After adopting its first cat, Futaba, from a sushi restaurant in 2004, Qnote, a Japanese tech company, simply could not resist “hiring” more felines.
When Qnote moved to a bigger four-storey office building in 2020, it did not forget its most important employees. The chaircat is Futaba, who, at 20 years old, is the highest-ranking employee in the company, even outranking the boss, Nobuyuki Tsuruta. Tsuruta, a cat lover himself, said many staff members also have cats at home, and the animals have become an effective tool for attracting new employees. They have also helped reduce the company’s quit rate, he said.
He added that the cats have “helped people bond” and offer insights for managers to better learn about their team members based on how they interacted with the cats.