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StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.
Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.
StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape
their stories and connect with their customers.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Putting pets to work in the office.
How does it help, and what gives you pause?
That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of The
StoryConnect Podcast.
Hi, I'm your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, one of the storytellers here
at Pioneer Utility Resources, and I am joined by a devoted dog
lover, Scott Peters, the CEO of Columbia REA in Walla Walla,
Washington.
The place so nice, they named it twice.
Scott, thank you so much for joining us again, because I should
let folks know this is not the first time that we have tried to
share this story.
We recorded this conversation live at StoryConnect in beautiful
Hood River, Oregon, but one of our mics was a bit
rough, and we couldn't hear the first three questions.
So we have opted today for a positive do over.
Are y'all getting a feel for what today's conversation is going
to be like?
I hope so, all right, Scott, are you ready for this?
Scott Peters:
Let's go. Bow wow.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
All right, well, I've got a bone to pick with you.
Pets in the office.
Tell me, why is this a good idea?
Scott Peters:
It's a great idea for so many reasons, Megan.
Pets reduce stress.
Pets make people smile.
Pets are just wonderful all the way around.
A really quick side story.
Many, many years ago, I'm running collections for a municipal
utility.
We hire a new collection agency.
I go to meet them in person after we've hired them.
I walk into their office.
The first thing that happens is two little cocker spaniels run
out from behind the counter and greet me, and I kneel down to pet
them. The manager comes out.
We introduce ourselves.
I say, "Hey, dogs in the office.
What's going on?" She's like, "People come in here upset, mad.
It's a collection agency."
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Oh.
Scott Peters:
Our dogs reduce that and make things, make conversation possible.
They take people off that 11.
And we don't have dogs in the office to take people off 11.
We don't have those issues here, but when people come into my
office and Angus is here, the first thing they do is kneel down
and say hi to Angus and pet Angus.
And that's a good thing.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
We should explain who Angus is.
Angus is not your secretary or anything like that.
Angus is –
Scott Peters:
Angus is our four year old golden retriever.
So, I mean, he's not in the office [inaudible].
Megan McKoy-Noe:
And I have had the pleasure of meeting him.
Scott Peters:
But he's a sweetheart.
He's a lover.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
He really is.
You know, he's pretty big.
Scott Peters:
Yes. He likes to share his golden glitter with everyone.
So I encourage folks that are wearing black not to come into my
office when Angus is here.
That's the downside of pets in the office.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
And that's a good point.
That's one of the, not a drawback, but something you have to
keep in mind.
Some pets shed.
Some people can be allergic to certain pets.
Right. So I'm curious, you know, the idea of having support pups
and kittens after a hard
conversation at the co-op, it's a great idea, but putting it in
practice can turn into a catastrophe.
So what guidelines did you put into place before you started the
program?
Just to think through all of that.
Scott Peters:
You know, we talked about how animals might get along with one
another.
So one of the first things we did was say, all right, we're
breaking the office down into kind of four quadrants.
And people sign up on a calendar, and we're only going to have
one dog in each area at any given time.
So today, right next door to me, Jennifer has Wendy, her little
puppy in her office.
So Wendy is there, and is as cute as can be.
She's got a bandana on, and she's got a little sombrero, though
she doesn't like the sombrero.
So one dog per area.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Sure.
Scott Peters:
One strike and you're out.
So if a dog has an aggressive act in the office, that's it.
There were some things we said, "We can't deal with these.
Those are just not going to be acceptable behaviors." We've been
doing it for what, two plus years now
and have had no bad incidents.
No dogs have been barred from the facility.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Now, are your dogs in an area where the members can see them as
well?
Or do they stay in the office with the employee?
Scott Peters:
So one of my employees that retired would bring in her little
long haired Dotson hound into the member service
area. And members could see that one, and she would pick up
Ellie and hold Ellie for people to pet ellie.
And we did let members through the security to say hi to Ellie.
But otherwise, all the dogs have been in the secure office area
in people's offices, and they're not
allowed to wander around.
But people obviously often put signs up on their doors when
their dogs are up.
Here's the name of our dog, or my dog if you don't know my dog.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
And they keep little treat bowls, I assume, because I was reading
NWPPA in their Bulletin
magazine, the Northwest Public Power Association.
They also are doing a work from home or, not work from home, but
they also have dogs coming into the office.
