6 ms·

Dogs improve office productivity

58 points by robg 16y ago

lzw 16y ago
Not in my experience. Barking, piddling on the floor, having to interact with the dog owners when they come over to fetch the dogs, etc. Of course these were probably not the better dog owners out there, they thought everyone was delighted to have dogs in the office. The dogs were nice when I wasn't working. I enjoyed petting them, etc. but bad for productivity.
- samratjp 16y ago
  I wonder how the Googlers handle this @work. Obviously, in overall, they are a productive bunch, but it makes me wonder upon your comment if the dog friendly groups get as much distracted or not.
  - houseabsolute 16y ago
    It depends. Some people bring their dogs in to work every day. If the dog is not well-behaved and quiet, this can be very annoying. For example, when you're having a meeting about integrating two systems and a fifty pound animal is moving about under the table. If you work near a cafeteria, people will frequently leave their dogs tied up outside, which often precipitates barking, even though both leaving the animal tied up and bringing a barker to work are explicitly against policy. Then there was the time a coworker brought her dog in and there was a seriously enormous (>1 foot diameter) wet spot on the floor where the dog had lain and slobbered all day long. There are definitely good aspects to having a dog-friendly culture, but it can be trying for us non-owners when some coworkers forget that the comfort of other humans takes priority over that of their pet.
    - jrockway 16y ago
      Is there anything you don't hate?
      - philk 16y ago
        That's a nasty response to someone who provided a legitimate and interesting answer.
      - houseabsolute 16y ago
        You could answer that question for yourself by reading my comment history. A substantial portion of my last ten comments have positive sentiment, and some of the negative ones are about other negative comments (e.g. The one where some idiot floated the idea that the US will shortly go the way of post-Communist Russia). I daresay if we compare mine to yours I come off as downright cheery, not to mention largely civil. But it is true that I don't think a piling on of "this is awesome" comments are particularly useful in the average case. I do fucking love automatic memory management.
zeteo 16y ago
I'm not familiar with the basic research, but the article itself is one big non sequitur. It starts with the subtitle "Dogs improve office productivity" and proceeds to establish that: 1. "those who had had a dog ranked their team-mates more highly on measures of trust, team cohesion and intimacy" 2. in the Prisoner's Dilemma game, dogs "made volunteers 30% less likely to snitch" At best, this tangentially indicates that the presence of one dog in the office has the potential to improve team cohesion. There's a big step from that to productivity.
superk 16y ago
When I worked in a fancy NYC startup back in 1999 we had an AIBO - Sony's $5000 robot dog. Having an "OFF" switch probably helped productivity.
sbov 16y ago
Haven't they also shown that interacting with pets (petting, etc.) can reduce stress? Less stress in a team environment could have all sorts of positive results.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
char 16y ago
I haven't had much experience with dogs in the workplace, but having my rat around while I work is a very positive experience. He isn't particularly distracting, and he certainly reduces stress levels. I don't know if I'm a more productive programmer because of the rat, but I'm definitely happier while working.
- angrycoder 16y ago
  How's Hermione doing these days?
philk 16y ago
I might be an antisocial misfit but I find the idea of having stranger's dogs hanging around while I'm trying to work distracting at the very least.
azakus 16y ago
Wouldn't increase productivity if I'm allergic to dogs and it causes me to sneeze instead of think.
- hga 16y ago
  Yeah; I grew up as something of a dog person and liked/loved our general property dog plus my father's hunting dogs (short haired pointers, about the nicest breed in the world) that I took care of ... but within a quarter century or so I became allergic to dogs in general (not sure why, having had terrible allergies all my life). This sort of thing sounds like something you could make work in special cases but could fall apart in all sorts of ways. E.g. I show up to interview at your office (at which time I'd immediately start reacting), and I'd have to say sorry, I like the office dog(s) but I can work here only if you banish them and seriously clean the carpets....
cstuder 16y ago
I agree completely: The dog of my office mate successfully keeps others (i.e. management) from comming into our office. That makes them think twice about giving me more tasks.
moby_duck 16y ago
"Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right." Who funds these clowns?
stretchwithme 16y ago
Dogs have been intimately intertwined with human survival for thousands of years. They're actually more emotionally intelligent than most of the primates. A dog will risk its own life to save another dog. And at least one saved a human baby for a very likely death. But yeah, I am not crazy about people letting their dogs roam free at the office and peeing on things while their guardians are stuck in a meeting. That is not cool. If you can't keep them in your office or cube, they should be left at home.
jwr 16y ago
The issues with bringing a dog to work (and more generally, with raising a dog) are similar to personal hygiene. Some people raise a dog properly — you then get well-behaved animals that are a joy to be with. And some people just don't care too much. Just as you can't generalize about programmer's hygiene (or can you?), you can't generalize about how dogs behave at work. And BTW, raising a dog is a commitment many people should not undertake. It requires a lot of work and dedication. All too often people blame problems on dogs, while it is practically always the human who failed.
- hga 16y ago
  However you can generalize about their production of dander that's allergenic to some people (see my other comment in this submission). Unfortunately nowadays I can only enjoy the company of dogs when outside :-(.
- jamesseda 16y ago
  The "This is my child" mentality is what i would worry about. They treat their dog like a human and expect everyone else to do the same.
- tom_b 16y ago
  Raising (and properly training) a dog is wonderful opportunity for the trainer. You'll practice patience, creativity, empathy, and the value of having a long-term plan. These are maybe not bad skills to develop as a hacker or startup founder. That said, some of the most trainable dogs are the easiest to get into trouble with and I speak from experience. Most people probably don't have enough experience to gauge the effort or different ways to undertake a dog training program. I recommend Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog" for people interested in training philosophy. Be aware, there are rabid (sorry, couldn't resist) advocates for various dog training approaches online and they take great pleasure in destroying forums, online discussions, and generally making sure that only their viewpoint is "the one true way."
GiraffeNecktie 16y ago
My overly friendly dog will definitely improve your productivity if by 'productivity' you mean the number of times you are able to scratch a dog's belly over eight hours.
towndrunk 16y ago
Not sure how popular this book would be here but if you are a dog lover then you will relate to Rescuing Sprite. It's a good read. http://www.amazon.com/Rescuing-Sprite-Lovers-Story-Anguish/dp/1416559132 http://www.amazon.com/Rescuing-Sprite-Lovers-Story-Anguish/d...
ancornwell 16y ago
I designed and cut vinyl signs for a summer and we had a lazy dog that loved listening to the Yankees in the afternoon. The dog could have been an adept WalMart greeter. If they're not barking or threatening, they're quite charming.

