Pet Friendly Offices

With an estimated 1.7 million British businesses adopting a pet-friendly policy, it would appear many are warming to the idea that office pets come create a more relaxed atmosphere in the workplace. New data, however, has revealed that not everyone feels the same way.

AnimalFriends.co.uk surveyed 2,000 UK office works on their thoughts. Whilst over half said that having pets in the workplace helped to relieve stress and improve their enthusiasm for the job, two-thirds of employees claim office dogs are bad for business.

More than half of staff think that our furry friends are actually a major distraction, making for poor productivity, and one in five also said that having a cuddly canine in the office raised their stress levels.

In offices where pets are not allowed, workers can also get stressed wondering what their four-legged friend is up to. One in four go home to check on them during work hours and 40% ask someone else to, while 11% pay dog sitters and 16% set up a webcam such as a Petcube to monitor them. Nine percent said they had changed jobs to better look after their pet.

However many have argued that office pets are unfairly blamed for causing distractions as workers take a break by playing with them instead of hanging around the coffee machine!