How an office cat or dog can reduce stress levels and boost employee productivity

by Lisa Boerop and Qayyah Moynihan

When Myrthe Kusse of Dutch company Wallaart & Kusse Public Affairs gets to work in the morning, there's always someone there to greet her.

Office cat Sammie is sat on a desk, waiting to be fed breakfast and given a fresh bowl of water.

"Until a few years ago, Sammie lived in a student house," explained Kusse. "But the students had to leave and Sammie needed a new home. A colleague of ours happened to want a cat, but his partner didn't, so we all decided to take on the cat as an office."

For bigger companies like Google, it's nothing unusual to take your dog to the office but the same seems to be the case for a lot of Dutch companies too  — on LinkedIn, there are currently 75 active vacancies at Dutch companies that mention an office dog.

Nowadays, it seems it's not such an outlandish idea to have a pet in the office — there are actually quite a few advantages. For example, a few years ago, research by Virginia Commonwealth University showed that people experience less stress when a dog is around.

Researchers took saliva samples from factory employees and looked at how much of the stress hormone cortisol was in it. The results showed that only the employees who had had a dog in their vicinity had low cortisol levels by the end of the day.

"It's definitely good for the work atmosphere to have a dog in the office," said Marie-José Enders, who studies the relationship between animals and humans at the Open University. "Not only does your cortisol level drop when you stroke a dog; you also produce more of the hormone oxytocin, which makes you feel more relaxed and happy."

Having pets in the office also has other bonuses

"If your boss is giving you a hard time, a dog can make it easier to put certain situations into perspective. You can just take a bit of space and walk the dog," said Enders. "An animal at work makes people more motivated — they like their work more and they experience less stress."

Read the entire article at Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/office-cats-and-dogs-reduce-stress-levels-and-boost-productivity-2018-12