Bring your dogs to work: Good for pooch and office morale
June 6, 2007
You feel so guilty on Monday morning as those big brown eyes watch you head out the door to work. Sure, every day can’t be the weekend, your dog seems to say. But couldn’t I come along and just curl up under your desk?
Well, at some companies, he could. And here’s your chance to convince your workplace to join the party, at least for one day: June 22 is the ninth annual Take Your Dog to Work Day, as declared by the trade group Pet Sitters International.
Your boss may scoff at the idea - the kind of thing they do at those big California tech companies with their wacky, Frisbee-throwing corporate cultures. And it’s true that firms like Amazon and Google are well known for their pet-friendly policies.
But they’re not the only ones. And companies that welcome pups are passionate about the benefits to both the firm and its employees.
Andy Wright is chief operating officer of Mercedes Medical in Sarasota, Fla., a medical supply distributor, which has 35 employees and six to 10 dogs in the office at any given time.
“We have anything from chihuahua to Labs, to German shepherds to Great Pyrenees.”
Wright is enthusiastic about the advantages of a doggy workplace.
“It’s great for morale,” he says. “It reduces the stress level for employees. A lot of employees are more productive because they don’t have to worry about their dog being left at home all day long.”
Also, he adds, “It encourages loyalty,” because staff who leave would likely be unable to bring their dog to their new job.
The employee loyalty factor is no small matter. A poll of dog owners by dogster.com and SimplyHired.com - which recently introduced a Web site to search for jobs at dog-friendly companies - finds that 49% of respondents would switch jobs to be able to bring their dog to work, with 55% being willing to commute a longer distance.
Of course, some workplaces are unsuitable for canines. At Mercedes Medical, dogs can’t be allowed in the warehouse where medical supplies are stored. And not all individual dogs are good candidates either - Wright says that his Golden, Zoe, is ’too high maintenance’ for an office environment.
But most of the issues that arise can be easily addressed with a little common sense, says Melissa Hertzler, president of natural cosmetics company Honeybee Gardens in Leesport, Pa., who goes to work with her dachshund Ginger.
“If you have a client coming over and they’re going to be in a business suit, you’ll keep the dogs out of the conference room so it doesn’t get hair on it,” she says. “Our customers who know us know to expect it. Sometimes you have to explain - you’re on the phone with a new customer and they hear a dog bark in the background and they’re a little freaked out, but we explain we’re a dog-friendly environment and we hope they respect that.”
Both companies emphasize a few obvious basic rules: Only dogs that are friendly to both dogs and people, and well housetrained, are allowed; no puppies before their vaccinations are completed.
But while you might worry that dogs will be distracting, in some cases it’s the opposite. Hertzler tells of one employee whose dog had a hard time being left home alone. “She didn’t want to come to work and know that her dog was destroying her house because he had anxiety issues.”
Having her dog with her in the office helped that worker concentrate on her job. And the dogster.com-Simply Hired survey found that 66% of dog owners said they would be willing to work longer hours if they could bring their pets.
For companies that have decided to open their doors to their workers’ canine companions, the minor accommodations have proved to be well worth the effect on morale.
“It’s just a nice atmosphere,” says Hertzler. “How nice is it when things are stressful, and you can walk over and throw a ball to a dog?”
