You know the saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Chances are you’ve spent a considerable time working and not playing, so you’ve probably experienced it first-hand. Time spent at work can be stiff, uncomfortable, and way too-stressful. That’s just not good for people.

There are a lot of ways we could talk about the culture we’ve cultivated here at PawsiVibes, but most of them are gonna sound like I’m trying to sell you on it. If you’ve read our FAQ, you know how much care goes into the essential oil blends we’ve put together for our beloved pets.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the care doesn’t stop with our pets. Our employees are the backbone of this place, and we want them to be happy and healthy too. Can’t make happy & healthy pets without happy & healthy people, right?

This post will be a little different than others, focused on PawsiVibes the company instead of our products or pets. If ya don’t care much about the culture behind the brand, no sweat; just skip on to the next article. We think it’s really neat though (and I get to write whatever I want in these blog posts, so you know it’s gotta be true).

Our ‘Deal’

We’re not like most companies, and that’s not by accident. Most folks don’t make it out of their twenties without some sort of workforce experience and, when it was time to put together the employee playbook, we had a lot to pick over and consider what worked and what didn’t. What made us feel like machines instead of people, like we were married to our jobs because we didn’t have a choice, and sometimes like we were wasting our lives away.

The core tenet of our company philosophy is a focus on a healthy work-life balance, and we don’t think that’s possible if you’re chained to a desk/warehouse/anything for 5 days each week. That’s why we decided to go a different route. Our employees work 32 hours a week – even the ones on salary – with pay adjusted to match what you’d expect from a 40h work week. We opted to just get rid of Mondays, ‘cause who really needs them? Famous pet Garfield was right after all.

In addition to a shortened work week, we also decided to cut out the commute entirely. Not with a fun new teleportation device, though if you have one we do want to hear about it. (Seriously. Please? That’d be so cool.)

No, we’ve chosen to take the path of working almost exclusively from home, since those pesky laws of time and space still apply. If you aren’t driving to work every day, you’re saving on money, time, and pain. It also means we don’t have to limit ourselves to finding people passionate about our work within driving distance. The sky’s the limit, baby! (PawsiVibes doesn’t have anyone working in space…. yet. Give us time.)

For the folks who can’t work from home like our Shipping & Receiving team, Formulation team (you can’t make supplements at scale in your kitchen, right?), etc., we provide stipends to cover travel expenses, free lunches, and other benefits to make up for the commute.

If you’re not sold on work-from-home, check out this article from Business Insider about average time and money spent per state on a year’s commute. It’s a real eye-opener!

And, hey, do you know what you can do when you aren’t spending half your waking hours working or driving to work or thinking about work? You can spend time with your furry fam! We know what we’re into here, and it’s playing fetch in the late afternoon glow of the sunset over the backyard.

But that wasn’t enough for us, and it wouldn’t be for our employees either. There’s more to work and what makes employment worth it than that. We assembled an extensive employee benefits package that actually takes care of our people. How could PawsiVibes possibly promote pet health without also wanting our workforce to be healthy?

So we opted for the best insurance we can afford for our team, not just the bottom of the barrel sky-high deductible plans. It’s gold and platinum insurance all the way down, ‘cause we think you should be able to get your teeth, eyes, and overall health taken care of whenever you need to. Speaking of which . . .

We also offer unlimited PTO, just in case your kid’s recital or your fur baby’s graduation from obedience training falls during work hours. Or when you’re not feeling well or need to go to the doctor. Or for when you just want some you-time! The wellbeing of our employees is the foundation of a productive and happy workforce. (Yes, even more important than your dog selfies – but we do love those, so please keep sending them.)

There’s one more big thing, the cherry atop this happy sundae. You’ve probably noticed that we’re pretty casual here! Not everyone is goofy-friendly like me, but we don’t see any point in forcing our employees to act like people they aren’t just in order to fit in. We want to keep things chill. There is a time for professionalism, sure, but there’s also a time to flood your coworker’s messages with the latest cute animal video that’s gone viral on socials, and we really lean towards the latter. We even have a dedicated Slack channel for that (to be fair I created that Slack channel, but I think the Marketing Director posts more than anyone else so I feel validated).

There was this one time I dropped a bunch of swears in a meeting with the CEO because I knocked over my coffee. He just laughed and mourned the loss of my fresh brew, the most appropriate actions to take during such a tragic event.

What this all boils down to is: happy employees make for better service for our customers (that’s you! And your pets of course). And let’s be real, it’d be silly to have a name like PawsiVibes and not care about making our own posi-vibes, right?

Questions? Comments? Drop us a line at info@pawsivibes.com.

Selfies with your pupper? And, like, if your dog is wearing one of those cute little bandana scarves? We need to see it. Send us an email at blog@pawsivibes.com. With your permission, we may even showcase your pet on our Instagram or Pinterest board! Catch them posing around some PawsiVibes merch or products and we’ll absolutely feature them in a post, and get you 20% off your next order. How cool is that?