June 23rd is ‘Take Your Dog to Work Day‘ I was interviewed on NBC’s Bay Area Today to discuss the benefits of pet-friendly workplaces. Now with 3 dogs in the office I also get to speak as a pet-friendly emplyer as well as pet-enthusiast.

Last year Dogster and SimplyHired (the best online jobs site) conducted a survey of working dog owners. We found some amazing information:

If the dog owners could take their dogs to work with them:
66% would work longer hours for same pay
55% would commute a greater distance
49% would switch jobs
32% would take a 5% salary reduction
11% would take a 10% salary reduction

The reason for the above is that if people don’t have to race home to feed or walk their dog, if they don’t have to worry or miss their dog (which they might also describe as a family member ;) they would work longer, harder and happier.

In these days of limited job security and reduced employee loyalty, proving to your employee you care about what they care about and letting them bring their dogs to work with them is akin to the promise of a gold watch. Employees will have a much stronger commitment to their employer and their job. Another wonderful benefit of dogs in the work place is that stresses and woes seem that much less worrisome when there is a sweet dog just looking for a belly rub.

Of course all this has to be considered using common sense. Some work places are not where dogs should be (e.g. factories, airports, trading floors, etc. etc.), not all people can be near dogs and not all dogs have the demeanor and control to be office dogs.

We here are Dogster recommend tall garbage cans (to not temp curious dogs), keeping extra cleaning supplies handy, and if we can we’re going to offer pet insurance as part of our compensation package. (Take that Google … actually hopefully they will take that and offer it to their employees too. ;)

Woof out….