Please don't bring your DOG to work with you.

The BBQ Pit
21

If anyone had allergies, nobody ever mentioned it. Nobody wanted to bring in a cat that I recall. No shoes were chewed.

I dunno why it worked, but it did. In general, though, these were pretty good places to work. Lots of smart people and smart bosses who wanted to make the workplace a nice place to be. Not only could we bring dogs to work, but we could wear shorts, made our own hours, and were well stocked with soft drinks, snacks, and had the latest computers. Good pay, too. If the work itself wasn’t dull as hell I might have stayed there!

22

I remember the guy with the dog.

He was a professor of something – I saw him around the architecture building but I have no clue what his college really was. He was disheveled and carried a briefcase and was over fifty, so I assume he was a professor.

He had shaggy greying blond hair and generally wore tweed. He always had a dog. The dog was also shaggy and blond but did not wear tweed.

I don’t know which one of them it was or if it was both, but their combination could crinkle paint.

I was an employee in the campus computer store when he came in looking for some kind of software. I couldn’t breathe without gagging.

I like dogs. I really do. Medium sized creatures that don’t jump on me or destroy my belongings, for preference, but I just like 'em on principle. And if I’m working for a very small business where nobody’s allergic and the dog is well behaved and clean and doesn’t cause trouble, I would probably be glad to have it around.

I’d be happier to have my cat, though. I wouldn’t have to take him for walks and he’d just sleep on my feet. :smiley:

23

OK, no argument from me. :smiley:

I bring my dog to work daily, as do two of my employees.

24

I work for a place connected with a children’s hospital and they actually have a dog on staff. They brought him around to all our offices to introduce him during a recent Health Week thingy we had. Apparently the theory is that interacting with a dog now and again is a good stress reducer/mood enhancer. Unless you don’t like 'em, I guess. Anyway Ranger was on a leash and not under anyone’s feet.

25

There’s something of a double-standard here. Ostensibly dogs are not allowed but of course people make themselves the exception and bosses allow it. One guy had his dog with him as he worked the loading dog and that got disallowed because research animals get processed through there. Yet the guy down the hall could keep his even though he walks through the dock with him. :rolleyes:

It doesn’t really bother me but if it were pervasive I would feel uncomfortable from the dander. And then there’s the crazyish lady with two yippy dogs she allows off the leash. Don’t get me started…

26

This just in…

Man bites dog.

27

I’m going to take my dog to the movies
with me.

28

I had this problem with a pampered princess co-worker once who brought in her Pekingese one afternoon. Since we’re all dog lovers we pet the little beastie and brought it water and she spent the rest of the day with us (about 3 hours) and we’d play with the dog for a while and go back to work, all was well. Until she brought her in one afternoon the next week, then a couple of days after that, and finally just started going to get her at lunch and keeping her there everyday. Again, offices just aren’t the place for a dog, and I’m NUTS about my dogs.

The princess’s excuse was that “Lulu [the Peke] has allergies and separation anxiety and I’m always afraid what’s going to happen to her”, which of course asks the question “Who gives a shit? It’s your dog and we’re trying to work here!”

I really liked this co-worker except for when I really didn’t- she was 30ish and well educated but you knew before you were ever told that she was the only child of rich parents who convinced her that her farts smelled like fresh cut melon and could cure gout. It was a problem that none of us would address to the woman herself because, while she could be fun and funny and a pleasure to work with, she was famous for her tantrums and her-ass-on-her-cold-shoulders treatment when pissed for any reason, so we confidentially told our boss, who loved dogs and who we trusted, to do the right thing, and he understood perfectly.

Since once in a blue moon an employee, usually a student worker, might bring in a pet for a few minutes (but nothing like the tenure of Lulu the Spazzy Peke) and I’d brought in my pup by request when he was a baby everybody wanted to see (he was there about 30 minutes before I took him home) he sent out an email to everybody that didn’t specify Princess. It said something to the effect of “As much as we all love animals, and as much as I wish we could bring them in everyday for the pleasure they bring us, unfortunately we must stop. Our insurance company and university regulations forbid them because of the potential damage fleas or allergies or even a bite [because the meekest dog will bite] could possibly subject us to. Sorry to sound like the bad guy for I love my dogs dearly, but we must comply.”

You would have thought that the email had read “That dog is causing bubonic plague and must be cut out of the Earth, burned, and the ashes thrown into the river!” She fired back an email indignant at the notion that her dog (who had not been named) had fleas (“I bathe her twice a week!”) or would bite (“she weighs 9 pounds- what damage could she do?”) and particularly furious at the one woman who had addressed the issue to Princess’s face, a haughty aristocratic Marx Brothers matron I’ll call Claudia, Princess stated “and because of the regal bitterness of one unnamed employee we all must suffer the loss of a beloved pet in order to let them feel powerful” and even some “My pretty, and your little dog” reference- we all read it and our jaw dropped (and we remembered why we’d been anxious about addressing it ourselves, because she could make the small office wing miserable when pissed).

