My age must be showing - it just floors me that people think it is appropriate to bring anything except themselves and their lunch to work, period. You don’t need excuses, allergies, and people complaining to not want dogs or kids at work - they simply don’t belong there, and people should know this by the time they’re old enough to have a steady job. Damn. What a strange world we live in.
I don’t know, I’ve worked in newsrooms where people brought the occasional dog in and I always thought that was kind of a neat thing. I worked for an ad agency that occasionally had a “dog day” and everybody who had a portable dog could bring them in. That was interesting.
One of the people who brought a dog into the newsroom had taught the dog, who was only a puppy, how to howl on command. The command was for a person close to the dog to silently imitate a howl, and the dog would take it from there. The guy played “Werewolves of London” and at the “ah-ooos” would do the command so the dog howled along. It was hilarious.
Those who wanted to sit in their offices and sulk and work…wait, there wasn’t anybody like that there.
My current officemates only have cats. We discussed having a “cat day” and decided that probably wouldn’t be such a great idea. Although it would probably do wonders for our mouse problem.
I purposely frequent places that allow their employees to bring in their dogs–assuming, of course, that the rest of the staff is comfy with it. I think our society has gotten way too far away from the concept of normal interaction with any species but our own, and I also think that people are completely friggen’ ignorant about how to interact with dogs. This brings up stupidity like a park in town that doesn’t allow you in with your dog. We’re talking an average city park, with sidewalks and grass and trees. The kind of place you might go for a walk with your dog, in other words. The city doesn’t allow them in, period.
I like going to see my doctor and giving Joker the lab mix a pat while I’m waiting, or the assorted little muttleys that hang out in my main leather goods supply shop. My dog goes to work with my husband and sleeps under his desk all day. You wouldn’t even know he was there unless you saw us walking him around campus at lunch time, and he weighs a hundred and twenty pounds. Now, if he was yappy and pissing on things, inciting allergies and growing at people, I could understand the ire… but mannerly* dogs are welcome everywhere, in my book. If I could vote to allow them in restaurants and grocery stores, I would.
I enjoy it when people have trained and socialized their dogs in such a way that the dogs know how to behave in strange places and around people. It shows a good owner and a good natured dog. I like dogs and I like them being a commonplace fixture in everyday society, instead of regulating them to the wasteland of the fenced backyard, that’s all.
*mannerly as in a guide or service dog–them’s manners! If your pet dog behaves as well as any well-trained service dog, they’re welcome in my house and place of business.
Check with your relevant laws, but I’m pretty sure this is illegal. The ADA allows dogs anywhere people are allowed, and that includes guide dogs in training.
That’s pretty much the standard for children, too.
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/lifestyles/432796,dogwork620.article
Happy Bring Your Dog To Work Day!
Looks like Fido was just ahead of the curve.
You’re right. I think they finally put in place some mechanism to address this, maybe that you could complain anonymously to your building manager if you didn’t want to confront the pet owner directly.
My goodness, it got ugly, though, with opinions ranging from “No dogs in the workplace at all ever” to one schmuck who objected to dogs who behaved aggressively being banned from campus. After all, he said, “Don’t have all have some ‘bad dog’ in us?” You know, buddy, as much as I might want to, I never bite my co-workers.
I don’t mind if other people have well-behaved dogs in their offices, but I don’t want one in mine. Mine is a high-traffic office with students, faculty and staff constantly dropping by, and I don’t want anyone to feel unwelcome because they’re allergic to, scared of, or just plain don’t like dogs.
I don’t like dogs much at all, and I really hate badly-behaved dogs. The trouble with a policy that allows people to bring in their well-behaved dogs is that everybody thinks their dog is well-behaved. Jumping up on strangers - that’s okay because the dog is excited. Barking, whatever other annoying things dogs do - somebody somewhere will make an excuse for why it’s okay for their dog to do that. If your workplace allows well-behaved dogs in, I guarantee you that at some point, someone will abuse this policy and bring in a badly-behaved dog. But well-behaved or not is moot - I shouldn’t have to deal with any dogs while I’m at work (unless I’m working at a job that can reasonably expect to have dogs around - vet clinic, etc.).
This’ll probably get me flamed, but I think there will come a day when dogs aren’t allowed in cities, period. Too much of a dog’s behaviour depends on being properly trained and having a proper owner, and too many owners are terrible owners who allow their dogs to be nuisances to eveyone else. Final solution for the problems of dogs barking, pooping everywhere and biting people is no dogs.
My puppy-raising group told me that guides in training aren’t covered under ADA. They said it only applied to working guides and service dogs. I’ll look into it though
That sounds right to me - the ADA protects the person, and you aren’t covered by it (I assume). Employers are required to make reasonable accomodations for disabled employees (or customers etc). I don’t think, for example, a firm could be required by the ADA to give someone time off to learn ASL to enable them to serve as an interpreter for a deaf individual. Then again, it is possible there is a service animal training provision of the ADA of which I am not aware.
Someone at my wife’s office brought their dog to work a few times, and now the place has a flea problem. The boss refuses to do anything about it until it can be “proven” that there are fleas in the office.
I’m of the opinion that unless the critter is earning a salary, it doesn’t belong in the workplace.
Cat, dog, guppy - whatever.
It’s bad enough when coworkers bring in children. A client overhearing “Awwww the wootise cutsie widdle snuggykins” while I’m trying to tell him / her how to stay out of jail - just doesn’t work.
I’m a dog fanatic and have four lab/collie critters. I have taken them to work (one at a time) before, but only at places I had my own office and after I checked with colleagues about allergies, fears, etc.
In grad school I had a professor who brought her extremely ill-behaved Australian shepherd puppy to class. The puppy ran around under the conference tables biting students’ ankles and calves and chewed up someone’s sandal. He eventually took a big poop in the classroom and that was the end of class for the evening!
Hell the same can be said of far too many human children!
I heard some radio morning show guy mention that today (6/22) was “Bring Your Pet To Work Day”.
“Huh?” I thought. Just like you, Garfield, I could only imagine a handful of jobs where that’d be even feasible. Not delivering pizza. Not tutoring. Not in a US Congressman’s office. Not in a newsroom.
It’s not like “Bring Your Daughter To Work” Day, where your showing someone life skills they’ll need in 20 years. It’s just a new, noisy, scary place to a dog, whose most likely reaction is to piddle on things, bite people, or get stepped on.
How about “Bring Your Lazy Butt and Nothing Else To Work” Day? Leave your children in day care (or camp), leave your pets at home, leave your houseplants on the window sill, and simply go to work and be productive.
Naaa… it’ll never work. :D:D
I could be completely wrong about this, but I think there is a provision for dogs in training–else, how would you get them trained?
A bit of google searching shows a website that states there was “an amendment to the ADA to include service dogs in training” but I couldn’t find the full text online. Several sites mention state-specific clauses, such as “we are fortunate that Minnesota grants service dogs in training the same rights as fully qualified service dogs” and similar comments about California and a few others. You might try here:
Good luck!
Really, I don’t want to raise a stink about it since I only work a few hours a week and my co-raiser takes him when I have to work. No local businesses have ever given us trouble, but our supervisor said that this town has more puppies per capita than any others in his region. I will try to find that information though, as I do get hassled when I go home. There are no puppy raisers in my hometown so people aren’t familiar with the concept exactly.