No one likes a cubicle lurker or close talker at the office. But, with more businesses getting hip to telecommuting and the fact that more than half of all US small businesses are home-based, annoying co-workers are becoming a thing of the past.
The people kind, at least.
New Yorkers who work from home may spend their 9 to 5 without human company — but they’re not alone. That’s because pets are the new colleagues.
“I prefer animals to people. Animals are much more genuine,” says Shandana Durrani, a travel journalist and the author of “Day Trips from New York City.”
Until November 2008, Durrani worked in the Manhattan offices of Cigar Aficionado magazine, but she now works from her apartment in Forest Hills, with her cat Taranga by her side.
Despite Taranga’s demands for her attention — “She’ll cry at me and try and get onto my lap when I’m typing” — Durrani prefers the freedom of working from home and believes she gets more accomplished without co-workers dropping by her desk, touching her stuff and asking what she did over the weekend.
To make up for the lack of social interaction, Durrani talks to her cat. “She sits on the couch staring at me, so I’ll say things like, ‘Can you believe what this person did, Taranga?’ ”
Amelia McDonnell-Parry, editor of women’s Web site The Frisky, knows all about pet chitchat. While her new office is being prepped, she works from her Manhattan studio with Lucca, her 5-year-old mutt.
“I have full-on conversations with her,” she admits. “Both sides of the conversation, actually. I share my pain over server issues with her — and say doesn’t she hate it when that happens, too?”
McDonnell-Parry admits that, essentially, she’s talking to herself. But some home-office workers find themselves toiling alongside animals who talk back.
Megan Carpentier, executive editor of investigative news site The Raw Story, used to spend her workday in the company of her roommate’s bird, Chaos. When he wasn’t imitating hushed conversations he’d heard between his owner and her boyfriend, he’d squawk to get Carpentier’s attention.
“He’d yell, ‘Birdie! Birdie! Kiss! Kiss! Chaos! Chaos!’” says Carpentier, who was working as a freelance writer at the time.
Things got weird when she realized that Chaos had mood swings just like human colleagues. “If the room was warm and sunny, he’d do wolf-whistles and give out compliments, like, ‘Kiss, kiss peeps,’ ” she recalls. Other times, “He’d repeat insults he heard, like ‘Why don’t you just . . .’ ”
Carpentier says that being squawked at by Chaos was a hilarious introduction to living in New York City after moving from DC. As a political writer for Jezebel, she often wrote about upsetting topics like rape and abortion. “So having a bird chirping in the apartment, even cussing at me, was a good reality check about how the world wasn’t so terrible,” she says.
Since Chaos and her old roommate moved out, Carpentier now finds her workdays to be much quieter: “I definitely feel more alone than I did before,” she admits.
Likewise, McDonnell-Parry says, “I would miss the office a lot more if I didn’t have Lucca. She’s a nice energy to be around and forces me to get some fresh air.”
Durrani also says she would miss Taranga if she had to return to an office job — and tolerates her pawing at her computer in exchange for the companionship she provides.
Pet-therapy studies have already proven that petting animals can help lower blood pressure, so working with a four-legged colleagues is good for employee health.
Plus, “Lucca is just so cute!” says McDonnell-Parry. “It’s hard to be in a bad mood or get pissy about things when there’s an adorable puppy sitting next to you.”