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Pets at work? A fetching idea for some companies
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Attention, employers. Would you like a more creative and productive environment in your workplace? Do you want to decrease absenteeism? Would you like your co-workers to get along better or improve the relationship between management and employees?
Maybe your workplace needs a pet.
Nearly one in five U.S. companies allows pets at work, according to a survey of working Americans conducted last year for the American Pet Products Manufacturing Association, a nonprofit trade association for the pet products industry.
Having pets in the office created a more productive work environment for 73% of the companies surveyed, while 27% of participating companies noticed a decrease in absenteeism. All of the companies surveyed agreed that pets provided relaxation in the workplace, soothing corporate anxiety and contributing to lower stress levels and overall emotional and physical health.
“This survey solidifies what most of us already know,” said APPMA president Bob Vetere. “Americans just can’t seem to get enough of their pets.”
So what about pet allergies, animals that misbehave at work, or clients or employees who simply don’t get that warm and fuzzy feeling around an animal?
Lowcountry businesses that keep office pets say there are ways to guard against such problems and that they are mindful of the sensitivities of others.
At Brandon Advertising and Public Relations on Market Street, employees may bring their dogs to work, but pets must be socialized and can be put in a separate room if a client seems ill at ease or has allergies.
“Certainly some people are afraid of dogs, some people are allergic to dogs and some people don’t necessarily relate to dogs. We certainly don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable,” said Jane Kelley, the company’s vice president of media relations. “But as far as the people that work here, it brings another element into the workplace and it just makes it feel a little more comfortable. It just makes it a more enjoyable place to be.”
Some business owners say pets at work help them attract more business. Two cats and a bird are helping Patty Montgomery sell birdseed and other backyard items at her Mount Pleasant store, Wild Birds Unlimited.
Noki, a green Quaker parrot, and Isabelle and Sammy, mother and son felines, seem to get along among themselves in addition to showing off for customers.
“I think people would be upset if I got rid of them,” Montgomery said. “I have people bringing them treats and toys and parents with kids say it’s like a petting zoo. They’re part of the store now and everybody knows it.”
David Rawle, co-owner of the public relations firm Rawle Murdy Associates Inc. in downtown Charleston, said he is convinced that pets help reduce stress and help people live healthier lives at work.
Rawle brings his 10-year-old briard, Josephine, to work every day.
“Selfishly, I love having her around and I think that we create a workplace that people want to be in,” Rawle said. “We have windows that open, we have a nice warm, friendly environment and that makes people want to be here. Just the presence of a dog can really enhance that. It’s a fast-paced business we work in and people work very long (hours) and very hard. If you can create an environment that they like being in, they will not resent having to work that hard.”
Josephine makes the rounds of the office each day, and some employees claim she likes them best. Employees also take her for a walk when they go on a break. The rule at Rawle Murdy, however, is a one-dog policy. Rawle does not think multiple pets in the workplace are a good idea.
“We unfortunately have a rule that she’s the only one, because you have to draw the line,” Rawle said. “We’re not having a doggy day care here.”
Pets in the workplace became a trend in the late 1990s, when the high-tech industry began to boom on the West Coast, said Ethan Willing, a management and human relations consultant and founder of California-based Ethan Willing & Associates Inc.
“If it didn’t start in Marin County, it would have started down in Silicon Valley. That’s where all these crazy ideas get going,” Willing said. “It was the usual little high-tech people in their Levis riding their little scooters down the halls.”
The trend toward a casual, feel-good workplace populated with pets quickly spread across the nation. In 1999, Pet Sitters International, an organization dedicated to educating pet sitters, created “Take Your Dog to Work Day” and attracted an estimated 300 companies to the event the first year. The annual event takes place this year on June 22.
Willing said having pets in the workplace on a regular basis is not a good business practice.
“I’d even advise my one-employee client not to do it,” Willing said. “Why? John brings his dog to work. Pam brings her cat. Susan now wants to bring her rabbit and Paul has seriously been asking about bringing his pot-bellied pig. When does it stop? When Joe’s boa swallows Kristy’s parakeet.”
On his Web site, http://www.ewin.com/, Willing has posted his thoughts in a piece titled “Pets At The Corporate Zoo.”
“While articles abound on having pets at work, I think that they do abound because the idea is novel, not because it is good,” Willing states. “I may be in the minority, but pets should remain at home and employees should concentrate on their work.”
Jonathan Sanchez, owner of Blue Bicycle Books on King Street, didn’t really have a choice in the matter because the business he bought at the beginning of this year came with a cat.
“We say the cat was in the contract,” Sanchez said. “The cat’s been around so long, it’s not really my cat so much as the store cat.”
The former owners of the store, which was originally called Boomer’s Books, found their fluffy gray kitty, Purdy, more than 10 years ago on King Street.
Sanchez worked at the store for nine years before buying the business. Some people come to the store just to see the cat, he said.
“People love the idea that we have a cat. They love the whole culture of it,” Sanchez said. “It’s the Hemingway-and-his-cats kind of thing, the old bookstore culture. It adds to the ambiance and the literary feel of it. People leave me pictures they have taken of her. I actually think she’s the most photographed cat in Charleston.”
In Mount Pleasant, an 8-month-old cat named Traveler sometimes startles customers at Dolittle’s pet store when he pops up out of a spinning display bin where he likes to nap.
Store owners Lee Allison and Jo Welling say people who otherwise might not have come into the store will when they see the cat in the window.
“If he’s not here on certain days, they’re very disappointed,” Allison said.
Traveler came to the store as a 2-week-old foundling and customers helped bottle-feed him. Now almost full-grown, the orange-and-white cat seems happiest in the store, even though he goes home each night with Allison.
“He’s the star of the show here,” Allison said.
In downtown Charleston, a pair of parakeets greets employees each morning at Tiger Lily Florist. For owner Manny Gonzales, the birds tie in with the flowers and give the shop an intimate, family-owned feel. Gonzales said the store would be empty without the chirping of Sherbet and Maria.
“It’s strange how many people connect with those parakeets,” Gonzales said. “It’s part of the attraction of being a small business owner, taking the road less traveled and calling your own shots a little bit, and this is one of those luxuries. You’re not in a corporate box somewhere; you’re in a great town where things like this happen all the time.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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