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This is partially a CoC because the employee in question doesn't make the dog wear his service vest, which confuses people.
I hate being near the dog because people always ask me about him. Their favorite question is "Whose is it?" I just answer that it's an employees, but don't specify, since I don't feel the need to point out others' disabilities. I answered such question today and the girls asking immediately asked if they could pet it and I simply said "Nope." OK, maybe I was a bit sucky, but they asked a yes-or-no question and I answered it! When I said have a good day at the end one of them had an attitude when she said "Yeah, you too" or whatever she said. I think she didn't like hearing no.
The next lady was smart enough to perceive it was a service dog and she asked if it was, but did we really need to have a conversation about it? It's not my dog. It's not anyone's business but the owner of the dog. I kind of cut off the discussion by asking a manager for something I needed, but I can't keep doing that.
I ended up asking the very understanding supervisor to move me away from the dog, who happened to be right behind his master, which meant everyone should ask me about it.
My sup was totally in agreement with me, but I vented to a coworker who didn't see the problem. "X doesn't mind [if people know about his disability]," she said. So I posed it like this: "He doesn't mind, but what if it was my dog? Would I want people talking about whose it is and why I have it??" She just didn't get that even though X doesn't mind, SOME PEOPLE DO and people should just leave it alone. Ugh!
Bonus CoC: I'm running into nosiness at the new job and feeling pressured to answer questions to keep the peace because I will need help from these people. I've had a bad week pain-wise. Even the opioid didn't help yesterday. So when I was with a seasoned person listening to her calls, I went and got a bag of ice on break. I came back to her desk with it. I couldn't avoid it; it was the only thing that was going to lessen my agony. And she said "Ice?" which was dumb because yeah--you could see what it was. She immediately asked if I had a backache and I felt I had to answer because I don't want to be labelled as rude and touchy my first month there. She could've ignored it. Maybe I should've put it in my shirt before I walked out on the floor.
My own supervisor took me aside in a closed room when I needed to talk to her about it because at least she cared about privacy.
I hate being near the dog because people always ask me about him. Their favorite question is "Whose is it?" I just answer that it's an employees, but don't specify, since I don't feel the need to point out others' disabilities. I answered such question today and the girls asking immediately asked if they could pet it and I simply said "Nope." OK, maybe I was a bit sucky, but they asked a yes-or-no question and I answered it! When I said have a good day at the end one of them had an attitude when she said "Yeah, you too" or whatever she said. I think she didn't like hearing no.
The next lady was smart enough to perceive it was a service dog and she asked if it was, but did we really need to have a conversation about it? It's not my dog. It's not anyone's business but the owner of the dog. I kind of cut off the discussion by asking a manager for something I needed, but I can't keep doing that.
I ended up asking the very understanding supervisor to move me away from the dog, who happened to be right behind his master, which meant everyone should ask me about it.
My sup was totally in agreement with me, but I vented to a coworker who didn't see the problem. "X doesn't mind [if people know about his disability]," she said. So I posed it like this: "He doesn't mind, but what if it was my dog? Would I want people talking about whose it is and why I have it??" She just didn't get that even though X doesn't mind, SOME PEOPLE DO and people should just leave it alone. Ugh! Bonus CoC: I'm running into nosiness at the new job and feeling pressured to answer questions to keep the peace because I will need help from these people. I've had a bad week pain-wise. Even the opioid didn't help yesterday. So when I was with a seasoned person listening to her calls, I went and got a bag of ice on break. I came back to her desk with it. I couldn't avoid it; it was the only thing that was going to lessen my agony. And she said "Ice?" which was dumb because yeah--you could see what it was. She immediately asked if I had a backache and I felt I had to answer because I don't want to be labelled as rude and touchy my first month there. She could've ignored it. Maybe I should've put it in my shirt before I walked out on the floor.
My own supervisor took me aside in a closed room when I needed to talk to her about it because at least she cared about privacy.