20240825|办公室养宠物的困境

Business

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Bartleby

巴托比专栏

The canine conundrum

犬类困境

What to do about dogs in the office.

办公室里可以带狗怎么办。

Theodore Roosevelt's bull terrier once chased the French ambassador up a tree.

西奥多·罗斯福的牛头梗曾把法国大使追到了树上。

Commander, President Joe Biden's German shepherd, had to be rusticated after repeatedly biting Secret Service officers.

乔·拜登总统的德牧“指挥官”在多次咬伤特勤局工作人员后不得不被送回乡下。

Sir Gavin Williamson, a British politician, refused to remove a tarantula he kept in a glass tank from the office.

英国政治家加文·威廉姆森爵士拒绝将他养在玻璃缸里的狼蛛从办公室移走。

He defended the presence of Cronus by insisting the "clean, ruthless killer" was "part of the team".

他为了狼蛛“克罗诺斯”留在办公室而辩护，坚称这个“干净、无情的杀手”是“团队的一员”。

Pets, more commonly dogs than spiders, have long been a feature of all sorts of workplaces.

宠物（更常见的是狗而不是蜘蛛）长期以来一直是各种工作场所的一个特色。

Google's code of conduct states that "Affection for our canine friends is an integral facet of our corporate culture."

谷歌的行为准则规定：“对犬类朋友的喜爱是我们企业文化不可分割的一部分。”

Ben & Jerry's, an ice-cream company, dishes out treats to pooches at its reception desk.

冰淇淋公司本杰瑞在前台为狗狗提供零食。

Over the decades dogs have wandered around The Economist's head office in London and snoozed on the carpet.

几十年来，好几只狗在《经济学人》伦敦总部的办公室里闲逛，在地毯上打盹。

Pets have become an even bigger part of work life since the covid-19 pandemic.

自新冠疫情以来，宠物已经在职场生活中变得更为重要。

Searches for pet-friendly offices on job platforms have rocketed.

在求职平台上，对“宠物友好型”办公室的搜索量激增。

One in five American families acquired a pet during lockdowns; two-thirds of households now have at least one.

五分之一的美国家庭在疫情封控期间养了宠物；现在三分之二的家庭至少有一只宠物。

For those working from home, a pet dog is a trusty companion between (or during) Zoom calls and an excuse to go for walks.

对于那些居家办公的人来说，宠物狗是Zoom通话间隙（或期间）值得信赖的伙伴，也是出去散步的借口。

Those who want to go into the office may find that their pets cannot be left alone and that doggy day-care is frightfully expensive.

那些想去办公室工作的人可能发现他们的宠物不能独自留在家，而且宠物狗日托非常昂贵。

That leaves managers under increasing pressure to let them in.

这使得经理们面临越来越大的压力，不得不让宠物狗进办公室。

How welcoming should they be?

他们应该给狗多大程度的欢迎呢？

Apart from, perhaps, in operating theatres or sausage factories, there are obvious benefits to a permissive approach.

也许除了在手术室或香肠工厂，对狗持宽容态度有明显的好处。

Welcoming pets can act as a recruitment or retention tool; a few especially fond owners admit online that they have left their full-time jobs in order to spend more time with their furry friends.

欢迎宠物进办公室可以作为一种招聘或留住员工的工具；一些特别喜欢宠物的人在网上承认，他们辞去全职工作，是为了有更多时间与他们的毛孩子待在一起。

Letting people bring their pets in can also be a way to entice workers to spend more time at the office.

让人们把宠物带进办公室也可以是一种吸引员工在办公室待更长时间的办法。

Dogs in the workplace can boost morale and productivity, and not only those of their owners.

工作场所的狗可以提高士气和效率，而且不仅仅是对主人有这种效果。

Marc Benioff, the boss of Salesforce, named Koa, his now-deceased golden retriever, the company's "chief love officer".

软件公司Salesforce的老板马克·贝尼奥夫将他现已去世的金毛“科奥”命名为公司的“首席爱心官”。

Petting colleagues' pooches can also lead to serendipitous conversations, and reduce feelings of isolation.

