For Some Co-Workers, Bringing Fido to Office Has Become Pet Peeve
Mr. Darcy has no trouble sleeping at the office. He just curls up in the top tray of Hillary Hirsch's in basket. When he isn't reclining on the desk or sipping at the hamster lick there, the furry six-pound Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix can meet up with his pals at the water cooler.
About eight dogs accompany their owners to work each day at the Los Angeles offices of Touchstone Television, producer of the NBC program "Scrubs," according to Ms. Hirsch, a 39-year-old production coordinator on the show. Mostly the pets -- who roam about pretty freely -- are well-behaved, but on occasion they have been known to root through the trash, tear the stuffing out of toys, steal food when staffers weren't looking and make their mark on a corner of carpet. In fact, says Ms. Hirsch, "Work is one big dog park" for Mr. Darcy .
Taking pets to work isn't just a Hollywood fad. Last year, about 10,000 companies participated in Take Your Dog to Work Day, up from just over 5,000 the previous year, according to Pet Sitters International, a membership organization that created the day, which is held in June. The group touts the benefits of having pets around, arguing that productivity, morale and sales all increase when pets are present in the workplace.
But taking a bundle of fur to work doesn't always have a soothing effect on co-workers' nerves, and not everyone thinks animals belong in a corporate setting. "I can give you literally a dozen reasons why you shouldn't have pets in the workplace," says Ethan Winning, president of E.A. Winning Associates, a Walnut Creek, Calif., management and human-resources consulting firm.
Allergies are high on his list. Several years ago, he says, a client company installed a $2,500 air-filtration system after an employee complained to the California office of OSHA about a pet-dander allergy, but the system didn't stop the staffer's sneezing. The company eventually revoked its pet-friendly policy outright rather than try a more powerful system or face a potential civil suit. "That created a lot of hard feelings," Mr. Winning says.
In some cases, pet owners pawn off responsibility for caring for their animals to underlings, says Charlotte Reed, a pet-care expert in New York whose book "Miss Fido Manners: A Complete Book of Dog Etiquette" includes a chapter on taking your dog to work.
At Touchstone, production assistants "go way above and beyond in helping with the dogs," Ms. Hirsch says. In addition to trying to keep the pooches quiet around the office, the assistants are assigned the job of getting the dogs to Poo Island, a small patch of green in the parking lot, and cleaning up any accidents that occur when the dogs don't arrive in time.
But a 58-year-old consultant says she declined on several occasions to walk the terrier of the owner of a multimedia company in New York, and she witnessed a secretary at the company being fired for refusing to handle the chore. "I wanted to smack him silly," she says of the company's owner. "Not that walking a dog is beneath me, but because it's not my dog I really feel that it has to be my choice."
Ms. Reed also warns that some pet owners overestimate their animals' ability to handle strangers and new situations. "You have to have realistic expectations for your dog," she counsels.
For Anna Pamula, owner of Renu Day Spa in Deerfield, Ill., this meant no longer taking Beaujolais, her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, to the office after he placed his jaws on the face of a customer's child. The child wasn't harmed, but the incident gave everyone a scare. "I learned my lesson," says Ms. Pamula. Now, she just takes Philip, a "very overweight, very passive" pug, and she keeps a close eye on him.
Pets can also embarrass their owners in other ways. John O. Morisano, a principal of Sunshine, a small New York investment company, recalls a breakfast meeting attended by Milton, his partner's now-deceased husky. When a visiting executive denied the dog a bagel at the boardroom table, the dog walked over to a row of briefcases, sniffed out the offending executive's and relieved himself.
Not surprisingly, companies in the pet business often have the broadest assortment of pets lurking in the halls. At Petco Animal Supplies in San Diego, the menagerie of employee pets around the office includes hamsters, snakes, rabbits, birds, fish and dogs. On any given day, there are 600 to 700 employees at company headquarters and as many as 150 pets, says Sean Underwood, communications manager. "Every once in a while you'll see an e-mail go out to the whole company saying, 'Look out for Fluffy the Hamster,' " he says, adding, "There will be a picture attached, just in case there's more than one."
While owners attest to the calming influence of pets, many also admit that having a pet around simply makes it more fun to go to work. In the five months that John Angerson, owner of DigiSquid Studios, a Web design company in Avoca, Pa., has brought his ferrets Bear and Pepper to his storefront office, he has lost track of mouse pads, keys, a checkbook, bottlecaps and money -- all carried off by the ferrets.
"They're adorable and have great personalities," he says. But, he adds, "I keep them caged when I'm trying to be productive."
