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Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: wombat on May 29, 2007, 02:37:52 am

Title: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: wombat on May 29, 2007, 02:37:52 am
Is June 22nd. As declared by an organization called Pet Sitters International. Don't ask me why they have done this when if everyone took their dogs to work, it would be terrible for the petsitting business. (But I have an email in to them and we'll see what they say.)

Anyway, I all of a sudden have to write an article on this on a shorter deadline than I am entirely comfortable with.  I am looking for people who work at companies where they can take their dogs to work regularly.  I don't want to profile the same old places everyone knows about like Google and Amazon.

So I thought, what better way to find an unknown dog-friendly company than to ask about it on a messageboard where dogs are completely off topic?

OK, maybe that is a stupid idea.  But if anyone out there knows anyone who works at such a place who would be willing to talk to me - in my persona as a representative of a respectable national news organization - please let me know. SOON. Thanks.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: AugustWest on May 29, 2007, 03:49:41 am
I guess I could take my dog(s) to work since I'm my own boss.  However it would still create problems.  Whichever one I chose would be happy but the other four would be jealous.  Gus would doubtless be the easiest to deal with, and Ginger the most appreciative...
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: jaydub on May 29, 2007, 05:00:27 am
My company's sort of dog-agnostic.  I've seen all sorts of different folks with a well behaved dog in a basket in their office/cube - one lady usually has her dog either with her or in her car (during the winter).  I'm pretty sure all kinds of havoc would break out if one went into a lab or a clean room, but generally we don't have morons working at the company so there hasn't been an instance of that in our history (14 years).  No one in management or HR has ever said anything one way or another.  We had a blind consultant for a while (tech writer - he was more, extremely poorly sighted since he used an unmodified computer) and I noticed more dogs around after his working dog pretty well had the run of the joint.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: side_show on May 29, 2007, 01:37:58 pm
Our prop builder takes her dog to work with her here almost every day of the season (except when she's working with chemicals).  The theatre season is finished, and she's currently working as an independant artist on local films, and I know she takes her dog with her for film work when possible also.  Do you want to talk to someone in Canada?   Marketing even used her dog for photo they're using to promote a show for next season, and would probably jump at the opportunity to send you the photo too.  If you're interested just PM me your contact info and I'll have Marketing arrange an interview for you. 
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: pmcd9 on May 29, 2007, 02:13:30 pm
People take their pets to work?  That is silly.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: wombat on May 29, 2007, 02:55:56 pm
Albertsons - isn't that a grocery store? How could they have dogs?

Side_show - your person sounds interesting but for this one, I think what I need is more a company with a doggie culture - a bunch of employees who do it.  But I'll keep her in mind for the future.

Paul, my dogs agree with you - why would they want to go to work when they can lie on the couch at home? But not all dogs and people feel the same.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: theinevitable on May 29, 2007, 04:45:14 pm
do they still have shepherds? find some of those guys, out in Ireland or something. They take their dogs to work all the time!
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: Mr Trout on May 29, 2007, 07:14:51 pm
The web design firm we do business with has 2 dogs that live at the office. As in, they actually stay there overnight. I'm not sure what they do on weekends. The office really isn't a typical office though - the owners bought a house and converted the rooms into workspaces.

I can pass along their info if you would like it.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: side_show on May 29, 2007, 07:25:20 pm
Side_show - your person sounds interesting but for this one, I think what I need is more a company with a doggie culture - a bunch of employees who do it.  But I'll keep her in mind for the future.

I should have clairified that everyone who has a dog brings their dogs to work, but we are a small organization, so that amounts to two staff people right now (plus one co-worker who just got a puppy, but he's not trained yet, so he can't come to the office until later) and only one of our staff brings her dog to work regularly - it works for her because she's not in admin where we barely have enough room for people, never mind dogs.  I actually fantasize about bringing one of my cats to work.  They are awesome help when I'm working from home.  That would rock, but there is no way any of em would just stay in my office, and there are so many places they could hide, like under any one of the 350 seats... or the lighting cat walk.  It would be perfect to have a cat on the catwalk, but... no.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: KeithHernandez on May 29, 2007, 10:03:44 pm
I used to work at a vet.  I brought my dogs to work if I wanted.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: V-Adore on May 29, 2007, 10:22:35 pm
My uncle (owner of a car dealership) had gotten into the habit of bringing his new puppy to work until it was diagnosed with some sort of complicated canine urinary disorder that basically translated to "whenever he gets excited, he pees." That put a stop to that pretty quickly.

The only other dog-at-work incident I can think of right off was the time when, in an Intro Neuro lab I was TAing, the professor decided to come in halfway through with his puppy. If there's one thing to make a room of twitchy sophomores totally lose whatever minimal concentration they had, it's a dog to focus on instead of the craygiraffe nerves they were supposed to be recording from.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: jaydub on May 29, 2007, 10:24:57 pm
until it was diagnosed with some sort of complicated canine urinary disorder that basically translated to "whenever he gets excited, he pees."

Isn't that just excessive submissiveness?  Some dogs just do that to say, "I'm not worthy!  I'm not worthy!"
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: theinevitable on May 29, 2007, 11:37:20 pm
My dog does that. The ladies love it.

When I came home for the summer... he peed for ages. Every time he saw me. And then groveled in the pee, wouldn't look me in the eye...
I guess he really loves me?
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: jaydub on May 30, 2007, 12:03:47 am
At the risk of stating the obvious, here's a national list (http://www.dogfriendly.com/server/general/workplace/) of dog-friendly employers, courtesy of the Intar-Webs
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: wombat on May 30, 2007, 12:11:51 am
Unfortunately that list is very out of date. I found a couple of places to talk to, but many have apparently vanished.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: Nabubrush on May 30, 2007, 02:52:44 am
There is a grand total of one pet on the North Slope. He belongs to Norgasco (http://www.alaska.net/~norgasco/). Their website is basically ass. The rest of us cannot have pets, and can get run off for harassing wildlife.

To clarify, though, I do not own dogs.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: jaydub on May 30, 2007, 04:14:59 am
The rest of us cannot have pets, and can get run off for harassing wildlife.


Is that what workers who've been away from gentle, human companionship do for relief?  Are boxes or footstools involved?
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: pmcd9 on May 30, 2007, 04:34:13 am
Oh wait, I took my dog to work everyday for years.  I forgot about that.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: Nabubrush on May 30, 2007, 05:05:15 am
Is that what workers who've been away from gentle, human companionship do for relief?  Are boxes or footstools involved?

What the caribou and I share is a beautiful thing, and I won't have you cheapening it with your tawdry implications.
Title: Re: Take Your Dog to Work Day
Post by: wombat on May 30, 2007, 12:01:34 pm
Oh wait, I took my dog to work everyday for years.  I forgot about that.

Paul, you are a hoot.

Where did you work?