Did you know that the number of employers allowing dogs in the workplace has doubled in the US for the last five years? That means that one out of 12 companies allow bringing in dogs in the workplace to mingle with their employees as they labour away at their desks.
This article is something very close to my heart as we will talk about dogs and how to clean dog-friendly or pet-friendly offices. Let’s get started.
We asked many employees to know how the dogs affect their day to day activities, and the answer all boils down to “stress-relief”. Of course, not everyone in the office welcomes this idea. Some are allergic to hairs. How do employers compromise in this situation?
Having dogs in the office will indeed relieve your stress. If you feel a heavy day ahead of you, you can get a dog and pet it for a while. Before you know it, the stress is all gone with the wind. It makes working happier and more manageable.
Here are some of the things that a business should consider before bringing pets to the workplace.
Rules Before Pets
We all know that germs and viruses spread faster in an open space. With pets coming into the office, dog-friendly Sydney office cleaning requirements will be amplified. Your office will need more than just a regular cleaning.
More people share the same space, and with dogs walking around, it will make the place gets dirty and grabby faster than the usual pace.
Signages
Ensure that signages are posted to visible spots where rules are laid out clearly. These rules should communicate the pet owner’s responsibility in bringing their pets to the workplace.
Warning for Allergies
Pets mean hair. Before welcoming pets into the workplace, management should ask employees if they are allergic or if working with pets will become an issue for them.
Check the Insurance Coverage
Ask the building management for insurance inclusions. Accidents can happen when pets are moving about. You do not want to burden yourself with added worries as you make this happen.
If your building does not cover it, you may ask the pet owners to have their own should they choose to take their pets with them to work
Dog-Free Zones
Management should still delegate a space where dogs are not allowed even if they are practically everywhere. These areas should include data centres and pantries.
Have Cleaning Tools Handy
Dogs and pets can be messy at times. Accidents are inevitable. Ensure that you have the essential office cleaning equipment to clean after stool, urine, and vomit.
House Rules for Pet Owners
You may be excited about the notion that your best bud will join you at the office. Before you bring your pets, you need to ensure that you will follow the rules of a dog-friendly office stated below responsibly:
- You are the sole responsible for your dog’s well-being, biological needs, and behaviour in the office.
- The dog should be potty-trained, with a good temperament, and obedient.
- Do not bring small puppies into the office, no matter how tempting it is. Make sure that the dogs receive updated vaccination, and are clean, odour-free, and free of parasites.
- Owners should clean after their pests. They should follow waste disposal, which applies both inside and outside of the office.
- Irrespective of whether you are a professional cleaner or a domestic cleaner, this guide will take you through the post-party clean up step-by-step procedure to properly clean an office or commercial place after a recent event or party
- After the accident, owners can use the usual office dog-friendly cleaning chemicals to address the cleaning but, it should still be reported to the pet-friendly office cleaners. Office cleaners will use more potent cleaning chemicals that will cover all the things that need covering dog-friendly office cleaning.
Here we are sharing one more informative article about how often should office restrooms be cleaned.
How to Get Rid of Pet’s Hair in the Office Furniture and Carpets
Before starting clean, professional office cleaners should wear the proper personal protective equipment. Having nitrile gloves handy is a good idea. Nitrile glove is sticky, and pet hair easily adheres to them. Do not use the same Nitrogen gloves that you have used in different spots.
Using Nitrile Gloves, you can start scaping the pet hair off of the cushion from top to bottom and do it only in one direction. Most of the pet hair will adhere to the glove.
Using Vacuum Cleaner – use the hose attachment. Run the vacuum on surfaces to suck up the pet’s hair.
Use Rubber Pet Hair Removal Brush – It looks like a hairbrush, but the bristles are made out of rubber that bends back and forth. You can brush the hair off with this tool by sticking it to the rubber.
After brushing, you can gather the collected hair with your hands and put it in the trash, or you can use a vacuum cleaner to suck it up from the brush.
Use a Lint Roller – It is made out of felt that is used to remove pet hair. This lint roller has a squeegee and a built-in trash bin on the other side. As you roll this along with the furniture, the felt and the squeegee traps the hair, and it throws it over in the little trash can.
When you are done, you can collect all the hairs with your fingers and throw them in the trash bin. This tool should always be part of a cleaner’s caddy because you will never know when will you encounter hair problems.
Use the Regular Rubber Squeegee – Squeegee is a regular inside a cleaner’s caddy. You can run the squeegee along the surface, causing no damage whatsoever. Squeegee is as effective as a lint roller. It can collect all the hair sitting on the furniture.
There are also fibres that have pet hair embedded in them that you cannot remove with the vacuum cleaner anymore. You can also spot this on car carpets where the carpet strands are so fine.
When faced with these problems, get an empty spray bottle and fill it with seven parts water to one part fabric softener.
The mixture will soften the surface, and it will make it smell nice. When the surface is moistened, take a pumice stone. It is a porous stone that you can use to gather hair.
Start from the top and work your way using the same direction. Do not go back and forth, and do not go in a circle. Leave a one-inch allowance from the edge because the pumice stone can scratch the frame of the furniture.
We hope that what we are sharing with you in this article makes sense. If you are a dog person like me, you will know how exciting it can be to think that you are allowed to take your dog to work.
Please let us know your thoughts about the dog-friendly office cleaning techniques that we shared with you. Do you think it is effective?
Let us exchange brilliant ideas that can encourage many businesses to be open about the concept of pet-friendly workplaces.