Thursday, April 12, 2007

Fair is Fair

At the office we seem to have a pretty constant stream of kids. Kids brought to the office because it's "Teacher Education Day", or a snow day, or summer. Stone cold bored kids who are tearing up and down the halls while the parent is splitting time on a normal day's work. I sympathize with the dilemma of parents left without other arrangements, but I am also the bitter bitter man whose team is left to clean up the spyware-infected computers these terrors leave in their wake. If you can't tell, my life is chock full of contradictions.

And yet, something keeps me from bringing Pappy to the office. I envy Gus's mom, who routinely takes him "on the job". Pappy would be a darn site better behaved than most of these kids, and probably better housebroken too. He's certainly not going to be trawling the porn sites or conducting a shrieking contest outside the office of someone having a teleconference. There may be some kind of regulations against animals, but, hey, we've already got mice everywhere in our cr*ppy old building. Pappy would probably reduce rather than increase the count of non-human mammals.

I talked to one of the senior managers about the idea of bring-your-dog-to-work-day. She may have been humoring me, but she gave every appearance of being very receptive. I'm not going to turn into one of those creepy old kooks who walks around mumbling to himself, am I?

6 comments:

Roxie, Sammy, Andy and Shermie said...

Mom says she would never take us to work because she would hate leave anyone behind and she couldn't take all three of us. We doubt you will ever be a creepy old kook who walks around mumbling to himself but you might be a dotty old kook who talks to his dog.

Roxie, Sammy & Andy

Gus said...

Gus behaves much better than most of the children who are brought to the store. He has probably increased sales by 10% on the days he regularly works. He has his own set of "customers" who bring treats. We've had people leave on "his" days without shopping because they only came in to see him. That said....sometimes I worry about liability issues.

Regardless, I INTEND to become a dotty old lady who talks to her dog. In fact, maybe I already am.

Gussie's doting muzzer

Anonymous said...

Hah! Dad used to work in Anti-Spyware as a software Engineer! I reckon Dad should ask for me to come into work one day - it would cheer everyone up! He says he is a little hesitant even if they did let him because I might decide to leave peemail on his desk. Have to protect my Dad with my scent! But if they had a bring-your-furson...I mean dog-day then they would already be expecting some side effects right?

Love and Licks,
Texas (and his humans).

Nat said...

Dachsies and Gus,
I'm already well on my way to dotty old kookism, I guess I am really wondering whether I will know it when I have gotten there.

Texas,
God bless all the anti-spyware software guys, because they need all the help they can get. In five minutes a kid can do more damage than four spyware removal tools can undo in three hours-- and you home and search pages will still be pointing to the wrong place.

Bella said...

Nah mate not at all I take my best behaved dog to work every possibly chance - generally those days when it is going to be more relaxed & a short day due to holidays - see Bellas blog re "My day at the office" - granted she is smaller than pappy so I can sneak her past building security in a bag - but I've found my co-worekrs really co-operative and some eben aske when Bella is coming in next - so I'd pursue it from the "dogs as effective therapy workers' angle and I'm more than happy for you to show Bella's day at the office as a successful example.
good Luck & let me know how you go
Bella's Mama

Finnegan said...

Finny has been to work a few times. It's usually after hours and he loves all of the attention. I know there are a lot of companies that allow people to bring their dogs into work every day. I think it would be pretty nice!

Finnegan's Mom