Southern Indiana Business March-April 2020 | Page 10

CONSIDER THIS
Monica Little and her dog, Mocha Love, sit at their desk while working on the computer.
Changing
workplace
culture
Offices going to the dogs
... and yoga teachers
by Aprile Rickert | photos by Tyler Stewart
S
ome days, Monica Little brings friends with her to work.
She makes a bed near her desk for Mocha Love, a Shih-Tzu, and Coco, a
Yorkshire Terrier, and there they sleep, unless they’re visiting others in the
office.
“While I’m working, if I feel myself start to tense up or get a little
stressed, I can look down and see them,” Little, an office support advocate at the Center
for Women and Families in New Albany, said. “Something just comes over me like
warmth and lots of happiness.”
Bringing in pets on occasion has become part of a bigger ideology the office has
embraced over the past year — creating a work culture that’s comforting and allows
room for growth.
“It starts with us first because if we aren’t taking care of us, we sure as heck can’t take
care of anyone else,” Zenebia Law, supervisor of Indiana programs at the center, said.
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March / April 2020
Josh Elkin relaxes in the massage
chair while spending time in the
self-care space at the Center for
Women and Families.