Dogs in offices

[ApplePenPineapplePen]

RANT: I do not understand how or why it became acceptable for people in office jobs to take dogs to work. A workplace is no place for pets. Get a dogsitter or don't have a pet or change job. I don't want their hounds near me i don't want their hairs on my office chair. Am I being unreasonable to think the starting position should be no animals in offices? Rant over.

More calmly, I have 2 reasons that I want to avoid dogs - a severe allergy plus a previous dog attack leaving me generally nervous and stressed around dogs. Work is aware of my allergy and now office returns are being discussed, some measures are in place to minimise my exposure.

But what if that weren't the case though and I just didn't like them? Is it for the individual to check if there are animals in the office before they accept the job? Or should employers disclose in job ads?

Of course I exclude guide dogs/hearing dogs or similar.

AIBU to think the default position should be no dogs in offices?

I have never come across a dog in an office, other than a guide dog or a hearing dog. Aside from behaviour and individual experiences of dogs being different, I understand that for Muslims dogs are not kept as pets and so I can imagine they would also not be happy.

Of course if you are wfh then up to you, and perhaps those offices with dogs should be considering how their team can at least wfh part of the time.

In the early Eighties, I temped in London. My favourite recruitment agency was called Beavers, in Oxford Street, and I was quite surprised to find that the owners' dogs were in situ, but they were lovely and well-behaved and gave the office a comfortable feel. (I think there were two, might only have been one, was a long time ago!) It was a small agency, but I got lots of good jobs through it and I remember the agency fondly. I've never come across dogs in the workplace since, though, and it does seem a bit strange to me, for all the reasons specified by previous posters.

@Gothichouse40

Is there nowhere we can get away from dogs? They are just everywhere, Id have hated them at work. Apart from anything else Im asthmatic. This surely cannot be acceptable under H&Safety regs I would have thought.

All food shops, many other shops, some pubs, most restaurants, most hospitals, doctors' surgeries, dentists, hairdressers, libraries, factories - quite a lot of places, really.

A company near me is a dog-friendly workplace. They advertise the fact on their website, in recruitment ads and it's made clear in the info they send out with application forms. They also have a very good rate of staff retention and a high level of staff satisfaction.

It obviously works for them, and for their staff. And no-one is going to get a job there without knowing that there will be dogs around.

My late DP had an interview there and was shown the enclosed dog exercise area as part of the tour round. He said that most of the dogs were just snoozing, but a couple came up to say hello and have a fuss as he was shown round.

He'd have taken the job if he hadn't got a better offer elsewhere.

In my last Army job I worked in an office that had up to 8 dogs in at any one time. This was a smallish dog-leg (arf) office with 3 desk spaces in the main and 2 in the dog-leg.

I bloody loved it! In fact when I retired and went to work in my current job I missed having my mutt under my desk with her head on my feet.

In the main they were well behaved but the bosses two dogs could be barky and attention seeking, we dealt with that as it happened.

We agreed that the cleaners wouldn’t do our office, and every Friday took it in turns to hoover, and wet clean all surfaces and lower walls (except for the one person without a dog). Once a month the boss (who had the most dogs) squeegee’d and cleaned the carpet. I’d hazard that out office was the cleanest of the lot.

I miss those times, and I swear my stress levels and MH was much better then, despite it being a far more demanding job.

I’ve worked in at least three places dogs were allowed and brought mine in sometimes. He’s a very well behaved dog and apart from insisting on lying next to the printer to ensure he gets lots of cuddles and doing the rounds of bins after lunch he causes no trouble. In fact one site was an office with multiple buildings and people that didn’t mix much actually came to our floor to meet the dog, several people said he improved morale and I was never short of offers to give him the lunchtime walk. I only brought him in once a week as it wasn’t that convenient for me for school pick up but people always asked for him to come in more. He used to go in to my husband’s work too and some of his colleagues have actually come several times to pick the dog up from our house to bring him in as they miss him so much since my DH is now WFH.

I think it can be really beneficial and actually since he’s so calm he’s helped a few people get over their nervousness of dogs. I made sure that I didn’t bring him anywhere near the one person I knew of that had allergies and he doesn’t bark or whine so isn’t noisy. But I did notice that when people were having a bad day they’d seek him out. I love dogs but wouldn’t be keen on boisterous or yappy dogs in the office and clearly reliably toilet trained is a given. It’s still a place of work.

I worked in an office with a dog. It was a really chilled dog, and was called the 'wellbeing dog' to help them get away with it as the students liked it. But I went to a big meeting once and the dog came, visited everyone at the table and I could see the others from the managers office were incredulous that there we were, a bunch of grown up professionals, all taking like babies to the dog during this professional meeting.

I don't think it should become the norm, it was pleasant but for those scared of dogs or nonplussed by them, seems only a few benefit.

I'm a dog lover and former dog owner (my lovely dog passed away last year) but I don't think it's fair to impose dogs on people who don't like them in an office environment.

If you work it's normally because you have no choice in the matter - you can't avoid your workplace because it's full of dogs, as you might avoid dog-friendly leisure venues.

No dogs allowed in anywhere I have ever worked, with the exception of assistance dogs.

My first 'proper' job (1984) was in a large open plan local goverment office. One woman used to bring in her three Irish Wolfhounds a couple of times a week.
Mind you smoking was still allowed in the office at that time - so at least that covered up them smell of the dogs.

Factories/workshops (and often small retailers) used to have resident cats, always thought it's a pity that this seems to have died out.

@exLtEveDallas

In my last Army job I worked in an office that had up to 8 dogs in at any one time. This was a smallish dog-leg (arf) office with 3 desk spaces in the main and 2 in the dog-leg.

I bloody loved it! In fact when I retired and went to work in my current job I missed having my mutt under my desk with her head on my feet.

