An editor I know offers his definition of a small business.

It isn’t a place where fewer than 250 people work, or where it is family owned and operated.

It’s a place where you can bring your dog to work!

I like that, and it makes me wonder if, every now and then, businesses large and small should declare it’s bring-your-pets-to-work-day!

Rural kids enjoy fests like this.

In Greencastle, Indiana, for instance, the younger set will bring tiny farm animals to school. It isn’t unusual to have a show-and-tell session featuring little powdered pigs shuttled in shoeboxes, and your standard range of puppies, kitties, hamsters, and snakes.

Well, we already have casual Fridays and other workplace perks that encourage us to let our hair down and team-build. What could be better than sharing our pets?

Our pets actually say more about our personalities and inner worlds than our kids, because, for one thing we can choose our pets, right?

On Pet-Day, we can have contests and competitions, such as frog jumping,

By the minute, I’m getting more and more worked up about this.

If it really catches on, it could become another faux holiday, such as National Customer Service Week, or Secretaries Day, though I’m not sure if automation and political correctness have nixed the latter.

Anyway, put a note in that suggestion box at work. This is one improvement that will make nearly everybody purr and coo.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. A frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide, Gary’s programs are offered by UCLA Extension and by numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. Gary is headquartered in Glendale, California. He can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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