Ask HN: Startups that allow cats? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Startups that allow cats?

Many tech companies allow employees to bring dogs to work, but are there any that allow cats?

All these years, and we're finally getting around to the important questions.

I don't have a cat (or a workplace), but cat cafes seem to be purring right along.

Digging a bit, it seems that one in seven kids has cat allergies, which is twice as much as the rate with kids and dogs. Either way, that's a fair number of people, so if there's any sort of discrimination involved, I'm sure cat lawyers will pounce.

Anecdotally, yes, at least one; Cloudsoft, in Edinburgh in the UK! I brought my cat Biggles to work once, but it was underwhelming. He ignored me completely, and went to sleep under a colleague's desk.

2/5 would not bring cat to work again. Also, the building has since put down rat-poison to sort out a rodent problem, so it probably wouldn't be safe for him, sadly.

If you _really_ want to work with your cat, may I suggest remote working from home as the way to go?

I think this is usually not "a thing" because cats don't cope with sudden changes of surroundings well, nor do they tend to coexist well with other cats that they didn't grow up around. The only case where I've seen cats in a workplace, it was a cat that lived at a small bookstore.

How would that even work? Cats don't follow you around and obey your commands, they just kinda wander about. In my experience, they also hate being transported. Maybe you have an unusual cat, but my guess is that there are not many startups who have an explicit "cat" policy because it would be such an uncommon request.

Additionally, a significant portion of the population has cat allergies

This is true. My allergies to cats are so severe that it would literally be a deal-breaker for me. I couldn't accept a job in an office with cats and I would have to quit if someone started bringing one to work. Obviously proximity is a factor, but, my (cat) allergies are pretty bad and basically completely debilitating when triggered.

MacPaw is one tech company that has cats and a special cat room:

http://blog.macpaw.com/post/109471340953/welcome-to-the-drea...

http://officefetish.co/core/macpaw/

Off topic, but MacPaw has got really nice software. Amazing design. It is nice to see that their office also looks as "sleek" as their apps.

They sell a "Mac cleaner" product? Aren't those scams?

Honestly, that was my impression at first. But the difference (in hindsight I've never really looked into other apps) is that they actually list ALL files they flag for removal (In Gemini 2 as well) so you do have the option to double check what the app does. You could even let it run in trial (500MB deletion limit) and then plainly look at the list and go delete it manually.

The apps are also not "mass produced", they have really nice animations and you can definitely feel that there has been a lot of effort put into them.

They also make some music player and encryption apps so they're not all cleaning apps.

Fixel and Hoover are beautiful cats and I am very impressed to see an example. Personally I would be very surprised if this worked considering how territorial cats are.

Why do some companies allow dogs? Some people are allergic to them, don't want to get licked by them, bitten, or want to step on dog poo. I've seen all that happen to other people in the company.

Don't get me wrong, I love animals and I have my own. But where do we draw the line between personal and professional? How do we tell John that his dog is OK, but Bob that his dog needs to stay home?

At Google there's a one-strike policy. If your dog defecates indoors, bites someone, is overly friendly, or any number of things like that, you can (and generally are) asked to not bring them back. It's also considered common courtesy to ask people that you will be in close proximity to before you bring a dog in, in case of allergies.

Cat-related allergies are much more common than dog ones. Generally dogs are also better trained than cats and behave more predictably.

I've never heard of any company allow cats in the San Francisco bay area. Why would you want to subject your cat to being moved around so much?

My partner's startup in game dev allows dogs and cats. Though nobody has brought a cat in yet, he does look forward to the day I show up with our cat in his cat stroller...

All of the big offices I have worked in for Investment Banks in London have had a mouse problem. Bringing cats to work should be encouraged.

No, because cats < dogs.

Guess sassy humour doesn't go far here.

No. This place hates humour, hates fun, and hates anything that distracts from the serious discussion that happens. I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way.

As much as I cheerfully upvote snarky jabs at HN's pretension to highfallutin', superior-quality commentry, consistently downvoting effortless one-liner comments is a great way to ensure that they generally don't happen.

Worth it.

Lost 8 karma first time I found that out.

That's a pre-order.

I work 100% remote and hang out with my cat (and dog!) all day. As do my other coworkers. Why not try that out?

https://i.guggy.com/dGCaMn.gif

Works just fine at bodegas in New York, often with more than one. Just don't expect them to come over when your colleagues want to see them.

robinhood.io is so obsessed with cats that they have a huge cat mural: https://vimeo.com/115955748

Such a strange job criteria :D

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