狗狗上班记
达西(Darcy)在办公室里睡觉没有丝毫麻烦。它蜷缩在希拉里?赫希(Hillary Hirsch)一个推车顶上的篮子里就行了。这只重6镑、毛茸茸的家伙是松鼠犬和吉娃娃的混血儿，它有时靠在办公桌边上，有时吮吃一块给仓鼠舔食的矿盐。除此之外，它还可以在水冷却器旁边跟伙伴们碰碰面。
据NBC节目《Scrubs》的制作协调员、39岁的赫希称，每天大概有8只宠物狗跟随主人到Touchstone电视台在洛杉矶的办公楼上班。Touchstone电视台是NBC《Scrubs》节目的制作方。大多数时候，这些自由闲逛的宠物还算行为检点，不过偶尔它们被人发现在垃圾堆里钻来钻去、把玩具里的填充物掏出来、趁工作人员不注意偷吃东西或是在地毯的一角留下脏痕。赫希说，事实上对达西来说，“办公室是狗儿们的大乐园。”
带宠物上班并非只在好莱坞盛行。据国际宠物看护者组织（Pet Sitters International）的统计，去年大约有1万个公司参加了“带你的狗狗去上班日”的活动，而前年只有5,000个公司参加。国际宠物看护者组织是会员制机构，它发起了这项活动，定在每年6月份举行。这个组织极力宣传把宠物带到办公场所去的种种好处：生产率提高、士气高涨、销售额增加等。
不过带一个毛团到办公室对其他同事来说可不是件滋润的事儿，而且不是每个人都认为动物适合摆在公司的环境中。“我可以给你列举一打不该带宠物上班的理由，”加州沃尔纳特克里克(Walnut Creek)的管理和人力资源咨询公司E.A. Winning Associates的总裁伊桑?温宁(Ethan Winning)说。
过敏是他认为的一个最重要理由。温宁说，几年前一个客户公司花2,500美元安装了空气过滤系统，起因是有员工向美国职业安全与健康管理局(OSHA)加州办事处投诉，称其对宠物毛屑过敏。可是安装了空气过滤系统后，这位员工还是打喷嚏。最后公司乾脆取消了允许带宠物上班的政策，免得还要再装一个功能更好的空气过滤系统，要么就有可能面临民事诉讼。“这件事使得大家心里很不痛快，”温宁说。
纽约宠物照顾专家夏洛特?里德(Charlotte Reed)说，有时候宠物主人把照顾宠物的责任推给下属。她的著作《Fido小姐谈礼仪：小狗礼仪全书》(Miss Fido Manners: A Complete Book of Dog Etiquette)里面就有关于带狗上班的章节。
“在Touchstone，制作助理要额外花不少精力来照顾这些宠物狗，”赫希说。除了要确保小狗们在办公场所保持安静外，主人们还委托助理把狗带到Poo Island--停车场上的一小块绿地去方便方便，如果狗狗没来得及到那就随地大小便了，助理们还得负责清理干净。
不过一位58岁的顾问说，她曾经好几次拒绝带纽约一家多媒体公司老板的小猎犬出去遛达，并亲眼目睹那家公司的一个秘书因为拒绝遛狗而被解雇。“我当时想给这个笨蛋一个耳光，”她提到这家公司的老板时说，“不是因为我不屑于遛狗，而是因为这不是我自己的狗，这件事我有权作选择。”
里德也提醒说，有些宠物主人高估了自己的宠物适应陌生人和陌生环境的能力。“人们对狗的期待应该现实一点，”她建议道。
伊利诺斯州迪尔菲尔德(Deerfield)Renu Day Spa公司的老板安娜?帕姆拉(Anna Pamula)有一条骑士查理斯王猎犬博若莱(Beaujolais)，自从它咬了一位顾客孩子的脸后，帕姆拉再也不带这只狗到办公室去了。小孩没有受伤，但这个意外让所有人都吓了一跳。“我吸取了教训，” 帕姆拉说。现在她只带菲力(Philip)--一只胖乎乎、很本分的哈巴狗--去办公室，而且严加看管。
宠物们还可能以别的方式让主人出丑。纽约一家小投资公司Sunshine的负责人约翰?莫里萨诺(John O. Morisano)回忆起在一次早餐会议上，合作伙伴带了他的爱斯基摩犬密尔顿(Milton)（现在已经死了）来参加，当一位来访的经理没有把会议桌上的一个百吉饼给它时，密尔顿走到一排公事包旁边，嗅出这位不讨好的经理的公事包，然后在上面撒了一泡尿。
在从事宠物相关业务公司的办公室里，四处横行的宠物种类往往最为繁多，这一点是毫无疑问的。在圣地牙哥的Petco Animal Supplies公司，由雇员带来的宠物在办公室四处活动，包括仓鼠、蛇、兔子、鱼和狗，俨然一个动物园。据联络部经理肖恩?安德伍德(Sean Underwood)称，随便哪一天，公司总部有600到700个雇员，而宠物就有150只。“每过一会儿你就会收到一封发给全公司的电子邮件，说'请大家注意一下小仓鼠毛毛(Fluffy the Hamster)'，”他说，“信里还附有照片，以防万一有不止一只的仓鼠。”
有些宠物主人证明宠物有安抚情绪的作用，另外也有很多主人坦言有宠物在周围可以使工作更有趣。宾西法尼亚州Avoca的网站设计公司DigiSquid Studios的老板约翰?安杰逊(John Angerson)把他的两只雪貂熊熊(Bear)和胡椒(Pepper)带到店里的办公室去，在那5个月里，他发现鼠标垫、钥匙、支票簿、瓶盖、钱都不翼而飞--全都被两只雪貂拖走了。
“它们非常讨人喜欢，很通人性，”他说。不过，他补充说：“如果我想高效率工作，就得把它们关在笼子里。”
