According to a survey that was taken, the average Japanese worker spends 53 hours per week working but a significant percentage – just about 15-20 percent of people – work in upwards of 60 hours a week. The results of this survey clearly show that the Japanese, like many people around the world, have too much to do, too much work, and so little time to relax and enjoy their lives. That is the main reason why the percentage of Japanese who are stressed at work is so very very high.
Unfortunately, when work stress actually becomes chronic, it can lead to various health problems (both physical and emotional) such as heart disease and metabolic syndrome.
And so, Ferray, a company which is located in Japan, which specializes in IT, introduced a solution – a “kitty policy”. This policy allows employees to bring their own cats into work at any time to help reduce stress and the fatigue that is the result of working a lot.
Hidenobu Fukuda, who is the head of the company, introduced the famous kitty policy back in the year 2000 upon a request from one of his employees. He also strongly encourages his staff to adopt cats from shelters and streets instead of buying them from the pet stores.
“I launched an ‘office cat’ policy. It allows employees to come to work with their cats. I will also give ¥5000 (S$62) for those who want to take in a rescue cat.” Hidenobu Fukuda has stated.
Besides encouraging cat-loving employees to bring along their felines to the office, the company also adopted nine adorable cats who are allowed to freely roam around inside the office and do whatever they wish. Although this greatly helps staff members, there are still various obstacles when letting the cats roam around the office.
“Sometimes a cat will walk on a phone and cut off the call, or they shut down the computers by walking onto the off switch,” he said.
In the end, though, having cats in the office has been the perfect solution for employees who are stressed out and overworked, and it’s been good for the cats as well.
Consequently, the policy has actually inspired various other companies to do the same! What an awesome idea!
Be sure to scroll down to watch the video below!
A Japanese company is encouraging people to bring their cats to the office to help them cope with stress and fatigue pic.twitter.com/EnA4RSNsyI
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 19, 2017
