Dog policy at work

[Americaherewecome]

Does your employer have one? Do you have any experience of writing one?

We need one for our business; any suggestions gratefully received.

TIA

While you're at it please could you write one for parrots and terrapins?

Mumsnet is real people, so if there is some anti dog feeling it will be reflecting reality. Perhaps people feel more able to be honest online and anonymously than they do in their workplace.

Certified assistance dogs are only allowed in my work place. My boss quite correctly said that he didn't want to put off good workers from joining the team because of dogs. Then you end up restricting the diversity of the team by employing only dog lovers by default.

The team then becomes representative of only one demographic, mainly white (not always) but certain cultures are less likely to own dogs because of cleanliness rules etc. So having general pets dogs may prevent that person from joining the team thereby limiting the diversity of your team. Ditto with anyone with pet allergies and phobias, so you end up with a very narrow workforce.

https://www.acas.org.uk/reasonable-adjustments

Reasonable adjustments should only be made for people requiring assistance dogs. Allowing general pet dogs places an additional barrier for certain people.

It's not so much about what Muslims think, as being about the rules applying to dogs and what their purpose is seen as. This is quite an old article but it explains how a Fatwa was issued to allow a guide dog to accompany its handler into a Mosque.

www.theguardian.com/society/2008/sep/25/disability.islam

I work in the public transport sector. Because of restrictions on people with sight or hearing difficulties working in my frontline operations job, we don't have assistance dogs brought in, generally. But staff in the corporate and administrative offices can bring in their assistance dogs. They have to have a health & safety assessment but that is to see how the dog can be accommodated safely within the work environment, for example, during fire drills and if there's a safe place to exercise the dog like a park nearby. Also if the office is a safe place itself for the dog.

I like dogs and I have one myself (who is wholly unsuitable for bringing to work) but I am against pet dogs at work

When staff have occasionally brought them to our call centre type office it has been really disruptive. People who like dogs are distracted petting them and people who don't are distracted by trying to stay away. The person whose dog it is barely gets any work done at all between taking it out for toilet breaks and controlling it trying to steal peoples lunch, beg for biscuits and roam around. One of my colleagues (who does like dogs) was trying to take a call whilst fending off the dog who was trying to hump his leg!

If one person brings a dog then everyone wants to and most people over estimate how well behaved their dog will be in that environment.

She's being sarcastic, she agrees with you!

I agree too. It's outright disability discrimination to allow conditions that prevent you from accessing the workplace. If the dog had to be there for a legitimate reason E.g. Guide dog for a blind person, the employer would have to figure out how to accommodate you both safely.

I am not allergic but I wouldn't like it at all, it would really stress me out and impact my work. I know I'm not alone in feeling like that. So any supposed benefit would be offset by folks that dislike dogs having their productivity impacted.

Professional dress / usage and storage of mides of transport
no firearms or munition

Single golf clubs were allowed for the multifloor office crazy golf game with a limit in passangers escorting the ball in the lift as it was a multi business office.

I don't mind seeing colleagues dogs on Teams calls but I would absolutely hate having them in the office. The smell, the slobber, the snoring... the hair, the farts... god no!

Seeing as only yesterday another person was killed by an out of control dog I hardly think it is appropriate to be inviting them into MORE spaces.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86pp14j0dxo.amp

And yes you could say that this is because it was a “banned breed” but we all know that breeds aren’t really real and there is so much cross over between different types of dog it’s impossible to put them into discrete categories. Why would you open up to all and take the risk?

Well, quite. That would have to be considered on an individual basis by management I guess.

I once walked out of a job when someone senior started bringing a dog regularly. I'm not scared, I'm not allergic, I simply dislike them.

I said I would not have accepted the post if dogs had been allowed then, I wasn't consulted about this dog, and was willing to forgo my notice period and pay. I left that day.

Too bad that a major project I was managing collapsed losing them a very large sum of money.

Fortunately a rival and dog free company hired me on better terms and salary so all good in the end.

I think this is true.

Purina have a “pets at work program where they help with implementing policies etc www.purina.eu/pets-at-work

@MagdaLenor it definitely is true! Doggy people get so irate and weirdly offended when you suggest you don’t like dogs that it’s become almost like a social faux pas because they are so LOUD about their disapproval of your disapproval that you end up saying nothing out of embarrassment. When you find someone apathetic or with a dislike of dogs in real life it is so cathartic

That's different because if you are allergic or don't like dogs you can choose to go to another hairdresser.

People can't choose their place of work and it's particularly inequitable that some people are effectively barred from coming in on doggy days, but will still have a mandated requirement to be in the office a certain number of days a week and could get fired if they don't.