The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work • Hacker News Board

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#81

Post by kamaal » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 2:31 PM UTC

Ntrails wrote: post #57

levosmetalo wrote: post #31

If someone tried to bring dog to my office, next thing I will do would be to ask permission to work from home. If that doesn't work, I'd look up for another job. If that doesn't work, I'd buy rats and cocroaches, and bring them to work with me as "pets". But, there's no way I'm going to sit in the office full of "nice dogs" and pretend that doesn't affect me. EDIT: Just to clarify, I am not allergic to dogs and yes,…

Do you dislike dogs? Are you allergic? I get that you are saying you don't want to work in an office with dogs and would find it unacceptable, but explaining why would be helpful!

Many people have a fear of dogs. I myself have an extreme fear of dogs. Most people have had experiences with dogs which amplifies that fear. Being chased till person falls and bruises themselves badly, or getting bit.

Plus animals aren't like humans, they don't use the restroom when they have to relieve themselves. They beg for food, stare at you when you are eating, make noises and smell.

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#82

Post by carlob » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 3:12 PM UTC

The thing that baffles me in this thread is the nonchalance that posters have when saying: "people need to be self-filtering at the interview stage", "just work somewhere else".

Apparently for something that will actively discriminate on a large portion of your potential employees it needs to be some sort of protected category.

If I open an office space where you need to climb a ladder to get in, I'll probably get sued because I'm actively discriminating against handicapped workers. Why can't it be the same with a dog allergy (or just plain fear)?

The other thing that bugs me is that engineers usually have a good range of choices as to where they work, but I highly doubt that the delivery person from UPS has any choice but to deliver to SparkFun or get fired. As it turns out some of them were actually bitten.

It all boils down to this 'at will employment' nonsense IMHO…

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#83

Post by taude » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:02 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #64

randallsquared wrote: post #28

"Some serious incidents took place during this time, like bites. Most of the bites were workers from other companies onsite to do their normal rounds, like delivery drivers. Fortunately no serious injuries ever materialized [...]" What are the insurance ramifications of all these dogs? I'm astonished that the fact that dogs have already attacked people at SparkFun didn't cause them to rescind the policy of allowing d…

If I went onsite say as a consultant to a company and was bitten by a dog that had been approved by management, I would be looking to sue them into oblivion.

Ha...sue to oblivion? I guess it'd depend on what a "bite" is but unless the dog took you down, ate out your organs, your left arm, and you lost an eye, etc, you might be pretty disappointed what oblivion would be.

Edit: for an example....if you got say a pretty good dog bite that required you to seek medical help and say you had to get 5 or 6 stitches. And the medical bill came to say $600 (probably depends on location). If you were to take the cast to court to seek "pain and suffering" damages, and it was found that you were having lots of pain and suffering, you'll probably receive between $1200 - $2400. Far from oblivion. Despite the some sensational headlines that make the media, you'd find that most settlements and awards are a lot more reasonable.

But you might luck out and get a dog that wasn't vaccinated for rabies, in which case I'm sure you'd get more.

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#84

Post by gaius » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:58 PM UTC

taude wrote: post #83

gaius wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I went onsite say as a consultant to a company and was bitten by a dog that had been approved by management, I would be looking to sue them into oblivion.

Ha...sue to oblivion? I guess it'd depend on what a "bite" is but unless the dog took you down, ate out your organs, your left arm, and you lost an eye, etc, you might be pretty disappointed what oblivion would be. Edit: for an example....if you got say a pretty good dog bite that required you to seek medical help and say you had to get 5 or 6 stitches. And the medical bill came to say $600 (probably depends on locat…

Yes I have checked out the relevant law here now (Dangerous Dogs Act 1991) and it says

You can be fined up to £5,000 and/or sent to prison for up to 6 months if your dog is out of control. You may also not be allowed to own a dog in the future.

If you let your dog injure someone, you can be sent to prison for up to 2 years and/or fined

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#85

Post by jack-r-abbit » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 6:08 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #67

The problem with banning dogs now is that it has become an actual benefit to working at this company. Like rescinding work-at-home privileges. You will get very unhappy employees who feel they were misled and picked the wrong job offer. So not exactly an easy solution as suggested.

I worked at a company that did away with all the free snacks in the break room and put an end to the Friday beer cart. People were pissed. But we all got over it. It is possible to make those changes.

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#86

Post by Frencil » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 8:15 PM UTC

jstsch wrote: post #13

I really love dogs, but this is just nuts. Pets belong at home, not at work. A dog tribunal? Talk about a waste of company time. I understand that in certain companies (with sky-high margins or money to burn) the line between work and play gets blurred more and more, but that's in stark contrast to the rest of the economy. I can understand that certain people outside of tech (who are struggling) are starting to get a…

In all fairness it used to be more of a waste of time (as mentioned in the post it got progressively worse and widely viewed as a waste of time) until the tribunal came along. Under that setup it's 30 minutes of 5 peoples' time once a month, which is pretty easy to swing.

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#87

Post by Frencil » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 8:21 PM UTC

qwerta wrote: post #16

If this is not spoof, it illustrates well how startup turns into corporation. They could allow occasional work from home. No instead they create The Dog Policy, the Dog Agreement and The Dog Tribunal Management. If someone has allergy or wants to bring his baby, they introduce another 10 agreements. In my previous job colleague was bringing dog sometimes, I just asked him to keep it away from me (have serious allergy…

This is a bit of a false dichotomy here, as we do have occasional work from home which varies between positions and departments. That perk is a separate concern from the dog perk. I know of some employees who do choose to favor the former to opt out of the latter (working from home to be with their dog) because they don't want to bring their dog to work for whatever reason.

Re: The problems SparkFun has letting people bring dogs into work

#88

Post by moonka » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 9:17 PM UTC

LTheobald wrote: post #21

yetfeo wrote: post #2

How do dog friendly work places deal with employees that are allergic to dogs?

It's not just allergies. I'm partially sighted & have very little peripheral vision. Some people have brought their dogs into our office & there have been times where I have accidentally "kicked" the dog simply because I have not seen it on the floor (and was not expecting a dog there anyway). I like dogs & don't mind having them in the office but I certainly think it needs to be made very clear where the line lies w…

>there have been times where I have accidentally "kicked" the dog simply because I have not seen it on the floor (and was not expecting a dog there anyway).

I think every dog owner in existence has pulled this one. I always feel a combination of "I'm a monster" and "Maybe this will teach you not to be underfoot".