Two office workers get a fancy phone system designed for a headquarters staff. The owner insists on hold music. The office has Slayer fans and weird music listeners. Neither personal collection fits a client-facing phone line

Unless that client is me, because I'd much prefer Slayer or something weird than the stuff organizations usually have.

I myself was lucky enough to have to call a certain service provider last week.  A service provider that had the courtesy of letting you decide whether to wait for a representative to answer or have them call you back *sometime* if it's not urgent. Which in itself is funny because why would I choose to CALL if it wasn't URGENT?!

But what made it so fun was that they were so eager to remind me of that option that they had a muzak track of around 10 seconds playing and then a recorded bot message saying: to have us call you back *sometime*, press 1. To stay on the line and wait, press 2.

The track was 10 seconds long, and the wait? The wait was over 15 minutes.

Which means my phone number field was their number, then the numbers I pressed to get to the specific service I needed. Then fifteen thousand, twenty-one hundred, sixty-six consecutive TWOS.

So fun. 

Anyway, the story below reminded me of just how fun that was, so I just had to tell y'all.

Now let's get to the story.

Some cats wait to be invited inside, while Piper simply picked a garage she liked and started showing up for her daily shift.

Reddit user RoxxStardust shared the newest arrival courtesy of the Cat Distribution System, a sweet kitty who appeared a few days ago and quickly turned what could have been a one-time visit into a routine. Piper has returned every day since, happily hanging out in the garage and keeping her new hooman company. At this point, we're not sure "visitor" really covers it anymore. She has regular hours, a favorite hangout spot, and a human who has already given her a name. That sounds suspiciously like residency to us.

Piper isn't keeping her distance, either. She's incredibly loving and has gotten comfortable enough to walk right up whenever she wants attention. Whether she's a stray who stumbled across the purrfect place or someone's adventurous kitty making daily social calls is still a mystery. RoxxStardust plans to keep an eye out for anyone searching for her before making any assumptions.

In the meantime, Piper has herself a safe place to relax and a hooman who clearly doesn't mind having a furry garage supervisor around. There's even talk of building her a little home out there since she seems so attached to the space. A few days of visits and she's already inspiring home renovations. The CDS works fast.

We have to appreciate Piper's strategy here. Why rush into adoption when you can slowly become part of someone's daily life until they start considering building you your own apartment?

Whether Piper already has a family somewhere or chose this garage as the beginning of her next chapter, she certainly knows how to make herself welcome.

At this rate, RoxxStardust may soon realize it's Piper's garage and the hoomans are just allowed to use it.

Just a dash of Southern comfort for Dolly fans who are cat pawrents celebrating the life and legacy of a great country singer. 

Dolly is one of the most successful and influential musicians of all time. She didn't have it easy in the world, and grew up modest. But she used her brains, brawn, and talent to establish herself as a country music icon that we still love and cherish today. If you like cats, you're sure to love Dolly, because this gal was also an animal activist. She was born in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and though she lived a long and prosperous life, she will eternally be remembered by I Can Has Cheezburger. She sang of life, love, hope, working 9-5, and the nuances of life. Dubbed "The Queen of Country" for good reason, Dolly represents everything positive in the world, and the amazing talent of women. 

Country cats are something Dolly would know everything about. Living the country life is not like a big city, it's not a New Yorker or a California surfer. It's not a Miami partier and it's not a mountain dwelling Pacific Northwester. The south and Midwest make up such a huge portion of the United States, and cultures, foods, and accents vary vastly. Country music is as popular as it gets in those parts, and for anyone who likes it, the twang is something endearing. If you're a Dolly Parton fan and cat person, then you can scroll these slow, rural, and cowboy cat memes to honor a great lady. Enjoy. 

Is it better to be average or below average in a massive pool of graduates? Or excel in a niche field that you are passionate about?

Maybe a trip is the best way to find out if your friendship is real or not.

I'd be so sad if one day I'd discover that the people I consider friends for so long are actually entitled and ungrateful. But the worst thing wouldn't be the discovery in itself. It would actually be the fact that there were probably a bunch of signals before that I just decided to ignore.

People change, sometimes for good, sometimes for the bad. And people can, in fact, change dramatically and become unrecognizable, but it is not one day to the other. Is actually a process that takes time. Sometimes people were kinda awful from the beginning, but you didn't notice because it was just little comments that you didn't particularly like, but that weren't that big of a deal to actually condemn them. The actions took over. You started to feel uncomfortable, but probably brushed it off as just a bad day. Till you realize. You realize how awful they are treating you and how, for so long, you thought you were being understanding, only to discover you were actually just allowing this person to mistreat you.

