Dogs at Microsoft

And no, I am not talking about the discontinued “Microsoft Dogs” product, of which I actually bought a copy at our company store when we used to sell it. This is about life at Microsoft. I had my dog (Ripley) at work today, but unfortunately in the car (in a parking garage, so not too hot, not too cold). I would of course take her out for a walk ever couple of hours. At lunch time, I saw 3 other people out walking their dogs too! I also ran across a couple of people who didn’t look too happy to see Ripley, even though she was on a leash and behaving herself, which is pretty good for her considering she is a distractible 8 month-old. That might be why Microsoft’s official policy is to not have dogs (pets in general) at work, which I assume means in the office. Of course, Ripley is more like our daughter than like a pet – no offense to people who have real kids, but for those with 4-legged kids, I’m sure you’ll understand.

As I mentioned back in December, we have been working on a new version of our demo. So, the last couple of weeks have included some late nights at the office. To give my wife a break (she often works from home), I have been taking the dog into the office in the evenings, since nobody is around at that time I figure it’s OK. She sleeps peacefully on the floor as I work.

One more tidbit about Dogs at Microsoft is that we have an Exchange Public Folder dedicated to just that: dam, or Dogs At Microsoft. It’s there for no other reason than to be a social gathering place (online) for employees with dogs.

If you’re interested in seeing what Ripley looks like (and who doesn’t like to show off pictures of their kids?), you can see them on our MSN Spaces site at https://spaces.msn.com/members/grothadventures/

 

Look for a more interesting (or useful anyway) blog about my review of The Tipping Point book soon!

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 24, 2005
  What next at Microsoft? The new uptodate Microsoft Stable Center 2005 for parking horses, as I love riding horses. No offence meant for keeping pets and nonesoever about dogs. But still...
• Anonymous
  March 24, 2005
  Why did the people not like seeing the dog? Was it because they didn't like seeing you out walking instead of working?
• Anonymous
  March 25, 2005
  James: Some people just don't like dogs. You can see it in their face when they look at a dog.
• Anonymous
  March 25, 2005
  There was a no dogs policy? thats wierd....I guess the people I saw with dogs in their offices never read that policy....
• Anonymous
  April 01, 2005
  The comment has been removed