[Employee Benefits] Up In Smoke

On the occasion of his 41st birthday last year, Gary Rottler made a visit to the doctor and left with some disheartening news.

"He told me if I didn’t quit smoking I would be dead in 10 years," said Rottler, service manager of St. Louis-based Rottler Pest Control and a smoker of 28 years. "It got me thinking about my kids and that I wanted to see them grow up and have grandkids."

As if that wasn’t motivation enough, Rottler also recently had two close smoker friends suffer strokes and he’s witnessed the struggles of his mother-in-law, a former smoker, who now needs the assistance of a portable oxygen tank.

Like so many others, Rottler had tried just about everything to quit smoking from patches, to nicotine gum, to quitting cold turkey.

Rottler’s doctor told him about a stop smoking-program at St. Louis-based Leslie-Cam Smoking Cessation Center (LCSC) that involved several steps, including Auricular Therapy — the introduction of a small and precise amount of stimulus to the nerve endings on the exterior of the ear that causes smokers to lose their desire to smoke, with little or no withdrawal symptoms.

Having tried and failed in previous attempts, Rottler was skeptical but he decided to give the program a try.

"When I set up the appointment the doctor told me to bring my cigarettes," Rottler recalls. "I knew he was probably going to destroy them so I only brought about three with me."

As part of the treatment, patients meet with a doctor for a discussion in which a variety of issues are talked about including addiction, behavior modification and how the LCSC program works.

After meeting with the doctor, Rottler underwent the treatment, which he described as having "gook" applied to his ear followed by a low-voltage jolt to the outer part of his ear. (For more information about this type of treatment visit www.lc-stopsmoking.com.)

Rottler then followed the treatment with discussions and also used techniques, such as eating ice cubes, to curb his cravings for cigarettes.

This new treatment has proved successful for Rottler; he has not had a smoke in 11 months.

SUCCESS FOR EMPLOYEES. Upon observing Gary Rottler’s success, a Rottler Pest Control employee who was a smoker asked Gary about the program.

Rottler explained how it worked and told him, "Tell you what, I’ll pay the $80 for you to go this specialist and I’ll give you $50 per month for up to six months if you can stay smoke-free."

Word of Rottler’s and others successes spread throughout the office. Rottler made the same offer to other employees. In all, 11 Rottler employees enrolled in the program and Gary Rottler reports that eight out of the 11 have quit smoking.

With so much company-wide interest in the program, Rottler decided to make the no-smoking program available to all employees, and it is now included in the company’s employee manual.

In addition to providing employees with this non-traditional perk, Rottler said he thinks he will be able to lower the amount his company spends on health insurance and maybe even lower vehicle insurance costs if he can make a case that smoke-free drivers are safer drivers.

Still, none of those reasons were the driving force behind Rottler’s decision.

"The No. 1 reason, of course, is my health and my family, but also I’ve made a lot of friends in the company and throughout the industry and I want to be around to see them," he says.

In addition, Rottler has told numerous friends and family members about the LCSC program, and he reports that about 25 have gone through the program and are now smoke-free. Also, several Rottler Pest Control customers have inquired about the program. For example, during the recent Thanksgiving holiday, a Rottler customer informed Gary that he and seven co-workers, friends and family members scheduled appointments at the LCSC.

The author is managing editor and Internet editor of PCT magazine. He can be reached at bharbison@pctonline.com.