Power seems ready to shift in workplaces again, back from employees to employers. As layoffs gather steam, it is likely that only the most determined employees are poised to try to further evolve current workplaces toward the wellness industry’s dream office configurations.
As employers and employees re-settle into their eons-old hierarchies, or close-ish approximations thereof, one of the changes to ways of working while at work that could have a positive effect on employees’ sense of wellbeing (there are actually several, but in this article we’ll only cover one) is the freedom to bring your dog to work with you.
When civilized dogs come to work, people at work are in a better mood, better equipped mentally to do their best work, all of which means they’re likely to work well alone and with others.
“Civilized” is an important adjective in the last sentence. Dogs that are poorly socialized, so they really can’t get along with humans and fellow canines, are best left at home—and any workplace that allows dogs needs clear policies and potentially even a dog behavior tribunal to keep workplaces from dissolving into chaos. While we’re talking about rules: workplaces also need a dog-free zone for people who can’t breathe in air that’s been anywhere near a dog—but many people who are allergic to dogs do just fine when they’re around them as long as they refrain from patting or petting them.
Any discretionary funds floating around that can be commandeered to make workplaces good spaces for dogs to spend time will be dollars well spent.
Workplace design can support onsite dogs in multiple ways—including by adding-in some of the dog comfort stations that are found in a growing number of airports today, because not every day is a day when walks outside are reasonable; for instance it is sometimes 6 degrees Fahrenheit and windy outside my office.
Out of the way places for dogs to nap (under their owner’s workstation can work just fine) and have sloppy drinks of water are two more dog hygiene factors that workplace design needs to deal with—but incorporating them probably isn’t rocket science.
Some dog-friendly design elements are more challenging to include in workplaces, and may only be able to be best-executed over time.
Dogs need something to do as their owners earn the money for their kibble and looking out the window can be really fun if you are a dog, particularly if you have something natural to look at (looking at people coming and going on a loading dock can seem a lot like watching the mailperson approaching the house, which, as we all know, requires lots of barking). Windows that extend to the floor make looking outside a breeze for shorter dogs and ones that aren’t up for jumping onto windowsills in the usual places.
Judicious soundproofing keeps the sounds of exuberant dogs from Zoom calls in conference rooms, etc.
HVAC systems thoughtfully chosen can keep an office from smelling like the ASPCA kennel down the street.
“Dog gates,” the canine equivalent of baby gates in homes, can be useful for preventing dogs from wandering too far. These gates could be used to keep a dog right beside its human’s chair in that human’s workspace or just on a general part of a floor in a building, whatever an organization decides is best and aligns most closely with human corporate culture.
Dogs have lived successfully in homes for millennia. With a little planning, they can spend time with their owners outside those homes in workplaces—which is a plus for individual and organizational wellbeing and performance.
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.