In the main they were well behaved but the bosses two dogs could be barky and attention seeking, we dealt with that as it happened.

We agreed that the cleaners wouldn’t do our office, and every Friday took it in turns to hoover, and wet clean all surfaces and lower walls (except for the one person without a dog). Once a month the boss (who had the most dogs) squeegee’d and cleaned the carpet. I’d hazard that out office was the cleanest of the lot.

I miss those times, and I swear my stress levels and MH was much better then, despite it being a far more demanding job.

See that sounds better. As with all these things, you have a set a gold seal example of how to do it well and be considerate. However, I can see it not being done so well as well and that's a risk for an organisation.

Some of our offices have dogs and even have their own photo and bio on the ‘meet the team’ pages.

I tend to prefer dogs to people though so I’m happy but can see why it would be annoying.

DD's secondary school has a dog, she belongs to the deptuy head who is also a SEN teacher. Lola is trained as a support dog, comes in twice a week and the success in her working with girls during their support/councelling sessions is enormous.

She is around during break and lunch and the girls enjoy petting/loving her. But, the huge difference is, she is trained, she knows how to behave and there are strict rules in place, for her and the pupils/teacher.

But in a normal office with a normal dog? Hell no.

I'm my office you wouldn't even be allowed a picture of your dog! We have policy about no personal items on the desk.

Sharing my own home with my gorgeous dog while wfh has itself been a bit of a challenge in itself sometimes - can’t really imagine co-workers being too thrilled with the vigilance and all round exuberance devoted to eg guarding the front door from the delivery man or reminding me that it is her (rather than my) break time. In the early stages of lockdown I got by with job lots of long-life bones under the desk. I think it’s a lot to ask of a dog to sit around indoors being unnaturally well behaved for nearly all the day, unless they have been trained for this. It’s a very human-centred view of pet ownership.

I feel reassured that I am not the odd one out. @TofuQuinoaKale sorry for the earworm! It's the rapid normalisation as a pp said that seems so strange, I think it was creeping in before lockdown and now it is established. I hadn't thought about my allergies as a disability before, and I think that is what jars. It is me that is the odd one who needs adjustments, rather than there being a reasonable expectatjon that I won't encounter such allergens in the work environment. I have food allergies too but at least I can largely control my exposure myself without impacting anyone else. Work has been supportive - bit of a wake-up call for them to consider that their normal practice could have serious consequences. If they had mentioned it at interview I might not have joined the company. However I didn't ask because it didn't cross my mind that it could possibly be a thing. An assistance animal is different - well-trained and essential to support someone whose disability rights trump mine.

The only dogs allowed in my office are assistance dogs. Yabu

Small children, dogs...fine a couple of times a year in the office, I'd hate it any more than that. We had one client with 2 permanent office dogs, which were known to pee in the corner of the room during meetings.

assistance dogs are fine. I would drug up to cope with it. plus the one time there was an assistance dog in the office issues where mitigated by the dog & owner having their own enclosed office that was cleaned more often than the open space.

This is one thing that can happen if you are allergic in dog friendly office.

www.askamanager.org/2015/07/my-new-office-is-full-of-dogs-and-im-allergic.html

www.askamanager.org/2015/12/update-my-new-office-is-full-of-dogs-and-im-allergic.html

I liked dogs and I don't mind if a dog is occasionally in the office due to some reason. Similarly I don't mind a colleague brining a kid on the odd day due to childcare issues. It's a perk that can't be taken away without resentment. I'm guessing the best way to handle it is to make it clear on the listing so people who are not ok with it know not to apply.

I've known two work places where dogs came to work. Both were very small teams and dog was only there because everyone wanted then to be and they weren't disruptive. That's fine, but any other situation is not ok imo

1. If you allow dogs in offices it would have to be extended to everyone, (that could be exciting!)

1. To avoid any discrimination you would have to allow any pet to be brought into the office, e.g. cat, goldfish, crocodile, pony etc.

1. Those without a pet should be allowed to bring a friend to sit by their desk.

1. Those without a pet or a friend would have to sit in the corner.

I hate dogs. And I hate people who impose their dogs on others. I could not work there OP. Totally unreasonable to bring a dog into an office imo.

I really hate dogs so this would be my absolute nightmare if my work did this and I would probably end up being forced to quit.

It's bad enough at the weekends when I just want to take DD to the park or for a walk to be constantly dodging dogs everywhere. I actually wish we had a few dog free parks or beaches to go to as I can't stand them coming anywhere near me or putting their paws on me, yuck. Imagine being in a work situation where you couldn't get away from them.

We are allowed to bring dogs into our work place with a few conditions. We have to have full liability insurance, prove that the dog are vaccinated and do a risk assessment. Whilst travelling to and from our offices, the dogs must be kept on leads and we must place a sign on our door notifying that there is a dog in there. If you are in a shared office and one person objects, then your dog cannot come in.

I work for an organisation where their main job can be very stressful and dangerous and lots of young lads and lasses who are away from their families for the first time and whilst they wouldn’t admit to anyone they are struggling, they would make an effort to pop to my office and play, stroke and cuddle with my dog.

Dogs in the workplace aren’t the right fit for every organisation, but for some it has benefits.

I love dogs, and would love to work somewhere they’re allowed, but I can empathise because I’m not a fan of children in the office.

In the office I used to work, one of the managers would bring his young child in every so often, dump him on the nearest women, and then lock himself away in his office all day. So the rest of us had to put up with his spoilt, demanding little darling interrupting our work day.

I think that if people don't like the dog policy of their workplace they are free to work somewhere else, just like if they didn't like the dress policy, annual leave policy, or anything else.

The attitude of "I don't like this so no one should be allowed to do it" is shitty and selfish.