How much time off work should I take for a new pet?
Deciding when and how long to take off work for a new pet creates anxiety about whether asking for leave or admitting the reason to an employer will seem unprofessional. People struggle to balance wanting to be home to help the animal acclimate with the fear of awkwardness or embarrassment at work.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Taking consecutive weeks off individually with a partner, staggering work schedules, going home during lunches to let the puppy out, and enrolling the puppy in preschool once vaccinated.
- 2Taking PTO and telling coworkers or HR it is for personal reasons or vacation without specifying the real reason
- 3Adopting pets only when already scheduled for existing time off
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“So I'm thinking of adopting a new cat since I've recently moved into an apartment that allows pets and have found new relative financial stability. Would it be weird to ask for time off work (paid) to bond with the cat and get it used to me and it's new environment?”source ↗
“Would I be embarrassing myself and cover it with a generic lie?”source ↗
“I took time off when we got each of our pets.”source ↗
“If you could take a month off with your new puppy, would you do so starting on the first day home? At some other point in time after the pup has had some time to acclimate?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 7Can a first year teacher ask for time off?
- 5How to balance college and a new puppy alone
- 3How to handle cat care and travel during school breaks
- 3Can I afford to take unpaid maternity leave?
- 3How can I take a long break to travel without losing my job?
- 28How to handle a young puppy alone during sudden schedule changes