If you’ve ever worked, well, pretty much anywhere you know that there’s an unwritten rule that smokers shouldn’t be expected to go an entire shift without a cigarette (or several).

So, they get “breaks” that non-smokers just don’t get.

OP was taking small breaks with his smoking buddies even though he didn’t smoke, and when his boss noticed, he pointed out that wasn’t allowed.

I first started working at 17 as a housekeeper cleaning condos in downtown Toronto. It wasn’t a bad gig. The building was under construction (finishing units and such) so there was quite a bit of dust but other than that it was fairly easy work and at the time I was getting above minimum wage.

I was the only cleaner in the building but I was good friends with the security guards and would hang out with them on most of my breaks. They were all smokers and I noticed that they were taking small break so if I happen to be near them when they were taking a smoke break I would hang out with them.

My boss was a sweet guy, but he did casually mention that the smoke breaks for smokers only and I couldn’t just hang out with them.

OP decided to get creative, bringing small sparklers to work and letting them “smoke” while he hung out with his friends for a few minutes.

Next break I had I sat down with the security guards and they joked that I should just have a cigarette in my hand but not actually smoke it. That’s when I decided to be a little bit creative with my malicious compliance.

The next day I came into work with a small pack of sparklers. I kept them in my pocket and when I saw the security guards taking a smoke break I went out with them pulled out a sparkler lit it up and just kind of stood there with them as the sparkler went off. We all had a good chuckle about it.

Everyone had a good laugh about it – even his boss – and he was allowed the same breaks as his smoking counterparts after that.

The boss saw me and came outside probably to talk to me about not taking a smoke break if I wasn’t a smoker, but he saw the sparkler in my hand.

The security guards pointed out that technically I was ‘smoking’ as the sparkler was producing little bits of smoke.

The boss laughed it off, apologized, and said that as long as I get my work done I can take smoke breaks with the others with or without the sparklers.

Is Reddit going to give this one a try? Let’s see!

You could use it for whatever you want, really.

It is definitely true that some people should not be bosses.

You shouldn’t need to pick up an addiction just to get a break.

Breaks are for everyone!

That’s why we can’t have nice things.

This is a thing that should have been addressed en masse a long time ago.

Seriously, how are we still talking about it?!