日本网络公司让喵星人入驻办公室
When you live in a cramped city like Tokyo, owning a pet is a luxury many people cannot afford. Apartments usually come with strict no-pets policies, and the only way Tokyo dwellers have been able to get their pet-fix is by visiting cat cafes. Sure, it's nice to sip on a delicious drink while petting a purring kitty, but you can't stay there forever. What are you supposed to do during those other, horrible cat-less hours of the day?
居住在东京这样拥挤的城市，拥有宠物对许多人来说成了消受不起的奢侈。东京的公寓通常严禁饲养宠物，居民们与宠物亲密接触的唯一方法就是去猫咪咖啡馆。一边喝着可口的饮料一边爱抚咕噜咕噜的猫咪的确很美好，但你总不能永远呆在那里。在那些缺少猫咪陪伴的悲剧时间里你该怎么办呢？
One company in Japan has come up with a solution. They're bringing the soothing cat cafe experience to the office by filling their workplace with adorable cats.
The cat-populated workplace is the brainchild of Ferray Corporation, an internet solutions business which mainly deals with webpage construction, application development, and other IT work. The company own nine loveable rescue cats that are allowed to roam the office on a daily basis, sleeping, causing adorable trouble as cats will, and just generally being cute little balls of stress-relief.
Of course, the cats can be little pranksters sometimes too. Apparently they accidentally switch off computers, chew on LAN cables, scratch the walls, tear up papers, and of course mess up code by walking across keyboards. When clients come over, the cats have a bad habit of exploring their bags by falling inside them, and sleeping right on top of meeting tables.
Still, the employees have said that despite some minor annoyances, the cats have been an enormous net positive. Officecommunication has increased dramatically, since the cats are a topic that brings employees together, and also lower everyone's stress. It's basically just impossible to be upset when there's a cat just hanging out nearby you, chewing on a toy or chasing a laser.
And the company's pro-pet policies don't just end with the nine cats. Every day is Bring Your Pet to Work Day, as employees are encouraged to bring their own pets with them to the office. If they don't have a pet of their own, then the company pays out a 5,000 yen (US$42) per month "cat bonus" to anyone who adopts a cat in need of a home.
As crazy as it may sound, Ferray isn't alone in its pet policies. Another company that specializes in pet supplies, Mars Japan Limited, also encourages its employees to bring their pets to work. Other companies offer benefits such as treating the death of employees' pets the same as the death of a family member, giving them time off, condolence pay, and covering funeral services.