How did I not hear about this sooner? It seems that someone did a study on the health effects of bringing your dog to work. They studied different people in a dog-friendly workplace, including those who didn’t have dogs, those who had dogs but didn’t bring them in, and those who brought their dogs to work. They found the following:
- All three groups started the day at a similar stress level, on average.
- People with no dog had their stress level climb gradually though the day
- People who had a dog but didn’t bring it in performed identically.
- People who brought in their dog had their stress level decrease through the course of the day.
So there you have it: dogs are the magic de-stresser. (I suspect cats would work just as well (maybe even better! ack, heresy!), but there are fewer cat-friendly workplaces, because, well… mixing cats and dogs at a workplace? Could be bad.
Come on, companies, get with the program!
Makes sense to me! Since cats are creatures of place, cats owners should be able to work from home!! That would be ideal.
Works for me! And those of us who want to have both can switch off.