Are We Going to the Dogs?
Richard A. Moran
Venture partner, author, speaker, advisor, radio personality. Lending perspective, prescriptions and personality to the workplace.
In the nuclear arms race of what new benefits companies can provide, a new one barked at me – pawternity leave. No, not paternity leave, pawternity leave, as in dogs. Or rather, puppies. Pawternity leave is when a company gives paid time off so an employee can take care of a new puppy.
Anyone who has experienced getting a puppy knows it can be time consuming and frustrating. Sort of like having a baby. Since puppies need time to settle into their new home and bond with their owners, why not create pawternity leave if it will keep people from leaving. So pawternity leave is catching on, especially in the Silicon Valley. It goes along with all the free food, massages on the job and wardrobes with the company logo.
For the new proud Mom or Dad of the puppy, it’s probably better to stay home anyway. Although puppies sleep a lot, they are know to cry a lot and poop a lot and bark a lot. A puppy around the office can be very cute and make for new friends but pawternity leave could be a better idea.
What will soon follow, once the pawternity leave is over, is an adolescent dog in the office. Like any adolescent, they are known to misbehave and test the boundaries. So that puppy who is now a half grown dog will be sniffing around for left over bagels and places to make his or her mark on the carpet.
I suspect that those same companies that offer pawternity leave will offer paid bereavement leave for when Fido goes to doggie heaven. And we know all dogs go to heaven.
I am all for creativity when it comes to company benefits. Woof woof.
[feel free to follow me or add me on LinkedIn]
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Richard is the author of the new book The Thing About Work: Showing Up and Other Important Matters [A Worker’s Manual]. You can follow his writing on Twitter, Facebook, or at his website at richardmoran.com.
Richard is a noted San Francisco based business leader, workplace pundit, bestselling author and venture capitalist.
SPPID Admin
6 年Not going to lie, this article is overloaded with cuteness. and sounds appealing for sure. I think that any company that intends to implement something on this nature, has to reach first a level of maturity about their employees real needs first, and then,implement anything else just to the company or the team look "cool".point being, it is a super nice and cute idea, but the priorities should be pretty well stablished and covered first. on X company; all the HR team members were always super involved with team building. and yet, unable to handle bereavement absents and benefits.
Program Director at GiveTeens20/NavZ and Gallup Certified Strengths Coach
6 年Kittens have paws too.....is this discrimination?!?!
Director of Case Management
6 年My dogs are my children! Love them to my core!
Voice and Text at The Abbey Theatre
6 年Poor puppies left at home when their moms and dads go to the office.