摸摸同事的小狗还能带来意外的有趣对话，并减少孤独感。

Experiments suggest that employees are more likely to perceive those in a team as friendly if there's a dog in the vicinity than if there isn't.

实验表明，附近有一只狗的情况与没有狗的情况相比，员工更有可能认为团队中的人们是友好的。

That can be a route to fruitful collaboration across the organisation.

这可能是一条通向富有成效的组织合作的途径。

The problem for managers, though, is that some people hate dogs, even if they keep their loathing to themselves.

然而对于管理者来说，问题在于有些人讨厌狗，即使他们把这种厌恶藏在心里。

They might be allergic to them, or especially sensitive to canine smells and sounds; a few might even prefer cats, for some unfathomable reason.

他们可能对狗过敏，或者对犬类的气味和声音特别敏感；出于某种难以理解的原因，少数人甚至可能更喜欢猫。

Not all dogs are trained in office etiquette: those that are left unsupervised may roam freely, chew on co-workers' belongings or make a mess on the carpet.

而且并不是所有狗都接受过办公室礼仪培训：那些无人监管的狗可能会在办公室里自由游荡，咬坏同事的物品，或者在地毯上大小便。

Some owners could do with a bit of training, too: many infuriate their colleagues by bumbling away in baby talk to their pets.

有些宠物主人也需要接受一些培训：许多人用跟婴儿说话的语气跟宠物说话，这让他们的同事很烦。

What should managers do?

那么管理者应该做什么？

Unfettered openness can make the dog-phobic uncomfortable and unhappy.

无拘束的开放态度可能会让怕狗的人感到不舒服和不开心。

At the other end of the scale, a few big companies like PwC and HSBC have instituted no-pooch policies in recent years.

而在天平的另一端，普华永道和汇丰银行等几家大公司近年来制定了禁止带宠物上班的政策。

That may ensure there is no barking havoc in the office, but forgoes the benefits of welcoming pets.

这可能会确保办公室里没有狗叫声造成的破坏，但也放弃了欢迎宠物的好处。

The ideal is to seek middle ground.

理想的做法是寻求中间立场。

Google, for instance, bans dog-owning staff ("Dooglers") from bringing in noisy pets and limits furry incursions if other employees are allergic.

例如，谷歌禁止养狗的员工（“谷狗主人”）携带吵闹的宠物进入公司，如果其他员工对狗毛过敏，也会限制宠物进入公司。

Beyond a few company-wide rules, such as banning dangerous breeds and ensuring dogs are vaccinated and office-trained, individual departments could be left to decide their own policies in consultation with their teams.

除了一些全公司范围内的规定，如禁止危险品种和确保狗接种疫苗并经过办公室训练外，个别部门可以在与团队协商后自行决定宠物政策。

Some areas could be designated as pooch-free zones.

一些区域可以被指定为无狗区。

A dog roster could be agreed among staff.

可以在员工之间商定一份遛狗值班表。

This approach works only if people feel free to pipe up when they are uncomfortable, in the knowledge that their managers will act accordingly.

只有当人们在感到不舒服时可以自由地表达出来，并且知道他们的经理会相应地采取行动时，这种方法才会奏效。

As it turns out, such autonomy matters as much for dog-owners as it does for their colleagues.

事实证明，这种自主权不仅对养狗的人来说很重要，对他们的同事也一样重要。

A survey of owners done in 2021 by Elisa Wagner and Miguel Pina e Cunha, then both of the Nova School of Business and Economics in Portugal, suggests that taking a pet into the office can become a burden if employees lack the freedom to decide when they can take breaks from their work.

2021年，当时都在葡萄牙新商业与经济学院的伊莉莎·瓦格纳和米格尔·皮纳·埃库哈对宠物主人进行了一项调查，结果表明，如果员工无法自由决定何时可以从工作中休息，那么带宠物上班可能会成为一种负担。

Opening up the office to dogs might seem like an easy way to make the workplace seem more flexible.

把办公室对狗开放似乎是一种让工作场所看起来更灵活的简单方法。

In fact, it takes a flexible workplace to make a dog-friendly approach succeed.

事实上，要使对狗友好的政策取得成功，需要的是一个灵活的工作场所。