One of the ways the pandemic years drastically shifted Americans’ lives was a huge surge in pet ownership. All that time at home was the perfect opportunity to FINALLY get that dog you never quite had the schedule to adjust to and train, and shelters and breeders reported huge upticks in pet purchases and adoptions.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Now it seems like every company is demanding everyone come back to the office, if they hadn’t already two years ago, despite all the evidence saying it’s actually counterproductive. And pet owners are among those who are the most upset about it.

Pet owners would rather quit than comply with a return-to-office mandate.

Employ Borderless is an HR consultancy that helps companies navigate remote work schemes, and they recently dug into exactly how workers are feeling about all these return-to-office mandates that have become so numerous that it almost feels like remote work is becoming a thing of the past.

They found a particularly sticky issue employers might want to take seriously: 71% of workers now have a pet at home, and they are NOT having the RTO mandates. That’s according to a series of surveys of more than 5,000 remote workers conducted in the last two years.

Overall, more than two-thirds of pet owners said they would rather quit their job entirely than upend their life and their pet’s to return to the office. And it seems that the impact on pets is adding to the growing resentment workers feel about being forced back into the office, often seemingly for no good reason.

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Studies have shown that pet owners are the most productive and engaged remote workers.

Presumably, part of what is getting under pet owners’ skin is that return-to-office mandates don’t seem to serve any real purpose beyond companies having an easier time cracking the whip and surveilling their workers.

Because the data is crystal clear and has been for decades, long before the pandemic was ever a twinkle in the eye: Remote workers tend to be more productive and have better employee retention than their in-office counterparts, and most recent studies saying the opposite have significant bias and conflict of interest issues, like connections to the commercial real estate industry.

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But when it comes to pet owners, these trends are on a whole other level: A Gallup study found that pet-owning employees are better workers by multiple metrics. They rank 26 points higher on employee engagement, three times better on workplace relationships, have much higher retention rates, and 44% better routine adherence.

They also have vastly better mental health and stress scores. Roll that all together with the staggering cost an RTO can present for a pet owner, who now has to hire a dog walker or pay for “doggie daycare,” for instance — all to go back to an office for no real reason — it’s not hard to see why pet owners are so firmly against this trend.

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HR professionals say this issue is already causing problems in hiring, even in the poor job market.

Employ Borderless even found that pet-owning professionals are willing to take a pay cut if it means not having to comply with an RTO, and in this economy, that’s saying something. And they believe it’s indicative of a future trend.

In fact, 85% of HR professionals in the millennial age group say rigid RTOs or company policies that don’t allow for flexible features like dog-friendly offices are already causing hiring problems, and 82% of HR leaders overall say companies need to adopt pet-friendly policies now to avoid a huge hiring issue in the near future.

The data shows they are, in fact, better workers, with a 91% engagement rate compared to 65% among non-pet owners, according to the Human Animal Bond Research Institute, or HABRI.

Employ Borderless predicts it is only a matter of time before there is a “Great Resignation 2.0” of pet owners that causes companies to rapidly reverse their RTO policies, something many other analysts have predicted in the workforce in general. The job market may be bad enough that employers are getting away with these absurd demands for now, but the clock is always ticking.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.