UK Company Adopts Pet Leave: Is This The Future?

[sjoes006]

Could this be the future? Many of us hope so. I'm lucky enough to work for a company that understood when I needed to work from home and take a few days off upon adopting a 3 year old timid medium sized dog.

But still saying you have to be off part of today or next week because your dog is seriously sick is taken anything but seriously in some jobs.

Worse yet, if your dog of 15 years is sick and dying and you wasn't to be home when the dog passes and use all your vacation time to do so some people frown upon it.

Many thoughts on why? People used to only take on pets after kids. So the kids would sit by the bed side with the at home caregiver (mom, nanny or sibling).

These days people get dogs in college or shortly after, so married or not that dog was your sole companion for years. It's you they are looking to for guidance, not your son.

I understand being able to travel more during the week than people with kids and I'm happy to do it. But when it comes to sick days or in town responsibilities, I have so many friends that tell me they'd be better off saying they have to work from home or take half day because of a plumber or bad relative over the truth that they are worried about their old dog.

To be straight my dog isn't old. Even at 5 years she acts like a pup. Being a rescue we worked and worked with her. I have rope burns on my ankles that HURT and were deep but not as bad as the fear of her getting hurt again after her past.

To me Pet Leave either paid or not paid makes sense. Not everyone can have children or want to and they should be allowed the same time off option. Also Dad's if in this system should be offered equal time perhaps under conditions for both.

[mrsingle]

Not to mention dogs for the disabled and military as well as cops and bomb sniffing dogs.

[Becky01]

it sounds awesome but is it really going to catch on