Why You Should Allow Pets in the Office and Workplace

The Benefits of Pets In The Office

In modern times, pets are often treated as members of the family. As a result, some members of the working class carry pets to the office hence pets are commonly found in corporate places. Studies have revealed they reduce stress levels in employees, making them healthy and reducing stress levels for the pets also.

Research has revealed that about 16% of workers have pets in their offices while 55% of office workers say they will be more motivated at their place of work if they had a pet at their work place.

Here are the most common pets in the office:
• Fish
• Dogs
• Cats
• Tortoise
• Birds
• Rabbits
• Guinea Pigs
• Gecko
• Snake
• Tarantulas

Puppy Love

For employees who use dogs as pets in the office, research as shown that they experienced reduced stress levels. Almost 50% of employees who brought their dogs to the work place experienced increased levels of overall productivity. It was discovered that dogs increase work place productivity as reported by 25% of the sampled population. Reduced stressed levels of up to 11% was also discovered among staffs who brought their dogs to the work place. This resulted in an increase in the number of employees that came to work with their dogs between 2008 and 2012 from 17 times to 22 times.

Creating A Pet Friendly Work Place

According to researchers, besides the reduced stress levels in the work place, Additional benefits to the work place has also been identified by researchers. Here are some of them.

1. Being Relaxed and Inspired: The presence of pets in the office can make an employee happy and relaxed. This makes the work place more enjoyable.

2. Cooperation from Co-workers: Through pets, work relationships can be strengthened, helping shy colleagues become more interactive.

3. Healthy Breaks: When it is time for lunch, some dog owners prefer to go for a walk with their dogs, this can provide some form of relief from stress

4. Balanced Work Life: When an employer allows pets to the office, employees who consider pets’ part of their family life see the employer as one who cares for their employees and the balance between personal life and professionalism.

Before employees allow pets in the office, they should enact principles and laws to govern such acts. Such should include the regulation that addresses the behavior of pets, consideration of other employees and allergies or the fear of animals in relation to the overall office work ethics.

Furry Family Members

According to a survey conducted in 2012, about 48% of households in the UK claimed to have at least one pet of which 23% are dogs. This transforms to 13 million households with an approximate 8 million as the population of dogs in the UK alone. For cats, the population is about 8 million, 19% of the households in the UK own at least a cat as pet.