After a year of working from home and missing the ever so intricate world of office politics, we, dog owners, have found an alternative to the office: the park.
No matter where you live, there’s always that one local which becomes the default park. Whether it’s because it’s close or because there are other dogs there that your dog enjoys playing with, it inevitably becomes the go to, in particular when we had restrictions not to travel unnecessarily.
Just like when you had to head to the office, you wake up every morning with an alarm, i.e. your dog, and have to get up and ready to go. Pooch is panting at the door so you rush around looking scrambling to find everything you need. Poo bags, lead, treats have replaced wallet, make up and cigarettes. Then you make your way to the park/office, come rain or shine.
When you get there you’re immediately greeted with “morning” several times, which you have to reply to with a stretched smile. You then look around to see if you can spot any familiar faces. Oh no, it’s Margaret from HR…or the woman who has the same dog breed as yours and always wants to chat but you can’t stand her. You try to say you need to go but you’re both perfectly aware that you have nowhere else to go!
Then you see someone you want to chat to across the park and hurry off giving a lame excuse. You meet your friend, ahh finally we can chat. As you’re about to unravel the saucy story from the night before, the man with the two noisy daschunds creeps up behind you and mutters “what are you ladies talking about?”. You move to the next water cooler/tree to avoid him. Luckily his dogs can’t keep up.
At this point your friend’s pooch runs off to another group of dogs – it’s an important meeting! There seem to be snacks there so your dog follows and obviously you also have to. You all gather round talking about the weather and what you watched on Netflix the night before.
Those with things to do head to their desks, office or home one, and others hang around procrastinating…mainly to talk about those who have left. The more mature ones comment on the younger ones still in training, “These young ones need to do more research”” or “when I first got here I’d spend hours trying to get it right”. All whilst the newbies play around and forget the park/office etiquette. No jumping, which is the equivalent of sitting on someone else’s desk.
And as with any office the bathroom is a major topic of conversation: Tthe ones that don’t pick up poo are the colleagues who don’t wash their hands. The shame.
I guess you get paid to go to the office but the love of a dog is priceless so we all know where we’d prefer to be.
Please share your thoughts and stories below.
Until next time, woof 🐾
