Several offices I've worked in now I've intentionally invited non-smokers out to join me - "fancy getting some fresh air while I pollute mine?" is often a good way to phrase it - and with a little care one can arrange for the non-smokers to stand upwind of the smokers to ensure they're not breathing stale smoke.
The reason for this was multifold - it got them a break, it got us a few minutes to chat, and while there was often some socialisation, in a group of programmers there was also almost always useful discussion of the stuff we were working on and brainstorming.
Here at Shadowcat, my development team is geographically distributed but our business guy (co-founder, non-smoker) and sysadmin (fellow smoker) are on site, and all three of us often go out for breaks together and use that time to update each other on where we're up to with stuff (or what we're stuck on) - the end result is as much as anything else an ad-hoc miniature stand-up meeting except with strictly optional carcinogens available at the same time :)
Ah yeah, I've seen that too. I feel smokers, and some non-smokers, are often worried/nervous about that "upwind" aspect, though. If everyone's a smoker or nonsmoker you don't get that, but if it's mixed, people can feel self-conscious about it one way or another. I think it partly works out okay for me because I don't care much about it, because due to a particular history I actually sort of like second-hand smoke, at least in modest amounts, and have a decent story to convince people of why. (More or less: Although I was born/raised in the U.S., half my family's Greek, and I spent a lot of my childhood summers there... and almost nobody I knew in the U.S. while young smoked, while almost everyone I knew in Greece smoked, so I've developed positive associations with cigarette smoke, where it seems totally natural for an outdoor, lounging-and-discussing setting, and reminds me of long dinners by the waterfront and other such pleasant things.)
The reason for this was multifold - it got them a break, it got us a few minutes to chat, and while there was often some socialisation, in a group of programmers there was also almost always useful discussion of the stuff we were working on and brainstorming.
Here at Shadowcat, my development team is geographically distributed but our business guy (co-founder, non-smoker) and sysadmin (fellow smoker) are on site, and all three of us often go out for breaks together and use that time to update each other on where we're up to with stuff (or what we're stuck on) - the end result is as much as anything else an ad-hoc miniature stand-up meeting except with strictly optional carcinogens available at the same time :)