Treated unfairly

[tkh]

I feel like I'm being discriminated upon in my job because I don't smoke. The receptionist won't give calls to this one girl because she's always in the smoke room and doesn't answer her pages; therefore, the receptionist knows I'm always at my desk and give me her calls. Everyone in this department smoke except me. I'm helping out with the phones indefinitely and doing my own job and I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. They are only allowed one break in the morning and one in the afternoon but they take a 15-20 minute break every 90 minutes. Is this discrimination?

 

[cbg]

It's not discrimination but it's certainly unfair. Unfortunately, unfair does not mean illegal. Have you tried talking to the manager?

 

[tkh]

Yes, I spoke to my boss but he has done nothing. No one was in the department one day because they were all in the smoke room. I was off that day. The receptionist rang their phones and no one answered so she kept paging them. She knew they were all in the smoke room. The came up to her and gave her heck because she was paging them. They lied and told our boss that they were at their desks the whole time. My boss doesn't enforce anything and continues to bury his head in the sand.

 

[cbg]

As the one who used to be in your position in a previous job, I am nothing if not sympathetic; however, no laws are being broken here. Bad management, certainly, but that is not illegal. Non-smokers are not a protected class.