Home featured Editor's Choice Featured HR Editor's Choice Do office dogs boost moral and decrease stress? Dynamic Business June 20, 2019 Byline: Thomas Derricott, Community Manager, Mad Paws This Friday, June 21, marks Take Your Dog To Work Day (TYDTWD), and to celebrate, Australia’s largest pet sitting community, Mad Paws , is filling its Pyrmont office with more dogs than people. This is to illustrate how beneficial having office dogs can be, but granted, it can be much quieter when there are only one or two around. Besides imbuing a cuteness factor to any office, having dogs at work can be a beneficial addition to what could be a stale and stressful environment. Dogs are a great way of nurturing rapport between team members, providing relief in stressful situations, and raising overall morale. In recent years, we have noticed a significant rise in the number of offices offering pet-friendly workplaces. We are obviously supportive of that – however, it’s important to have certain safeguards in place. For this to be beneficial and positive for your co-workers, everyone needs to feel comfortable with the agreement. Firstly, conduct a quick check around the office to make sure there are no allergies or phobias – if there are, then sadly office dogs are a no-go! If there are no scared or allergic employees, you can begin your trial of office dogs. Of course, as much as it’s important to ensure that the humans in the office are onboard with your decision to bring