We know that the Covid pandemic changed attitudes in the UK towards the workplace. It actually changed a lot of things and has affected the way of life of UK citizens in many ways and will do, I believe, permanently.
And so, it is unsurprising that a growing number of employers are allowing people to bring their dogs to work. This is because they worked from home and had their dog with them and now that they many (but not all) are returning to the office they still want to enjoy that pleasure for both. And of course, employers are finding it difficult to find employees to they have to give them benefits such as allowing their dogs to be present in the office.
And thirdly, it makes the staff more productive to have a companion animal around. They are a great source of stress relief it has been found and is believed.
A good example of this change in lifestyle is Laura Bosworth’s decision to move her business to a new location so she could take Teddy, her dog, to work. And she moved home too as reported in The Sunday Times today 9th April 2023.
Bosworth had enjoyed spending all day with her dog during those lengthy Covid lockdowns. She was with Teddy 24/7 and then suddenly saw him sporadically when she returned to office working. She felt this was cruel and so started to look for office space where she could bring him with her.
And Laura Bosworth is a growing number of people who have the same requirements. They want to integrate their dog companions into the workplace. And on some occasions, it may even be a cat but I don’t think you can have a dog and a cat within the same office unless they are known to get on very well together.
In the UK, since February 2019, there has been a 283% increase in job adverts mentioning that the workplace is dog-friendly. And in line with that there has been a 76% rise over the past year in searches for “dog-friendly office”. Firms such as Google, Boo-Hoo and Charlotte Tilbury allow employees to bring their dog to work.
Not only did the Covid pandemic change attitudes as mentioned above, it also meant that there are now 3 million more dogs in the UK because they were adopted over the period of the pandemic lockdowns. This, incidentally, has created a lot of problems in rehoming because a lot of these dogs were bought from puppy mills and imported into the UK. They were poorly socialised and the adopters were poorly trained and educated in terms of how to be good caretakers.
In the case of Laura Bosworth, she organised herself well it seems to me. She ended up living in a house on the same land as her office space. She has a small team of half a dozen and the workplace is more productive and more relaxed. There’s even space for her cat to visit.
It appears that businesses and organisations are becoming more open to the concept of allowing a dog to attend the workplace and one such participant is The Wallace Collection, a historic house in central London. It displays sculptures, paintings and other masterpieces and it is described as a dog-friendly workplace after its director, Xavier Bray, decided to take his two pugs to work.
He pugs are lady Bluebell Wallace and Winston. They come into his office three times a week. He says that they can cause a bit of chaos but they are a talking point with clients and their presence has allowed him to return to the office full-time.
He said:
“They are a great source of stress-relief and a great way to get fundraising and they know they are not allowed near any valuable artwork.”
And there is another happy spin-off. Workers who can’t take their dogs to work have to pay as much as £800 a month for daycare and dog walkers can charge about £10-£17 an hour.
For instance, Andrew Olley and his partner Ava live with a coonhound called Maude. He weighs five stones and is too large to take into the office. They pay £45 a day to a doggy daycare company, Pause and Paws, for an 8 AM-6 PM slot. This can rack up quite a bill but they do it because it’s good for their dog, good for her mental health and she can socialise with other dogs. They consider to be good value for money.
But it would be so much better if he could take her with him when going to work.
