'This 45 minute meeting was like, 80% about my cats': HR calls employee in for emergency meeting to discuss how she's not allowed to mention that she has cats to co-workers

Author image for Mariel Ruvinsky
Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor
Feb 13, 2026 11:00 AM EST

Talking about your cats at work should not be reprimanded, it should be mandatory. 

Look, we don't know, maybe it's just in our office - our very cat-centric office - that it is highly accepted to talk about cats all the time. But we don't think so. We think that people talking about their cats, people showing off cute pictures of cats, people sending each other funny memes of cats througout the day, it's not only normal, it's actually good for the overall morale of the office. Because cats are just… pawsome. Even people who don't have cats or who are not as obsessed with cats as we are are happy to talk about them and see pictures of them. 

In our humble opinion, people should tell funny anecdotes about cats, show pictures and videos of them, and talk about them in general much, much more often. Office included. To think that the person in this story got reprimanded for even less than that - for just telling one of their coworkers that they have cats is absolutely ridiculous. Especially considering the fact that the person who is doing the reprimanding has two giant portraits of their own dogs in their office right behind them. 

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  • 01
    Picture of a cat on a bed.
    via Unsplash / Greeshma Gangadharan - greeshmag

    Picture of a cat on a bed.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    From my title, I feel I should explain right away that my cats have never come to work with me. I've had 2 pictures at my desk (Front Office Manager) since my first week at this job (I no longer work there, and thank goodness). 1 picture of my dog, and the other picture of my 2 cats. They rarely come up in conversation.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 03
    After like 8ish months in this job, my boss asks me to do task force at another property down the road that is also owned by the same company. I said sure, because let's be honest, there's no way I could say no.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 04
    My boss said she has no idea what they will want me to do there. It might be front desk, housekeeping, or F&B. I have less experience in F&B, but it's also a much smaller property. So, whatever, I guess. It is explained to me that the other property is a union hotel, and we are not, so it will be very different, and I will need to be very careful.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 05
    I'm told the GM there will explain everything when I get there. Okay. I asked about parking and my GM didn't know. I emailed the other GM and she never answered me. Our accounting manager worked for both properties and he explained the parking to me.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 06
    My first day at the other property, the GM does not meet with me for over an hour. I tried to log in on the computer, but wasn't given any login info. I called the help desk and they had no record in their system of an ID being created for me.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 07
    When the GM finally came back around, I asked her about it, and she said she definitely did set up an ID and password for me. I called support again, and they still could not find me. I spelled my name a few times, provided my date of birth, but still nothing.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 08
    My GM digs through her emails and papers on her desk and finally locates it. My name was spelled wrong, which is why support couldn't find me. Again, whatever, I can log in. Great.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 09
    Picture of a cute cat with its eyes closed.
    via Unsplash / Greeshma Gangadharan - greeshmag

    Picture of a cute cat with its eyes closed. 

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Talking about our cats to our co-workers is literally one of our favorite things to do! Showing pictures, videos, sharing stories about them - it makes our days so much better. For us and for our coworkers. Of course, our office, here at ICHC, is a little bit different in that way. We actively get encouraged to take videos of our cats and post them online for your enjoyment. But we still don't think that this is something any office we have ever heard of has ever had a problem with. Cats are like- the most innocent and wholesome topic of conversation that you could possibly have at work. It should be encouraged everywhere, if anything. 

  • 10
    I ask what she would like me to do and she has no idea. She had someone else doing task force, and she was working on a new menu for the restaurant. Housekeeping was pretty well staffed. The restaurant only put frozen pizzas in an oven and sold deli sandwiches that were pre- packaged, and there was a bartender to serve coffee and alcohol.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 11
    It was a shitty restaurant, so they averaged about 2 guests a day. They didn't need anyone else helping out in there. The front desk was a little shorter staffed, so I was assigned to go there.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 12
    I was super cautious around the staff at this hotel, fearing a grievance because I didn't have a rulebook for the union, and never worked at a union property before. But they were pretty nice. Not much out of the ordinary from what I'm used to.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 13
    I asked them to be patient because I was unfamiliar with the union, and always asked if it was okay if I did this or that before I did it.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 14
    One night, one of the girls at the front desk was going on her break, which was 1 hour, per the union. She said her husband made dinner and packed it for her and she was looking forward to it.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 15
    I said that was really nice, and I hope she enjoyed it. She asked if I was married, and I told her I am not. She asked if I was single, and I said yes, so she asked if I lived alone, or had a roommate or pets. I said no roommate, but I have pets.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 16
    I said I have a dog and 2 cats. I showed her 1 picture of all 3 of my pets together. She said they were cute, and then she went on her break. That was all. That was the entire interaction. It was under 5 minutes, and there were no guests around, and no phone calls. It was January, so really slow.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 17
    Picture of a ginger cat on a colorful blanket.
    via Unsplash / Greeshma Gangadharan - greeshmag

