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!