Anna Jentoft doesn’t go to work at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle alone.
Her one-year-old black labradoodle Franny is almost always by her side, sitting at Jentoft’s desk while she’s on calls and greeting other Amazon employees during their workdays.
Franny is one of more than 1,000 dogs at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters thanks to the company’s dog-friendly work policy. The retail giant is part of the 8 percent of workplaces in the U.S. that allow dogs to join their owners in the office, according to the Society of Human Resource Management. That’s a jump from 5 percent of employers in 2013.
“If I just need to take a breather after an intense meeting, I’ll take her out for a walk, or we’ll sit on the floor and play for a few minutes,” Jentoft said.
“It brings me comfort.”
Dogs in the workplace provide more social support for employees, as well as more opportunities for coworkers to interact in a positive setting, according to a number of studies. Social support, or that feeling of being cared for, also serves as “a key factor in whether people with serious mental illness return to work or remain employed,” according to a May 2017 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
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