Canines follow owners to work
Having pet nearby relieves stress, makes for happier workplace, employees say
Like any new addition to an office, Dolly had an adjustment period. The hardest part: learning not to bark at the mailman.
Dolly is one of millions of dogs that accompany their owners to dog-friendly businesses every day.
“I consider it a benefit like health care. It’s a huge attraction,” said Dolly’s owner, Erin McCormack, who works at Authentic Entertainment in Los Angeles as a producer on the Disney Channel’s Auction Kings.
McCormack and her Maltese mix walk together before work and at lunch to get some exercise, and McCor- mack saves money on the dog walker or daycare she would otherwise need.
“It’s such a great way to create a productive atmosphere. It makes the environment more conducive to creativity,” she said.
At the same time, McCormack added, “They are a calming force. When things get stressful, you can lean down and pet your dog or take a walk and pet a nearby dog. You get a more efficient workplace, one that’s not consumed with stress.”
About 1.4 million owners take some 2.3 million dogs to work every day, according to an American Pet Products Association survey last year.
When the group last sur- veyed businesses, in 2006, one in five was dog-friendly. That number is probably holding steady if you include oneperson offices, work-at-home pet owners and retail shops, said Len Kain, cofounder and editor of DogFriendly.com, which lists dog-friendly companies in every state.
Some of the nation’s largest employers are dog-friendly — like Google Inc. and Amazon.com. Keeping employees happy is one of the main reasons cited by employers.
“Engineering and software companies are often the type of company that is pet-friendly,” Kain said. “These companies have trouble finding people with the skills they need and do not want to lose these employees.”
Extrovertic, a health-care communications agency with 40 employees and offices in New York City and Cambridge, Mass., tested the waters last year with Take Your Dog to Work Day. This year’s event, held in June, was sponsored by North Carolinabased Pet Sitters International to promote adoption.
The experiment was so successful that the company went dog-friendly and Sally, a rescue beagle owned by supervising account manager Jared Shechtman, became Take Your Dog to Work Day’s poster dog.
“We are a small agency. We want to be different. We want the quality of our employees’ lives to be better than they would get at a bigger agency. Having dogs in the office is another way of saying, ‘We are different and we care about you,’ ” company CEO Dorothy Wetzel said.
Fifteen to 20 of the 120 employees or freelancers working at Authentic Entertainment bring their dogs to work, said co-founder and executive producer Lauren Lexton.