    Picture of a ginger cat on a colorful blanket.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 18
    When I got back to my actual job, after about a month of task force, I get called into HR, where the HR manager and my GM have a 45 minute meeting with me because they wanted to know why the union employees at the other hotel knew about my cats.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 19
    I was confused, but told them that the one girl asked if I had pets, I said yes, showed her 1 picture, and that was it. It's really no different than the pictures I have on display at my desk.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 20
    She said it was really inappropriate that they knew about my cats. I pointed out that I knew about her (my GM's) dogs. She had a massive portrait of her 2 dogs in her office. She is quick to point out that those are DOGS. Not cats.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 21
    I said "But you also have cats? You told me about your cats months ago. You showed me a picture of them. That's the same thing I did." She says to me "Almost NO ONE knows that I have CATS."
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 22
    I swear, this was the weirdest meeting I have ever been apart of. She went on to say that the other GM was disappointed with my "lack of initiative." One thing she specifically said was that I kept bothering her for login information when I should have been calling support myselft to get it set up.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 23
    I don't know if you realize this, but the help desk won't just create a login for anyone that calls and asks. Even after I got my login info, I called again to ask for more permissions, because I had less authorization than a supervisor, and I couldn't do the functions of my job with the access I was given.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 24
    Support said that only the GM can change the access level. So I asked her 3 times, and it was never fixed. I also called support again to see if a different agent would give me a different answer, but they didn't.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 25
    The really fun thing was that there was a new system for guest complaints, and it was impossible to find anything. I would regularly respond to cases and then not be able to find that case again.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 26
    Picture of two cats on a colorful blanket.
    via Unsplash / Greeshma Gangadharan - greeshmag

    Picture of two cats on a colorful blanket.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Something about this is so insanely fishy and suspicious, but we can't pinpoint exactly what. They have to be able to hear the hypocrisy. They have to know that they sound completely ridiculous, allowing themselves to talk about their pets and put up huge portraits of them, while you can't have a five-minute conversation about them with someone who explicitly asked about them without being reprimanded. It makes absolutely no sense. Maybe someone else - one of our readers - has a better understanding of what might be going on here and could share it with us. 

  • 27
    One day the GM was working on one I had already closed out, and I told her it was all set, and she didn't believe me. I don't remember if that one was a call or a chat that I did with support, but in any case, I talked with support about that case and they confirmed it was closed and that I had issued compensation.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 28
    All of this was explained (and had been documented in the support logs) to my GM and HR, but I was written up anyway for not taking initiative, even though all of my tasks were completed, and I never got an initial meeting with that GM to discuss what I would be doing there. She just told me to go to the front desk and my initiative figured out everything else.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 29
    Oh, I was also criticized for taking too long to get a uniform catalog and set up billing for the vendor, but I had email correspondence with the company where they rescheduled our meeting.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 30
    The write-up I got was very vague, mostly focusing on my lack of initiative, and inability to get login information without help. I wrote in the comment box that this was a grossly inaccurate statement, but I didn't even know what else to say because the whole thing came out of nowhere and was completely ridiculous.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 31
    This 45 minute meeting was like, 80% about my cats. I don't even know how, but every few minutes we would circle back to my cats. The other girl on task force also had cats and showed me a picture of her cats. I pointed that out and it was brushed off, just like my GM having cats herself, and me being aware of her cats was brushed off.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 32
    HR also had a cat, and she had a picture of her cat at her desk also. But that's different. Or so I was told. Cats were not mentioned in the write-up document, and I received a written warning instead of a verbal, and I had no prior disciplinary action against me. I did not get grieved by the union.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 33
    I didn't take my cats into work. I didn't spend all day talking about them. They came up in polite conversation on a couple of occasions, each time taking up less than 5 minutes, with no other tasks being interrupted. Equivalent to asking a coworker how their weekend was.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 34
    It seemed to me that everyone thought I would get a grievance, but I didn't, and everyone actually liked me just fine. But union employees liking me = bad, so they had to start the process of getting rid of me. That's the only sense I've ever been able to make of this.
    via Legitimate_Shade
  • 35
    Anyway, my cats are awesome, and now I have 3 of them, plus my dog, who is also awesome.
    via Legitimate_Shade

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cat employee drama work lol ridiculous silly Cats funny
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