I recently adopted a beautiful puppy named Salami. Yeah, like the sausage. She’s a good good. This fur tube increases the overall happiness and satisfaction I have in my life. And that boost in mental health spills over both into my life at home and in the office.
But having a dog and even more so a puppy is a ton of work; Getting her potty trained, leash trained and people trained. Honestly, the list of skills that this dumb baby needs to learn feels never ending. Accomplishing a lot of that training takes near constant and consistent attention.
If she couldn’t come to work with me, I don’t think I’d personally have the bandwidth to manage all that stress and leave my sanity intact. I never thought that I’d be able to bring my dog to work with me, the boundaries between professional life and personal life seemed impenetrable.
But after spending years working at home, those boundaries started to get really blurry. From checking my email at 3am on a Saturday to taking meetings with my pet in my lap. My work affects my life and the quality of my life ultimately affects my work. Sacrifices made on either side don’t exist in a vacuum.
Our culture at Clockwork 9 revolves around a pretty simple policy: Do what you want, when you want and how you want. The important thing is how we spend our time, not how much of it we spend. And for us a pet inclusive culture increases everyone’s quality of life.
There are definitely some logistics to battle when considering opening the workplace to pets. Accidents happen. And if you allow one dog, is everyone going to want to start bringing their dogs while they distract people from their work or destroy things? I get it, change comes with things. Ultimately it comes down to each particular animal and what’s right for your work setting and culture.
But for me, if I don’t have to worry about getting home to take care of Salami, I don’t have to plan my day around it. And she’s right next to me so I don’t have to worry about her and I can focus on what’s in front of me. And when I or a coworker need a break or we’re feeling burnt out, there’s always easy access to a good puppy cuddle.
There are surveys from companies who allow dogs in the office and the overwhelming majority of participants said that inclusive pet policies increased productivity, creativity and team bonding. There are entire industries built on furthering these outcomes, but you can have it all for free. Woof!
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