How pet-friendly is your workplace?

[kimbersmom]

Yolie's thread about finding time to walk Onyx in winter, and another (non-dog) site that asked about taking time off from work when your pet dies, made me really appreciate how flexible my workplace is.

I work in an academic library and am salaried. As long as I meet my responsibilities, I have a lot of leeway as to what hours I work. When DH travels for business, I can come in for meetings and classes, and then work from home so Kimber's not by herself. My normal schedule has me working until 5, but during that stretch between Thanksgiving and early January when it was dark before I got home, I could shift my schedule (usually just take a shorter lunch) and leave at 4:30 so I could fit an evening walk in before the sun set.

My boss and colleagues know I'm ga-ga over Kimber and always ask after her. When she had her spinal injury 5 years ago, they were very supportive, including covering for me so I could go to doctors' appointments with her.

It's not the usual "pet friendly" environment- I can't bring her to work with me- but I feel very, very lucky that the policies allow me to be the best Labrador owner I can be.

How about you?

[smartrock]

Not. Instead I've just made my life more pet-friendly. I work as a substitute in the public school system so, no dogs at work, no working from home, and the hours are fixed. But I am fortunate that I can work part-time, not agree to days when it's not convenient, and only accept assignments that are pretty close to where we live. It generally means that my work day is no more than 8 hours, including travel. The days I work I always walk them before I leave in the morning and it's usually light enough for at least a short walk after school. Unfortunately as a sub, most people don't know much about my personal life and I talk more about my dogs with the kids who come in than the other staff. It's funnier to talk to kids about pets than other adults anyway.

Along those lines, a kiddo told me her stomach had been hurting since the weekend so I asked her what they did over the weekend to try to help her feel better. "Well, we went to look at some kittens."

[barry581]

Since I only work 4-5 hours a day I can usually schedule planned issues around my schedule. If something unexpected came up, I'd just call out. The owners know I don't need the job, and realistically they need me more than I need them, so they tend to be pretty flexible with me, and I don't abuse it. I've called out sick 1 time in over 6 years, and called out the day Bruce died.

[annkie]

I had jobs where people brought their pets to the office (it was an animal health ad agency). Right now I'm in a corporate setting but I have flexible hours (kinda) and a nice manager. I also can work from home when I need to. There's a girl here who brings a therapy dog into work every day (boy does that dog have gas issues! or maybe it's the owner...) When I was about to say good-bye to Jules I just told my boss that I'm working from home all week to spend time with my dog. He didn't mind at all and my team mates emailed me their condolences. That was nice. Now, I had another job where I flat out told my B*tch of a boss that I'm leaving on time at 5 pm because I have to let my dog out. Well, I didn't keep that job for long but w/e.

[SoapySophie]

I'm very, very lucky...our office is dog friendly and there are three different dogs who frequent the office on any given week; my Sophie, the boss' golden retriever George, and a labradoodle named Molly. The downside is how chaotic it can become when more then one dog is here at the same time. Had all three, once. We let them run their laps in the boardroom for a little bit and then had to separate them.

[Sue-Ram]

I have taken vacation time when I've needed to for any issues with Ram. Both owners have little dogs and there are a few other people who have dogs but they're not the kind of people that would ever spend time on a dog board.

Last week one of the ladies brought in her new puppy, yorkiepoo or morkie which she had just picked up from the breeder. So of course I ask her who the breeder is and then get back to my desk and look it up (thanks you guys, I just can't leave it at that) and it turns out they are a broker not a breeder but I didn't say anything.

[MightyThor]

One of the best parts about working from home. Thor is my office mate and sounding board. I have a flexible schedule (i.e. meetings at all kinds of weird hours) so it's easy for me to drop offline between calls and take him on a walk or a hike or a ski. I'm lucky to have him, otherwise i'd be online from 5 am to 11 pm every night. He reminds me to step away and helps me stick to eight hours a day, regardless of when my calls fall the calendar.

[Labradorks]

I work for a large company and each office has their own policies and culture when it comes to pets. While I'm sure some smaller offices allow pet, I work in the 19th floor downtown with 300 other people. And we don't own the building. Plus there are restaurants in the lobby. I have taken my dogs to work and find it stressful because while everyone likes dogs, not everyone wants to deal with them all day. It's pretty rare that everyone in your office finds your dog as cute or funny as the owner does!

Whether or not a person can be flexible with their hours in the event of a sick pet or if someone can take time off due to the death of a pet is probably dependent on their manager and their role and to a large extent, the person in question. I take time for my pets every week. Whether it's to make it to class, to attend a seminar on a Friday or just because it's the first nice day in a while and I want to take them to the river or on a little hike mid-day. My manager (who also owns a Lab) doesn't know why I work from home when I do but if I needed to take time because of a death, I think he'd be OK with it, plus I have vacation time and can do whatever I want with it. I'm fortunate in that I have very few restrictions.

[zd262]

I primarily work from home with very flexible hours, so while I'm not allowed to bring my dog to work, I still get to spend most days with him and take walks throughout the day around meetings. Everyone at work knows about Bubba and always asks about him.

When I went home two summers ago to say goodbye to my older dog before we put her down, my manager didn't bat an eye at the fact that I was primarily offline for two days spending time with my dog and the my family.

[JC001]

Not what I'd call pet friendly but my current and past employers are very good if have to work from home, leave early or come in late to take care of anything personal, pets included.