I’d have fired her (or at least not renewed her contract) for insubordination for this and similar incidents, but unfortunately one of the VPs of the institution, who only saw the goofy likeable charming side of her and whose gout the Princess had farted on, told her (when Princess appealed to her) that technically she couldn’t bring Lulu anymore but that “What I don’t know won’t hurt me”. So the damn hypoallergenic bitch continued to come to work and half the time she brought her dog with her.

29

This is why my workplace won’t let me bring my guide-dog-in-training to work like all of the other puppyraisers can at their jobs (and yes, one of them works at the same place as me, but in a different area and at different hours). There is one girl who honestly can’t see a difference between my well-trained lab and her Pomeranian, to the point where she thinks its awful that a store wouldn’t let her take her dog inside, and expects me to commiserate when I think that people who bring pets into stores, work, and the like should be shunned.

30

Dangerosa, I’m with you in that I always wonder how this actually works. Of course, I’m the one who is extremely allergic to both cats and dogs. It always makes me cringe when I hear about “take your pet to work day!” or some such.

I really don’t want to be the bad guy.

31

No way, dude. Pets are cute, but I would never allow them to roam free. If you’re going to allow something like that, you have to do it across the board or face the charge that you’re giving special treatment. If Lulu has surgery and you need to take her straight from work, keep her in a crate in your cubicle and walk her at lunch. If she can’t be quiet, sorry, you need to pay for your vet to board her for the day and drop her off the night before.

If I have to make special arrangements for kids, you can at least do so for your dogs.

32

There’s a dog on the staff where my husband works.

Of course, George is a therapy dog who works in the physical therapy clinic. It’s not like he gets to roam the entire hospital at will. But he’s got his official ID and everything allowing him to be in PT all day, every day. Obviously, he’s the most popular therapist on staff.

The last office I worked in, one of the women tried to bring in her well-behaved lab on a weekend, but was stopped by building security and told that there was a no-exceptions “no animals but service animals in the building” policy. That’s one way employers can make it stick without making it personal. Although obviously you have to have building security for it to work.

33

The pit is most timely…tomorrow is Take Your Dog To Work Day as sponsored by the SPCA.

We have little dog treats that look like animals and happy faces. A photographer is coming to take photos of you and your dog. It’s all a bit whacked, but everyone is really geared up about it.

34

I’ve been really surprised lately at how many stores do apparently let people bring their little rat dogs in. I’ve seen dogs in grocery stores several times and lots of other places, as well. Lady, just because your dog fits in a purse, doesn’t mean it belongs in the pharmacy.

35

I can understand hiring a dogsitter if you have a puppy and cannot make it home to let him/her out of his cage every 4 hours or so. It’s easiest to house train them when they can’t soil in their cage.

Other than on days specifically designated to bring them in, I can’t think of a reasonable excuse for bringing your non-service dog into work.

Despite having Buddy the beagle, my husband is terribly allergic to some dogs. Having a dog around would make him miserable.

36

It’s quite common in Yellowknife (NWT, Canada) for people to take their dogs into places of business. I have severe allergies to animals, as did two of my co-workers (and this was only a five-person office). People were told of this when they brought in their dogs, but continued to do it in the future. The boss didn’t want to alienate his clientele, the fucker. So, I kept my door closed, X and Y kept theirs closed, and the boss himself had to deal with the clients; when he got tired of this, he got the hint and we posted a sign.

I will add that YK isn’t exactly the place for little rat dogs (like ours, a Shih tzu which does not trigger allergies in most people), but big slobby dogs, usually the type with a bandana on their neck, or who pulled sleds on the weekend, and had huge thick coats which shed like the dickens.

37

I had a professor who brought her dog to our first class meeting. It was a writing course so we all sat in a circle. Around the dog. Very odd. He walked around and sniffed our shoes.

At the next class meeting she was upset that someone had gone to the Dean about it. Apparently she always brought her dog to class and felt that anyone upset over it should have come to her personally.

I would have gone to the Dean, too, if I really objected. I wouldn’t want to be the person complaining to a professor about something like that, especially in a class where grades were so subjective. More importantly, how could anyone expect her to react reasonably to their concerns when she thought it acceptable to bring a dog to sit in the middle of twenty complete strangers without warning them?

Who are these people who find this sort of thing appropriate? I assumed my prof’s dog was a service dog, because it would never occur to me that people might take their pets to their jobs. A pet-friendly office might be fun, if everyone is aware and agrees to it. Bringing your pet to hang out anywhere without first running it by folks is rude and disrespectful to the people who are forced to interact with it.

38

To avoid problems getting out of hand, you should always go to the source of the problem first - I hate it when people won’t talk to the person they have an issue with, but go to the boss. In the above mentioned case with the princess and the peekinese - she wouldn’t have realised that so many people had an issue with the dog, she only thought that one person did. Same with the class meeting - for christ’s sake, talk to the lecturer, don’t go to the dean.

39

I cannot agree that it is rude and disrespectful if in a public place - if someone’s house or office, then probably but more likely ignorant.

40

No worse than “take your child to work day”, :stuck_out_tongue: but even so, that is only one day a year. I’d like “take your pet to work day”.