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WASHINGTON — Employers looking to ramp up productivity in these dog-eat-dog times might consider letting their staff bring Fido to the office, a scientific study published Friday suggests.
Dogs at work can not only bring down stress levels among their owners, but they can also help make work more satisfying for other employees as well, according to the study in the latest issue of the International Journal of Workplace Health Management.
For a week, the researchers monitored day-shift staff at Replacements Ltd., which sells dinnerware from a fast-paced facility in Greensboro, North Carolina that is the size of seven American football fields.
For more than 15 years, Replacements has allowed its 550-odd employees to bring their dogs to work.
“The bottom line is that dogs in the workplace can make a positive difference,” said professor Randolph Barker of Virginia Commonwealth University’s business school, who led the five-member research team.
“They may in fact be a great buffer to the impact of stress” on productivity, absenteeism and employee morale, Barker told AFP in a telephone interview from Richmond, Virginia.