Thursday lunchtime I was working at our WeWork in Holborn and had been banished from our little office into the shared space for reasonable reasons. This is something I usually avoid if I can. I don’t much like the atmosphere/vibe and it is always too noisy for me to really concentrate.

Also there are often dogs.

This was one of those occasions. While I was working a dog was wandering around the space exploring as they are prone to do and its owner wasn’t taking much notice. Most people seemed fine with it. I wasn’t and after the second time dog nudged me unexpectedly I tweeted;

..honestly I almost deleted it straight away but I was distracted by finding somewhere dog free to work and so I  let it sit.

Despite having been on Twitter for more than 12 years I’ve never really had a ‘viral’ tweet and it would be a stretch to say that was what this was but it certainly went further and faster than I was expecting. I was genuinely worried I was going to get hammered by folks when I saw some of the numbers Thursday evening as I got the train home to Bristol.

As it happened though it seemed to open a floodgate of people who agreed with the sentiment – from CTOs of pretty famous workplace collaboration tools in San Francisco to designers in New Zealand and family members of friends in New York. Far more people were supportive than not and even those people who probably think I am an animal hating sociopath were really reasonable. It was quite weird – like the old Twitter (on the day current Twitter was fully engaged with the small matter of our leaving the EU.)

I did find it interesting that the ratio of ‘likes’ to ‘retweets’ was so extreme – people agreed but didn’t want to risk bringing the wrath of dog lovers down on themselves (or me I hope!)

For the record I really do dislike dogs in offices – I wasn’t just having a bad day. I am always nervous around dogs and no your lovely animal won’t be the one that changes my mind. Big, small, cute or scruffy they all make me uncomfortable. I cross streets to avoid dogs so I don’t know why I’d want to share my work space with them. I know people feel differently about this but I was surprised by how many people felt similar.

Will I ever be tweeting something similar again? That is a solid no.

Do I regret tweeting it this time? Less than I expected.