Why Nobody Smokes at the Negotiating Table Anymore

In the post-war boom, smoking was deeply embedded in corporate culture. It wasn’t just tolerated — it was strategic .

• 🚬 The three-martini lunch: Business deals were sealed over long lunches with multiple courses, cocktails, and cigarettes. The ability to drink and smoke heavily while still closing a deal was seen as a mark of toughness and competence .
• 💼 Status symbol: Offering a cigarette to a colleague or client was a ritual of hospitality. Lighting someone else’s cigarette was a gesture of respect. The brand you smoked signaled your status (Marlboro for the rugged, Dunhill for the sophisticated).
• 🏢 Ashtrays everywhere: Conference tables had built-in ashtrays. Desks had personal ashtrays. Executive washrooms had ashtrays. Smoking was omnipresent and completely unquestioned.
• 📺 Media normalization: Television shows like “Mad Men” (set in the 1960s) accurately depict office environments where characters smoke during meetings, while dictating letters, and even in elevators — all without anyone batting an eye .

The 1970s marked the beginning of the end for workplace smoking. Several forces converged:

• 🧪 Scientific evidence: The 1972 US Surgeon General’s report on “The Health Consequences of Smoking” included a chapter on secondhand smoke for the first time .
• ⚖️ Lawsuits: Non-smoking employees began suing employers over health effects of secondhand smoke. Some won disability claims for respiratory illnesses attributed to workplace smoke exposure.
• 📋 Policy experiments: Some companies began creating “smoking lounges” or restricting smoking to certain floors. Others required employees to smoke only in designated break rooms.
• 🛩️ Airline bans: In 1988, smoking was banned on all US domestic flights of two hours or less. By 1990, the ban extended to all domestic flights. This was a major cultural signal that smoking was no longer universally acceptable.

By the 1990s, it became clear that voluntary workplace smoking restrictions weren’t enough. Governments began passing comprehensive indoor smoking bans :

• 🇨🇦 Canada leads: The Northwest Territories was among the first jurisdictions in North America to ban smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces (1990s).
• 🏛️ Provincial bans: Ontario (Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2006), British Columbia (2008), Quebec (2006), and all other provinces eventually banned smoking in virtually all indoor workplaces.
• 💼 No exceptions for boardrooms: These laws made no distinction between a factory floor and a corporate boardroom. Both were “enclosed workplaces” — smoking prohibited.
• 🔨 Enforcement: Health inspectors began conducting surprise visits, issuing fines to businesses that allowed smoking indoors. The days of the “executive exception” were over.

The disappearance of smoking from boardrooms wasn’t accidental. It was driven by three powerful forces:

1. 🧠 Science (Secondhand Smoke)

• By the 1980s, it was conclusively proven that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illness in non-smokers .
• The workplace was a major source of secondhand smoke exposure — especially for non-smoking administrative staff who had no choice but to sit near smoking executives .

2. ⚖️ Liability (Lawsuits)

• Companies faced lawsuits from employees who developed smoking-related illnesses from workplace exposure .
• Workers’ compensation claims for secondhand smoke-related conditions forced employers to take action .
• Insurance companies began charging higher premiums for companies that allowed indoor smoking .

3. 🏛️ Legislation (Government Action)

• Provincial and federal governments passed laws prohibiting smoking in all enclosed workplaces .
• These laws were enforced with fines and inspections, leaving businesses no choice but to comply .
• The boardroom was not exempt — executive privilege didn’t override public health .

The disappearance of smoking from boardrooms had profound effects on business culture:

• 🚬 The end of the “smoking break” as informal networking: In the Mad Men era, stepping out for a smoke was a chance to have private conversations with colleagues and clients. Today, smokers must go outside, often alone or in small groups — but the informal bonding opportunity is gone.
• 📉 Changing hiring preferences: Surveys show that non-smoking employers sometimes discriminate against smokers, viewing them as less healthy, more likely to take breaks, and more costly in terms of insurance premiums .
• 🚭 The “smoker penalty”: Some companies have implemented “tobacco-free hiring” policies, refusing to employ smokers (legality varies by province). Others charge higher health insurance premiums to employees who smoke .
• 💼 Corporate wellness programs: Many companies now offer smoking cessation programs, nicotine replacement therapy coverage, and incentives for quitting.

While indoor boardroom smoking is dead, smoking hasn’t disappeared entirely from the business world:

• 🍺 Outdoor hospitality events: Business receptions and networking events on outdoor patios often allow smoking. This has become the modern equivalent of the “smoking break” — a chance for side conversations outside.
• 🚬 Cigar lounges: Some high-end business deals still happen in private cigar clubs, where smoking is permitted by design. These are rare and increasingly controversial.
• 🌿 Cannabis industry: With cannabis legalization, some industry events involve consumption. However, this is strictly regulated and not comparable to past cigarette culture.
• 🏠 Private offices (home-based): Employees working from home may smoke during virtual meetings — but the camera is usually off.

Just because boardroom smoking is banned doesn’t mean business professionals have stopped smoking. They’ve simply moved their habit outside — and many have discovered the value of native cigarettes .

• 💰 Cost savings: At $29-35 per carton, native cigarettes from Cigstore.ca save business smokers thousands of dollars annually compared to commercial brands ($16-20/pack).
• 🚬 Professional discretion: Native cigarettes are available in light varieties (Canadian Light, Silver, Nexus Light) that produce less odor and thinner smoke — more discreet for professionals who smoke outside the office.
• 📦 Convenient delivery: Cigstore.ca ships directly to your home or office, eliminating the need to buy expensive single packs at convenience stores.
• 🌿 Additive-free options: Many native brands contain no propylene glycol or glycerin, producing less sticky residue and potentially less lingering odor — practical for professionals who need to return to meetings after a smoke break.