Animals in the Workplace: Employer Rights and Responsibilities

Abstract

While some firms welcome pets in the workplace, the vast majority of firms do not permit them; however, more often Americans are insisting that their animals go with them everywhere and this societal trend means that organizations with "no pets" policies can expect a growing number of petitions from employees seeking to bring their animals to work. One avenue workers have increasingly adopted, having witnessed its success in other areas (e.g., transportation, housing), is requesting firms to eliminate pet bans and relax animal policies at the workplace as a reasonable accommodation for their (primarily mental) impairments. As a result, businesses that unlawfully reject such appeals are finding themselves in court charged with disability discrimination. Organizations are confused about their obligation to waive "no pets" directives for disabled employees and to remedy this situation; therefore, this article addresses animals at work and provides guidance with respect to this increasingly contentious issue and to keep organizations "out of the legal dog house.

All Creatures Great and Small: A Review and Typology of Employee-Animal Interactions

“…The surge in work-from-home and hybrid work arrangements has also meant that many now work from home in proximity to their own pets (Hall & Mills, 2019). In addition, increased adoption of service animals (already cataloged in the preceding section) has the knock-on effect of exposing more employees (Hughes & Rozovsky, 2016;Kizziar & Dodds, 2014;Von Bergen & Bressler, 2017), even in workplaces where animals are otherwise banned. Finally, many facilities, including universities (Charles & Wolkowitz, 2019), prisons (Dell & Poole, 2015), hospitals (Jensen et al, 2021), and courthouses (Howell, Hodgkin, Modderman, & Bennett, 2021), have welcomed visitation animals for therapeutic purposes.…”