Support from your Colleagues and Workplace

Colleagues and co-workers can help keep you on track by helping you deal with cravings and implementing a weekly Monday check-in.

We spend nearly half of our waking hours either on the job — whether we’re working from home or at the office. During this roughly 8-hour stretch, we experience waves of stress, satisfaction, joy, excitement, exhaustion, frustration, and boredom.

Together, these elements make for a perfect storm of smoking triggers, which is why recruiting a co-working quit buddy is essential for a lengthy quit. So, who should you talk to? Anyone who you trust and respect can be a quit buddy regardless if they’re a current smoker in a similar position, an ex-smoker, or just someone sympathetic to the challenges of quitting.

And even if you’re working from a remote location, colleagues can still support your smoking efforts via a teleconference, video chat or FaceTime, or an old-fashioned telephone call. Set up a weekly Monday check-in to analyze past challenges and prepare you for the week ahead. A colleague will remind you of the benefits of quitting and keep you committed to your cessation strategy.