agonyaunt | Ask a Manager: Update: "How much should we compromise for a dog phobic coworker in a dog office?"

[brief background: company had already hired Jane. Company moved to dog-friendly building and thus announced to employees that dogs could come in. Jane has a dog phobia.]

Initially there were a few conversations about what we needed to do re people bringing dogs in – an email went around asking anybody bringing a dog in to put it in the office calendar so others could check in advance but that didn’t really happen. In practice, at least three colleagues other than Lucille have started bringing their dogs in regularly (much more frequently than Lucille does actually), as have a couple of other workers on our floor from other businesses.

The other colleagues are less conscientious than Lucille was about having dogs in the main office space, so they’re regularly wandering around under desks etc. Jane just doesn’t come in very much – hard to gauge how much of that is dog-related because at this tie of year her work does typically require her to travel a lot – and sits on another if she’s in on the same day as a dog.

Basically, dog has been allowed to trump human in this situation – I don’t think Jane’s being professionally disadvantaged as a result (her team and boss are based in another city anyway so being in the office doesn’t help her much there) but it does seem a bit unfair that she’s been driven out. In sort of good news, the co-working space owners have recently gone into administration so we will need to move office again soon – if we move somewhere that isn’t dog friendly the situation might end up resolving itself.
Thanks for the advice – I think that in this particular case the fact that Jane could work from home as much as she wanted and didn’t want to make a fuss means that it didn’t escalate to the point where a human or dog decision needed to be made, but it’s good to know that I’m not alone in thinking human is the right answer if it comes to it!

(Also, remember the haunted hotel letter? There's an update to that one in the same post.

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As a service dog handler, I still get this frequently. The "I'm allergic so you can't have your dog!" I bathe him weekly and how about you just don't come into my office, which has a door that closes and we're good.

He's a service dog, what do they expect you to do instead? That's like demanding someone with a broken leg not use their crutch. That said, in a lot of discussions, theoretical service dogs are used as "gotchas" against people with allergies, etc.

I wish people would just be more open to figuring things out situation by situation, to compromise. <-- general and ridiculous statement

I also have lots of allergies, so I AM sympathetic, which is why I wash my dog and keep him largely in either my office or in large, open-ventilation meeting rooms.

But people love to tell me that I can't have my dog here because either they are allergic, or worse and much more frequent, they are scared. If you are allergic I sympathize. If you're afraid of dogs, just ... stay away from my dog, believe me, he has no interest at all in engaging with you, he's shy and not really a people-dog.

Heh. I had two conflicting responses to this.

On the one hand, I used to be afraid of dogs until about four or five years ago, due to being attacked by one as a child, and I have a phobia (of something else, which I never specify in part because I don't want people engaging in amateur exposure therapy on me) so I am tempted to write a defense of people having a right to their fears. On the other, service dogs have always been an exception to that fear as soon as I learned about them, because service dogs are so well trained. They are the least likely dogs to leap on people, lick them, bite them, etc, which are what I feared from dogs.

Oh, absolutely, especially since this is a psychiatric hospital -- of course everyone has the right to be afraid of things.

But these are people who will yell at me that I need to get off the elevator because they are afraid of dogs, or that I shouldn't be in the building because they are afraid of dogs. I can't walk up stairs, which might have been indicated by the giant dog with a handle on his back. They are welcome to steer clear of us entirely! But I am not going to wait for the next elevator because they're afraid of dogs when I was on it first.

Those people are precisely examples of why it's so hard for well meaning people to find compromises on these things. Ugh. I am so sorry.

I meant to add, my husband was also attacked by a dog as a little kid, so I understand that one specifically. He gets freaked out a little when Trip growls, but I explain (to the point of repeating the same words at the same time) that he is just communicating something and that it's not a sign he's going to use his teeth. And he only does that at home.

But yeah, the elevator people are difficult, as are the people who just yell "Oh look a big mean dog" when we go past. Please don't antagonize my dog. :(

Today in WTF. the LAST thing I would do is holler at a dog I saw was big and worried might be mean. My goal was always to avoid being noticed by the dog. Once again, why are people awful. frowns sympathetically

I like your calming words to your husband. I'm going to try to remember them to remind myself with.

Ask a Manager: Update: "How much should we compromise for a dog phobic coworker in a dog office?"

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