This is completely terrible, but one of the reasons I've found it so difficult to quit smoking is that the nicotine urge acts as a timer to go outside to clear my head and get some fresh air (ironic, I know).
I've been freelancing for a couple of years now, but about half of the programmers were smokers at my last job. We would coordinate smoke breaks throughout the day, and that time was often spent chatting about whatever projects we were working on. It turned out that it was a good way to get feedback and throw ideas off the wall without interrupting people at their desks.
I am an ex-smoker. I understand this stumbling block quite well. Should you decide to quit, here are some of the things I did to help with the take a break/socialization aspects of it.
-- I never stopped taking smoke breaks. (but I did start calling them air breaks)
-- I invited other, non-smokers to air-breaks
-- Other smokers didn't set off particularly strong cravings in me, so I still did my coordination with them
-- Since my body no longer had the chemical decay timer, and the mental habit started to fade, i had to set real timers and request my smoking co-workers to ping me for my air breaks (before I did this, I started to feel disconnected and seriously considered starting to smoke again to "relieve the stress")
-- Keep carrying around a lighter. (It makes no sense, but somehow it helps put some smokers at ease about a non-smoker in their midst)
-- Don't start preaching to your smoking buddies about stopping. Answer questions if asked, but let it be -- remember how much you hated the "you need to quit" stuff. It will keep the interactions smoother.
In my experience, for team of good programmers working hard on some problem/idea smoke breaks are incredibleproductivity boost. When we had actual office and were mostly working from there, even some non-smokers regularly accompanied us to smoke breaks because that was perfect opportunity for informal chat about work.
On the other hand I have seen teams that don't talk shop on smoke breaks. It seems to me that this can be effectively used as measure of team's proffesionality and motivation
When I worked in an office, nobody was a smoker (Sweden...) but instead we had coffee breaks. The time when we needed to refill our coffee mugs would synchronize and we'd end up around the coffee machine in the airy full-window hallway.
I used to do that when I was in the Navy (I didn't smoke at the time). I was working nights in the server room on an aircraft carrier and didn't get to see the sun much.
It wasn't exactly encouraged to take random breaks all the time for no reason, and you can't go up on the flight deck during flight ops, so at the end of each shift I would go out to the smoke deck with my friends to look at the water and get some sunlight.
How is that implausible? If you kept your distance, fine...It's also fair to say that a person won't inhale as much smoke since it isn't as contained as it would be indoors, but if you're standing downwind from it or if it wafts in your direction, there will definitely be inhalation.
As often as possible (usually at lunch, happy hour, or while playing Street Fighter II), but we would try to avoid disturbing people at their desks unless it was urgent. Of course, there were some people who never came out to lunch or happy hour, and they probably did end up being out of the loop a little.
It kind of reminds me of what someone told me once: "If you don't smoke, drink, or do drugs, you're probably a pretty boring person."
I've been freelancing for a couple of years now, but about half of the programmers were smokers at my last job. We would coordinate smoke breaks throughout the day, and that time was often spent chatting about whatever projects we were working on. It turned out that it was a good way to get feedback and throw ideas off the wall without interrupting people at their desks.