And they have treat bowls that help when the dogs are visiting
around to their fellow employees.
That I thought was a really nice idea.
Scott Peters:
So again, Jennifer, my human resources manager that tries to keep
me out of trouble, helped develop the rules.
And one of the first rules was she is the sole keeper of the
treat bowl.
Every dog that comes into the office must come visit Jennifer
first and get a treat from Jennifer.
So hahaha.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
So actually that's very interesting.
The dogs have to have HR review and approval before they're able
to go into the office.
Scott Peters:
We're a 4-10 office, and a couple of Fridays ago, I needed to
come in and get some stuff done on a Friday.
And I had both the dogs with me, and my wife was off doing
something.
And we came in and Pippin, my small little dog, immediately goes
to Jennifer's office and is sniffing all over the shelves.
He's like, I know they're here someplace, and I'm not gonna
leave until.
So I got a couple of treats, brought them back to the office.
Everybody sat down. They got their treats.
I closed the door so Pippin wouldn't go back and raid her
office.
Got my work done, and off we went.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
So I'm curious. You've talked about Pippin and Angus and several
of the other dogs that have visited y'all's
office. What characteristics have you noticed that are needed
for a helpful and not distracting office pet?
Scott Peters:
The dog needs to be quiet, right?
They can't be barking at every new sound and every new noise.
That's, you know, and then they have to be friendly, and people
kind of understand those things.
Pippin spends much less time in the office than Angus spends in
the office.
Pippin is a terrier mix and a rescue, and he can get excited and
a little noisy every now and then.
So if he's in the office, I generally keep my door shut with a
sign that says, I'm here.
Come on in, but Pippin's here.
Versus Angus, the door is wide open, and Angus is just kind of
calm.
That's really been the only thing that we've kind of said, all
right.
The noise can't be distracting.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. And that's a good call.
Now, you mentioned that Jennifer helped you put this policy
together, and she's your HR manager.
Scott Peters:
Yes.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
What other elements have been important in that policy?
I've heard about having zones.
And how many employees do you all have?
Scott Peters:
50.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
50 employees.
So you have four zones.
So out of 50 employees, no more than four dogs can be there any
one day.
Scott Peters:
And also the other thing we said is the dogs are in the office
only.
So my operation staff, we don't let them put dogs in the truck
and take dogs into the field.
That seemed like that was a recipe for possible problems.
So now if the meter guys are going to be working in the meter
shop programing meters all day instead of
out in the field, they brought their dogs into the office.
And that would actually be a fifth zone out in the out in the
shop.
So, you know, then a lot of the basic rules.
You clean up after your pet, right?
So we've got a nice lawn at the co-op, but you follow your dog
out and just like you would in a park or anything
else, you clean up after your dog.
Yeah, really, the rules weren't that complex, and I've shared
them with a lot of
folks, and I think our friends at NWPPA used our policy as a
starting point
for their venture into this.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
So now I have to ask, because I know there are a lot of dog
lovers out there in the world, and I have had dogs my whole life
up until now, but that's because of allergies.
And I also used to have a cat and don't have any more because my
husband has allergies.
But so I'm an equal opportunity cat and dog lover.
So I'm curious, are cats allowed in the co-op club?
And if not, how do our feline friends feel about being left out?
Scott Peters:
We said we were starting with dogs only because from my
perspective, it seems like there are more people that have cat
allergies, or don't like cats, than dogs.
I haven't had any cat owners mad at me that we haven't allowed
cats in the office.
And until somebody really presses and says, "I want to bring my
cat in." But, you know, that comes with a whole different, right?
If you're going to bring a cat in, you got to bring a litter box
in.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah.
Scott Peters:
That's a little different situation.
So, and nobody's asked to bring in an exotic pet yet, so you
know.
No ferrets, no llamas, no parrots.
But we can discuss any of those things if the employee came in
and made a case for it.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
So you're saying eventually, you've been doing this two years
now, eventually you might have a cat crusader that helps you
adapt the rules for feline friends.
Scott Peters:
It could happen.
I wouldn't say no to it, just out of spite or mischief.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Good to know.
Scott Peters:
And we could plant catnip in our outside garden.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
No, don't do that.
You don't want to see what happens when you do that.
So I'm curious.
You mentioned that you have 4 to 5 zones, 50 employees.
How many dogs have applied for a position at your cooperative?
