For international retailing giant Amazon, dogs are a big deal, with one of the company’s earliest “employees” being a corgi named Rufus belonging to the company’s former principal engineer.
Rufus was responsible for bringing the dog-friendly culture to Amazon, and the company now has around 2,000 office dogs reports Entrepreneur.
Now those dedicated employees have been recognised with their very own dog park at the company’s new Seattle headquarters, stretching over 1000 square feet with multiple platforms and rocks for climbing and exploring.
Entrepreneur reports the pups even have their own food truck, called the Seattle Barkery, serving them all sorts of dog-friendly treats. Best of all, the location is open to both employees and the public.
“At Amazon, we are obsessed with innovating on behalf of our customers, and we think it is pretty special our dogs can be right by our sides as we do that,” an Amazon spokesperson told This Dog’s Life.
“To have a public dog park right outside one of our biggest office buildings is just awesome – so many Amazon dogs, in addition to dogs all around Seattle will be able to enjoy it.”
Amazon puts a big focus on the importance of its office dogs, hosting a dedicated webpage on its website profiling a few of the dogs at the company.
Having furry friends in the office has been proven to boost employee wellbeing, with a study from 2008 showing office dogs can “significantly” lower stress, and another from 2010 proving dogs can improve productivity.
“Having dogs in our offices is an amazing treat – they make employees smile, and we are proud this is such a uniquely Amazonian tradition – it’s truly engrained in our company culture,” the Amazon spokesperson said.
Recently, Scottish brewery BrewDog received praise for allowing workers a week of paid leave when they get a new puppy.
“Puppy Parental Leave will support nervy canines and their owners alike in those all-important first few days of the greatest relationship a person can have (children excepted),” the company said at the time.
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Dominic Powell is a journalist at SmartCompany and a tech and music geek. When he’s not writing, you can find him reading or browsing record shops.
