Dog Friendly Office Project: Has Your Company Ever Considered Allowing Pets into the Office?

At free stitch, we are continuously working towards creating a better working environment for staff and their pets. We hope that through the growing popularity of the ‘Dog-Friendly Office Project’ we are helping to improve the quality of life for pets in Japan and around the world. 

In 2019, we launched a questionnaire to gather thoughts and opinions about bringing your dog or pet to work. In this questionnaire, we asked about the conditions of the workplace and whether there are the facilities to accommodate bringing pets to work.   

In this week’s blog, we are asking the question ‘has your company ever considered allowing pets into the office?’. We are asking this question specifically to those whose companies do not currently allow animals into the workplace.  

As shown in the chart below, an overwhelming majority of respondents to our questionnaire responded that 'no' (いいえ), neither they or their companies had ever given any thought to allowing pets into the office.

Among those respondents who answered that 'yes' (はい) it had in fact been discussed in the company (outlined in blue) gave the following reasons for not allowing pets into the office:

• It is not possible due to the nature of the work 
• The building does not allow pets / is not suitable for pets  
• There are some members of staff who are not comfortable around animals 

Some respondents (outlined in blue) answered that they do not currently allow pets into the office but they might consider it in the future. 

Even though the number of positive feedback regarding pets in the office is small, there is a chance that becoming a ‘dog friendly office’ is a possibility. For those who are on the fence about the benefits and drawbacks of allowing pets into the office, we will examine how a company could make the transition to being more open to pets in our next post.  

If you are interested in being part of the Dog-Friendly Office Project, please feel free to complete the questionnaire (Japanese only). 

For more information on the dog friendly office project, please click here.

Check out the Dog-friendly Office Project on SNS