Scott Peters:
1, 2, 3 ... 8 or 9 total.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Nice.
Scott Peters:
And it just goes back and forth.
We tend to see more pets in the fall and winter, and less pets
in the summer,
because in the summertime, more people have kids at home and
things like that.
And the dogs stay there.
You know, part of what brought this whole thing about was
everybody had been at home at COVID, right?
And their animals were used to having them home at COVID, or
people adopted animals during Covid.
And people started coming back to the office, and it was
traumatic for the employees and the animals and, you
know.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. I think y'all got Angus the in 2020, right?
Or 2021?
Scott Peters:
We picked him up on February 14th of 2020.
And the world shut down on what, March 18th or 19th of 2020?
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. So this is all Angus has ever known.
He's always thought that he could just be hanging out with you.
So I like that you took that turn of events and turned it into
something positive at your cooperative.
And it sounds like your staff are in the doghouse.
And they like it, which is great.
You mentioned the seasonality for folks coming into the office,
and how you've
tried to make sure you don't have too many dogs together at the
same time.
But have you put in a note about your pet policy on your
application process for new hires?
I mean, how do you tell new folks coming in about this?
And how do you monitor for folks that might have allergies or
might be afraid of dogs?
Scott Peters:
You know, I've got to say, we haven't gone down that path, and we
haven't had any problems.
No, there is no note in our hiring process that there may be
dogs in the office.
And I guess in reality, if we hired somebody that was terrified
of dogs, we'd probably have to make some sort
of adjustment.
But again, the dogs.
That was one of the first rules in place.
If you bring a dog in and it's aggressive, the dog is out of the
program.
And we just haven't, you know, so we've had more labs and
retrievers
than any other breed.
So you're seeing more of that family style dog that just loves
people.
We've had a couple of people that have had different little
miniature things.
And Wendy next door is a terrier mix from the Humane Society.
But she is so mellow and so quiet, and the little the miniature
schnauzers, they can be a little noisy
every now and then, but again, we've worked that out, and
they're sweet too.
They look like walking mops, you know, just you should throw the
treats ahead of them, and they can help dust and clean because
the way they're cut, you know.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. Yeah. Just put them to work.
It makes sense. Do you have uniforms for them?
You mentioned bandanas.
Do you have Columbia REA branded pup bandanas?
Scott Peters:
We don't. I should do that.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I think it would be fun.
Scott Peters:
angus gets a bandana when he goes visiting.
Wendy has a bandana when she goes visiting.
I think it's all up to the owners on how they would like to.
But again, I have my logo on.
You have your logo on.
We should create logo bandanas for the dogs.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I mean, they're working part of the utility.
I think it is necessary for them to be dressed accordingly.
So I like that you're taking this seriously.
Scott Peters:
Columbia REA dog house.
Create a new logo.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
And it could end up being something fun that y'all do.
Maybe fundraisers to support local shelters too and spotlight
the dogs at Columbia REA.
There's a lot of possibilities, but I really wanted you to be on
because I think especially over the last
year or two, I've heard more and more folks thinking about this
because, as you said, we got used to being with our animals
during the pandemic.
So I wanted just to hear your thoughts how it's been going for
the last two years.
So one last question before I end this paw-some conversation.
What advice do you have for a utility thinking about bringing
pets into the office?
Scott Peters:
Get out of the traditional mindset, right?
The whole workplace has changed since Covid, and your first
reaction as a boss is, no, I don't
want to do that. I don't want the liability.
I don't want the responsibility.
I don't want the – ignore that.
Just say yes, try it out on a small scale, and I think it'll
work.
And I am absolutely.
If you share my contact information, and somebody emails me or
calls me, I will send them our policy and
help facilitate in any way I can.
But I think it's been an overall positive here.
Paws-itive.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I appreciate that, Scott.
Scott Peters:
You're much better at this game than I am.
And I highly encourage folks to try it.
I think it helps morale in the office.
You know, when you see 4 or 5 employees take a short break in
the middle of the hall to kneel down
and pet the dog and talk and have a conversation, how is that
not good for corporate culture?
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love this, Scott.
Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with utility
pioneers.
He is Scott Peters from Columbia REA, and I'm your host, Megan
McKoy-Noe at Pioneer Utility Resources.
And until we talk again, keep telling your story.
Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a
communications cooperative that is built to share your story.
StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.