The Cat's Away

The title of this blog is one I’ve wanted to use for a while. It first piqued my interest as a title when someone used it to describe the feelings that my coworkers and I must have been feeling when my boss has been away for a few days. But I didn’t appreciate what the saying ‘when the cat’s away, the mice will play’ was suggesting.

Yes, at the time I was elated to be free of my boss. We all felt the tension decrease when my boss was away but we certainly weren’t playing. I was still getting through my deliverables and doing work. So there wasn’t any sense of a vacation for me or a time to take a breather. I don’t think my co-workers slacked off either. As adults the sense of responsibility keeps you in check. If I didn’t get the work I needed to do done while my boss was away, I would never hear the end of it. And with my boss at the time, her expectations were completely irrational so you never knew exactly what she thought you should be doing while she was out of the office. Even if you had a long ‘to do’ list that you reviewed with her and you completed everything on that list; it certainly didn’t mean you were in the clear. There would be some item from 6 months ago that she would remember while she was basking in the sun. Then she would bring it up the moment she got back and hound you for it.

Anyway, it’s for that feeling of freedom when the overseer was nowhere in sight that I wanted to discuss. However, the idea came up again on Friday when a co-worker was telling me about the mass exodus happening on her side of the floor.

A number of the managers had left early, which I’m sure was cause for happiness. Within 20 minutes of their departures, the employees started to file out for a slightly longer weekend. She mentioned to me over our internal instant messenger that ‘since the cat’s away, the mice are leaving too’. This idea of leaving once your manager leaves is the other example that prompted this entry.

The true mice can definitely play when the cat’s away. (Although honestly, I think mice play no matter what the situation is – they are quite fearless.) But with humans there are only certain situations where the employee mice can benefit from the cat boss’ disappearance.