58 points by robg 16y ago

lzw 16y ago

Not in my experience. Barking, piddling on the floor, having to interact with the dog owners when they come over to fetch the dogs, etc. Of course these were probably not the better dog owners out there, they thought everyone was delighted to have dogs in the office. The dogs were nice when I wasn't working. I enjoyed petting them, etc. but bad for productivity.

samratjp 16y ago
I wonder how the Googlers handle this @work. Obviously, in overall, they are a productive bunch, but it makes me wonder upon your comment if the dog friendly groups get as much distracted or not.
- houseabsolute 16y ago
  It depends. Some people bring their dogs in to work every day. If the dog is not well-behaved and quiet, this can be very annoying. For example, when you're having a meeting about integrating two systems and a fifty pound animal is moving about under the table. If you work near a cafeteria, people will frequently leave their dogs tied up outside, which often precipitates barking, even though both leaving the animal tied up and bringing a barker to work are explicitly against policy. Then there was the time a coworker brought her dog in and there was a seriously enormous (>1 foot diameter) wet spot on the floor where the dog had lain and slobbered all day long. There are definitely good aspects to having a dog-friendly culture, but it can be trying for us non-owners when some coworkers forget that the comfort of other humans takes priority over that of their pet.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    Is there anything you don't hate?
    - philk 16y ago
      That's a nasty response to someone who provided a legitimate and interesting answer.
    - houseabsolute 16y ago
      You could answer that question for yourself by reading my comment history. A substantial portion of my last ten comments have positive sentiment, and some of the negative ones are about other negative comments (e.g. The one where some idiot floated the idea that the US will shortly go the way of post-Communist Russia). I daresay if we compare mine to yours I come off as downright cheery, not to mention largely civil. But it is true that I don't think a piling on of "this is awesome" comments are particularly useful in the average case. I do fucking love automatic memory management.

zeteo 16y ago

I'm not familiar with the basic research, but the article itself is one big non sequitur. It starts with the subtitle "Dogs improve office productivity" and proceeds to establish that: 1. "those who had had a dog ranked their team-mates more highly on measures of trust, team cohesion and intimacy" 2. in the Prisoner's Dilemma game, dogs "made volunteers 30% less likely to snitch" At best, this tangentially indicates that the presence of one dog in the office has the potential to improve team cohesion. There's a big step from that to productivity.

