smoking section at one point (we were in the non smoking part).
It was a memory I wouldn't forget, not that it was anything spectacular though it smelt rather bad. Ironic since I mix tobacco with my weed now a fair bit (unless I'm vapourising).
Now it just surprises me that smoking was ever allowed inside aircrafts. Absolutely mad times we have come from.