Pet Policies in the office
plynnl
381 Posts
We have a small company and all work in offices. In the past we have allowed someone to bring their dog in if the animal was recooperating for an illness/injury and no one was available at home to take care of it. We also have an employee who brings his dog in because it makes him feel more productive. Now we are getting requests from other employees to be able to bring their dogs to work.
Does anyone have a pet policy for the workplace they could share? We would like to limit to one pet per day, UTD on shots and not disruptive. Our main concern in liability.
If you do allow pets in the office, what are your restictions?
Does anyone have a pet policy for the workplace they could share? We would like to limit to one pet per day, UTD on shots and not disruptive. Our main concern in liability.
If you do allow pets in the office, what are your restictions?
Comments
plynnl: we don't allow pets so we don't have a policy I can share with you. However, I am a big fan of the Dog Whisperer (among other animal shows), and he has often gone to work places to solve issues. I have noticed several things that seem to work.
1) all pets are confined to their owner's work area unless otherewise specifically allowed (to and from the work area, breaks, etc)
2) owners clean up after their pets
3) absolutely no pet aggression is allowed. Pets who show agression are suspended for a time period (ie. 1 week, 1 month), and most companies have a 3 strikes and you're out policy
4) pets are not allowed to disturb others by barking, etc
5) pets are kept on a leash or blocked into the work area
I would love to be able to bring my pets with me to work, but don't see it happening anytime soon. I hope your situation works out for you. Good luck!
Nae
But let's keep this between us... if our cats find out, they'll be hot!
Frank, I am not sure what to make of your answer.
Annually, our city library uses a conference room in our building to host a local "reptile guy" who brings his snakes and other reptiles for a presentation. We have an employee who is deathly afraid of snakes. She has been very accommodating, and takes a day of leave each year when the snake guy is here. However, we would definitely have an issue if an employee wanted to bring his pet snake to work.
I believe this topic was posted once before and I mentioned that my last employer promoted a "service dog training program", in which employees were allowed to bring service dog trainees to work. An employee tripped over the dog and filed a workers' compensation claim. As someone pointed out at that time, he just as easily could have tripped on a purse or briefcase, but a pet in the office is just one more obstacle to maneuver around.
Lastly, if a pet should bite someone, I am sure the deep pockets of the employer would make a better target for a suit than the pet's owner.
Do you ban holiday parties and employee picnics too? How about microwaves and refridgerators? Those are also lawsuit opportunities waiting to happen. If you look around, I am sure you can see tons more, both for items and events that help morale, and those that have a more direct impact on the business bottom line. As with all of them, any extra liability from having pets would have to be weighed against the positive expectations.
The possibility of an employee tripping is one of the best reasons to keep a pet in a limited area. Of course, when you take it out for walk or bathroom break, you risk problems. Employees quickly adapt though, and usually know how to avoid collisions.
It seems to me your biggest risk comes from alergies. However, I think each employer has to handle the issue the way they would other alergies. We have banned certain chemicals, like Lysol, to protect a highly alergic employee. If we ever did decide to allow pets, it would be with the understanding that all employees were ok with it, and that all future employees would be well informed before joining our organization.
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I have a 3.5-month-old puppy and bringing her in would certainly liven up my office. She's at the chewing on everything stage and she particularly loves books and paper and we all know how much paper the HR position seems to generate so she'd be in doggy heaven seeing all the manuals, forms, and files in here. I could use her as my little canine paper shredder!
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Off topic, but, do you really think creating and initiating policy by public opinion vote is a good precedent to set?
We would also have the option to revisit our decision if we find it doesn't work out.
Reviewer Hillary Collyer is very complimentary of the book and its discussion of both the pros and cons of pets in the workplace. She also mentions that the book includes a sample employee survey (the one the Humane Society used when it considered a dogs-at-work policy).
If you contact Hillary (her contact information is at the bottom of the review), she may have some suggestions for you.
Celeste
Nevada HR: Our office is very friendly and we all get along, but believe me there have been a few missteps in the past. A lot of our employees are "creative" and they can get a little quirky at times.
Next thing you are going to tell us is if we are terminated and eligible for unemployment compensation, our pets that were allowed to come to the office will be also. O:)
If I have to start applying COBRA payments to my payroll taxes for pets though, I am going to.... I can't think what I will do, but it won't be pleasant.
Okay you got me. I actually thought this was real until I saw the video. We are in now the process of building separate restrooms for the dogs to comply with the law.
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I understand Frank's response completely. Pets at work! Not advisable.
:angel: