Cat herding – best done by cats?

Managing creative people are often compared to herding cats (link 1, link 2, link 3). And that can be a daunting task as cats are known to do mainly do what they want to do.

However this is not a blog post about the usual answers to leading creating people. As usual  I have connected som related things and got this crazy idea that I just have to share (and I hope that ranks me as one of the creative peole).

Well, leading creative people may be like herding like herding cats, which sounds stressful, and often taking part in a software development project is almost the definition of a stressfull environment.

This is a bit funny as actually research shows that owning cats have many benefits. One of the benifits are that having cats around reduces stress. Having worked from home the last couple of month I can attest to that having a cat sleeping on your desk next to your keyboard while you work has a very soothing effect that lets you concentrate on the job. And if you need a quick laugh just take 2 minutes watching a cat play with a string (not my cat, allthough one of my cats are called Arthur).

A couple of month ago, I stumbled over a refence to cat cafés. At that time I thought it funny, and was wondering if a cat café would work here in Copenhagen where I live. But recently I have thought further – what about cat offices? Would it be an improvement to an office if there was a cat or two present?

On the top of your head you will probably call the idea ridiculous but try to give it some more thought. Cats are very clean animals and they sleep 60-70% of the day, and are generally not hard to keep. It is a very little expense and that could easy be recovered if they help create a less stressfull enviroment with a less negative mood that increases the productivity.

I am not saying this is an idea that will work for everybody – perhaps it will only work for a few – but on the othe I hand I do believe it should not be completely written off either.

Do any of you know offices where they keep cats? Then please leave a message in the comments.