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Discussion on: Office Dogs

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Vincent Grovestine

I'm late getting back to my own post... Took a much needed break from the computer over the holidays!

So, the furkids came to the office with me on the last day before the Christmas break. My dogs were quite well behaved. Most disruptions came from coworkers: Pet the dogs, baby-talk to the dogs, discuss the dogs, etc. Thankfully I didn't have much real work planned that day. :)

The day before I brought the dogs to work, I asked my office-neighbours if they would mind having four-legged visitors. No one objected, but had someone preferred I not bring them in for whatever reason, my dogs would have remained at home.

The day of their visit, I constructed a makeshift gate from a couple cardboard boxes so that the dogs would remain in my office and not wander the department at large. Again, as a courtesy to my coworkers.

As I said, the day's disruptions were not directly caused by my dogs--they sat quietly on the couch much of the time (as per the picture). Interruptions from coworkers at the novelty of having pups at work for the day was the problem.

If the "no dogs at work" rule was lifted tomorrow, would I bring my pups to the office daily? Probably not! They're great company, but their presence hinders high-concentration work. (Impossible to achieve "flow" when there's someone at my door every 30 minutes to visit the dogs!)

I might, however, consider bringing them to the office on say Fridays, or even just one day a month, as a morale booster. I'm sure once the novelty of having dogs visit the office wore off that disruptions would subside.