superk 16y ago

When I worked in a fancy NYC startup back in 1999 we had an AIBO - Sony's $5000 robot dog. Having an "OFF" switch probably helped productivity.

sbov 16y ago

Haven't they also shown that interacting with pets (petting, etc.) can reduce stress? Less stress in a team environment could have all sorts of positive results.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

char 16y ago

I haven't had much experience with dogs in the workplace, but having my rat around while I work is a very positive experience. He isn't particularly distracting, and he certainly reduces stress levels. I don't know if I'm a more productive programmer because of the rat, but I'm definitely happier while working.

angrycoder 16y ago
How's Hermione doing these days?

philk 16y ago

I might be an antisocial misfit but I find the idea of having stranger's dogs hanging around while I'm trying to work distracting at the very least.

azakus 16y ago

Wouldn't increase productivity if I'm allergic to dogs and it causes me to sneeze instead of think.

hga 16y ago
Yeah; I grew up as something of a dog person and liked/loved our general property dog plus my father's hunting dogs (short haired pointers, about the nicest breed in the world) that I took care of ... but within a quarter century or so I became allergic to dogs in general (not sure why, having had terrible allergies all my life). This sort of thing sounds like something you could make work in special cases but could fall apart in all sorts of ways. E.g. I show up to interview at your office (at which time I'd immediately start reacting), and I'd have to say sorry, I like the office dog(s) but I can work here only if you banish them and seriously clean the carpets....

cstuder 16y ago

I agree completely: The dog of my office mate successfully keeps others (i.e. management) from comming into our office. That makes them think twice about giving me more tasks.

moby_duck 16y ago

"Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right." Who funds these clowns?

stretchwithme 16y ago

Dogs have been intimately intertwined with human survival for thousands of years. They're actually more emotionally intelligent than most of the primates. A dog will risk its own life to save another dog. And at least one saved a human baby for a very likely death. But yeah, I am not crazy about people letting their dogs roam free at the office and peeing on things while their guardians are stuck in a meeting. That is not cool. If you can't keep them in your office or cube, they should be left at home.

jwr 16y ago

The issues with bringing a dog to work (and more generally, with raising a dog) are similar to personal hygiene. Some people raise a dog properly — you then get well-behaved animals that are a joy to be with. And some people just don't care too much. Just as you can't generalize about programmer's hygiene (or can you?), you can't generalize about how dogs behave at work. And BTW, raising a dog is a commitment many people should not undertake. It requires a lot of work and dedication. All too often people blame problems on dogs, while it is practically always the human who failed.

hga 16y ago
However you can generalize about their production of dander that's allergenic to some people (see my other comment in this submission). Unfortunately nowadays I can only enjoy the company of dogs when outside :-(.
jamesseda 16y ago
The "This is my child" mentality is what i would worry about. They treat their dog like a human and expect everyone else to do the same.
tom_b 16y ago
Raising (and properly training) a dog is wonderful opportunity for the trainer. You'll practice patience, creativity, empathy, and the value of having a long-term plan. These are maybe not bad skills to develop as a hacker or startup founder. That said, some of the most trainable dogs are the easiest to get into trouble with and I speak from experience. Most people probably don't have enough experience to gauge the effort or different ways to undertake a dog training program. I recommend Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog" for people interested in training philosophy. Be aware, there are rabid (sorry, couldn't resist) advocates for various dog training approaches online and they take great pleasure in destroying forums, online discussions, and generally making sure that only their viewpoint is "the one true way."

GiraffeNecktie 16y ago

My overly friendly dog will definitely improve your productivity if by 'productivity' you mean the number of times you are able to scratch a dog's belly over eight hours.

towndrunk 16y ago

Not sure how popular this book would be here but if you are a dog lover then you will relate to Rescuing Sprite. It's a good read. http://www.amazon.com/Rescuing-Sprite-Lovers-Story-Anguish/dp/1416559132 http://www.amazon.com/Rescuing-Sprite-Lovers-Story-Anguish/d...

ancornwell 16y ago

I designed and cut vinyl signs for a summer and we had a lazy dog that loved listening to the Yankees in the afternoon. The dog could have been an adept WalMart greeter. If they're not barking or threatening, they're quite charming.