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The Upside of Outside Smoking at Work 

Today's idea: Lest we go too far in banning outdoor smoking, consider how it promotes cross-departmental camaraderie at work, a columnist suggests.

Work * What's next? "Who Moved My Marlboros?" "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Chimneys"? In his Financial Times column, Michael Skapinker doesn't quite propose a new line of management books. But, frowning at New York's move to ban smoking at beaches and parks, and wondering where this all could lead, the London-based nonsmoker says consider what smokers clustered out at sidewalk entrances or in parking lots contribute to our workplaces -- "apart from killing two people a day," that is.

"They form a particular subculture," Skapinker reasons. "Forced into each other's company, they seem a more congenial bunch than most people at work."

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