While not everyone may like pets around, bringing pets to the office is actually very beneficial for employees. A recent study published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management stated that stress declined for people who brought their dogs to work. When owners left their dogs at home, their stress level increased throughout the day. Therefore, it is predictable to see that more offices around the US started to adopt a pet friendly office policy for the past few years.
Let’s look at the pros and cons of a pet friendly office:
- Lower Stress: Employees who take their pets to work have lower stress levels compared to other employees who don’t bring their pets with them. Pets create physiologically a better environment. For example; if you had a bad meeting, petting your cat or taking your dog for a short walk will automatically help you refresh yourself and take a break to clear your mind.
- Improve Communication Among Employees: Having pets around will help employees get socialized more quickly because pet lovers will find a common interest to start a conversation. Also, stopping by someone’s desk to pet their cat or dog will spontaneously initiate a conversation.
- Improve Health: When you bring your dog to work, instead of hiring a dog walker, you can take your dog for a walk yourself. This will help you exercise during the day and give you an excuse to get out of the office to take some fresh air.
- Increase Employee Commitment: Bringing your pet with you will help you feel like you are at home. As a result, you can stay in the office longer if you need to and don’t need to worry about your pet anymore. Moreover, this pet friendly office policy will help bring new talent to the company and keep the existing talent longer.
Drawbacks:
- Workplace Environment: Unfortunately, you cannot let pets to every type of environment. For example; it is not appropriate to let the staff of a restaurant bring their pets with them. Same statement holds for a supermarket as well.
- Health Conditions: Some employees may have allergies to pets. In this case, they should sit in areas where pets are not allowed or pets should only be allowed in some parts of the office. Also, pets should be healthy, trained and well-behaved. In addition, their immunizations should be complete and up-to-date.
