Dozens of Northern California companies will go to the dogs on TYDTWD. None, perhaps, has more experience in the dog-friendly workplace department than Mrs. Grossman’s Sticker Factory in Petaluma, where dogs have been reporting to work with their people since 1980. That’s when company founder Andrea Grossman started bringing her Irish wolfhound to work and, in fairness to her employees, invited their dogs into the workplace, too. She even built outdoor kennels to accommodate company pets.
Only three full-time dogs inhabit the office now, says community relations manager Barbara Marino, but during the company’s pre-economic-crises heyday, as many as a dozen dogs charmed the many children who came through on factory tours.
“Dogs contribute to the sense of family that we have here,” she says. “Kids who take the tour would way rather see a dog than a sticker. They hear their parents talk about how stressful work is, then see an environment with dogs and it changes their whole concept of where people work. It’s like home. It makes us look warm and friendly and family-focused, and it makes a huge difference all the way around.”
