Bring Your Dog to the Office – and Work Better

When visiting some colleagues recently at the publishing house Hubert Burda Media in Munich, I realized that several dogs were strolling around.

I learned that employees are encouraged to bring their cuddly friends to the office as studies have proven that they help increase the motivation, creativity and wellbeing of the staff. It has even been found that they additionally play a huge role at the workplace in helping people with mental health struggles remain employed.

At Burda, some furry “dogfluencers” have their own Instagram accounts and inspire the company’s dogazine. The media company Axel Springer in Berlin takes their four-pawed colleagues even more seriously: Office dogs get their own photo identification cards. Springer also has a “Chief Dog Officer”, Kerstin Drobniewski, who checks if the dogs are following the rules. She told me she has recently welcomed the 150th office dog – which makes Springer a leader among dog-friendly companies in Germany.