More than half of people surveyed by people2people have witnessed vaping in the
workplace, raising questions about whether workplace policies have kept pace with changing employee behaviour.
Vaping may be prohibited across many Australian workplaces, but new people2people research suggests that has not stopped it from finding its way into offices, shared spaces and even virtual meetings.
A September 2026 people2people survey of more than 1,200 respondents found 57% had witnessed someone vaping in the workplace at least once, including 43% who had seen it happen multiple times.
The behaviour is not limited to observation. More than one in four respondents (27%) said they had vaped at work themselves, with 24% saying they had done so several times.
While the findings should not be interpreted as a measure of vaping prevalence across the entire Australian workforce, they point to a workplace issue employers may be encountering more often than expected.
Vaping has created a new workplace policy challenge
Smoking inside an office would immediately stand out in most workplaces. Vaping can be less obvious.
Devices are smaller, there is no ash and the smell can dissipate quickly. That difference may contribute to employees viewing vaping differently to cigarette smoking, even when workplace restrictions apply to both.
Suhini Wijayasinghe, Head of HR Solutions at people2people, said workplace vaping can often be driven by habit rather than a deliberate attempt to disregard workplace rules.
“It does happen far more often than people realise.”
The survey also identified a clear generational difference.
Among Gen Z respondents, 34% said they had vaped at work several times, compared with 24% of Millennials and 16% of Gen X and Baby Boomers.
For employers, the issue is therefore not simply whether a smoking policy exists. It is whether employees clearly understand that the policy also covers vaping.
Australian workplaces need to be clear about the rules
Vaping restrictions vary across Australian states and territories, but vaping is commonly included within smoke-free laws.
In New South Wales, for example, smoking and vaping are prohibited in enclosed public areas and a range of outdoor public areas. Businesses also retain work health and safety obligations to manage risks to workers where specific smoke-free laws do not apply.
NSW Health states that its smoke-free rules are intended to protect people from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke and vape aerosol. Individuals breaching applicable smoking and vaping bans can also face on-the-spot fines.
Australia's broader vaping laws have also tightened significantly. Since July 2024, non-pharmacy retailers such as tobacconists, convenience stores and vape shops have been prohibited from supplying vapes, with legal supply restricted to pharmacy settings under Australia's therapeutic vaping framework.
For employers, however, the immediate issue is less about how an employee obtained a vape and more about what happens when it enters the workplace.
Hybrid work is creating another grey area
The traditional office is not the only place where employers are encountering vaping.
Almost one-third of respondents (32%) said they had seen someone vape during a virtual work meeting.
Views on whether this was acceptable were divided.
More than half (55%) said vaping during a virtual meeting was never acceptable. Another 34% believed it was acceptable if the person's camera was turned off, while 11% considered it acceptable when someone was working from home.
Gen X and Baby Boomer respondents were the most likely to reject it completely, with 68% saying vaping during a virtual meeting was never acceptable.
This creates a less straightforward question for employers.
An employee working from home is in their own environment, but they are also participating in a professional meeting and representing themselves within a workplace setting.
As hybrid work becomes an established part of how Australian organisations operate, employers increasingly need to define where workplace expectations begin and end when employees are working remotely.
Workplace policies may need to catch up
The simplest starting point is to remove ambiguity.
Employers should review existing smoking, drug and alcohol, workplace behaviour and health and safety policies to ensure vaping is explicitly addressed rather than assuming employees will automatically interpret references to smoking as including e-cigarettes.
Policies should clearly explain:
- whether smoking and vaping are prohibited at the workplace
- where employees can smoke or vape during breaks, if applicable
- how restrictions apply to company vehicles and other work locations
- expectations during virtual meetings and remote work
- who employees can speak to if they are unsure about the policy
- how repeated breaches will be managed.
Managers also need to apply those expectations consistently.
An employee vaping at their desk should not receive a completely different response depending on which manager happens to notice it.
Clarity should come before escalation
Not every workplace vaping incident needs to begin as a disciplinary matter.
Where an employee has misunderstood the rules or acted automatically out of habit, a direct conversation explaining the workplace expectation may be enough to resolve the issue.
Where behaviour continues after expectations have been clearly communicated, the situation becomes different. Employers then need to manage repeated breaches consistently with their workplace policies and normal performance or disciplinary processes.
The broader lesson extends beyond vaping.
Workplace behaviours can change considerably faster than workplace policies. Hybrid work, new nicotine products and changing social norms have created situations that many older policies were never written to address.
For employers, waiting until an issue becomes widespread before defining the rules creates unnecessary ambiguity.
The people2people findings suggest workplace vaping is already occurring often enough that employers should not assume their existing smoking policy speaks for itself. A few clear sentences about vaping, where it is prohibited and what employees are expected to do can remove that uncertainty before it becomes a larger workplace problem.