And when you get tired like u/PutridSignature4927 did in this story. There is no coming back. The only solution is "grow apart". Which is just a nicer term for getting out of there. You may try to talk things out, and I would encourage that decision. But the truth is that nothing is going to change. Some people are like that, and we have no choice but to fully accept it and move on.

They should have offered her 40% more, not less.

Anyone who has worked with clients knows they tend to approach any work you do for them as if you always have to prove why you are worth the money they pay you. Even though they willingly hired you to do the job, they still act as if they believe it's not worth the money, and they could have done it themselves for a lot less.

Most clients, once you actually provide the work, will come to the understanding that what you do is actually important to their business, while some will back out after a few months with the claim that they want to try to do it alone. Or, in the case below, with the help of none other than AI.

You know it is only a matter of time before they eat their hats and come crawling back to you.

This content freelancer, u/NegotiationStrict473, posted a story about how brands tried to replace them with AI and miserably failed. Like any business that just discovered the wonders of AI, they thought they could do their marketing alone with these tools and were shocked to see their numbers plummeting after posting these AI-generated videos everyone hates. 

So, after this experience tanked, the brand had no choice but to come back to the freelancer and offer to take them back. However, after they stupidly cut ties with this freelancer and after they suffered from their experiment, you would think that they would offer to pay the freelancer much more than before. But no, the offer they put on the table was actually 40% less than what they paid the freelancer before they went the AI route.

So they broke the previous agreement, failed with their experiment, learned nothing, and then came back expecting a discount. 

Even though the freelancer could use the money, they don't think it's right to accept this insulting offer. But what should they do instead?

Some bonds are stronger than any differences you might have. 

Everyone knows that cats and dogs are very different. It's a stereotype for a reason. Dogs wag their tails when they are happy, while cats wag their tails when they are annoyed, overstimulated, uncertain, or very much not happy. The opposite of happy. And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the differences between them. But that doesn't mean that they cannot bond. In fact, cats and dogs can be best friends. 

Under the right circumstances, for example, when cats and dogs grow up together. Or even when they don't grow up together - if a cat is particularly friendly and accepting or if a dog is patient and persistent enough, friendship can bloom between them. In Upset_Nectarine_1281's story, we think that it was a mix of a few things. 

The dog in this story was newly adopted. She had been with her new family for barely a month before this kitten came into their lives. She was most likely still adjusting to this new environment herself. And then, out of nowhere, a kitten in need of help shows up in the house too. The kitten is tiny, the kitten is sick, and the kitten is absolutely terrified of this new reality that he has been dropped into. Maybe the pupper could sympathize. Maybe she wanted something to nurse, to care for, to distract her from her own new reality. Either way, despite not growing up together and not knowing the behavior patterns of other cats and dogs, these two bonded through their shared experiences and will stay bonded until the end of their lives. 

Maybe your girlfriend IS acting extremely toxic… And I promise you that is not good. 

Relationships are weird, because imagine being one full year together and then discovering that your girlfriend is actually extremely toxic and insecure. Some people shouldn't be in a relationship. I don't mean that they should remain single forever. But maybe instead of focusing on finding a couple, they should be concentrating on bettering themselves and forming a better relationship with themselves and their self-esteem before jumping into a relationship. Not everyone is mentally prepared to accept an adult relationship, because part of it includes not acting like a teenager after every minimal inconvenience.

Jealousy is the way our brain demonstrates our own insecurities. Thinking that your boyfriend is cheating on you, whether it is true or not, is a representation of our own fear. The inside thought behind the pure jealousy is the fear that we are not enough, that someone better is going to appear and our lover will leave with them instead of staying with us. This kind of train of thought can have different motives. It can be that your couple is shady or isn't proving/showing you how much they love you, which makes you think that maybe they aren't fully interested in you. Or maybe it's just a representation of the fact that you don't even like yourself, so you don't fully believe that this person loves you.

What kind of boss schedules a meeting at 9:32 exactly? 

If your day is made up of constant meetings, you know they can sometimes run over. You get into a flow state of talking about something, and suddenly you forget that you have a one-on-one meeting with your boss that you're 5 minutes late for. Sometimes, meetings don't start exactly on time because everyone is trying to figure out how to connect the Zoom to the TV in the meeting room so that everyone in the office can see everyone in the other office. You have less of an excuse for being late to a meeting when you're meeting in the same office as the people you're meeting with, but it's still not the biggest deal in the world, especially if you're only late by a mere minute. 

If you work in an industry where people aren't crazy, you can be a couple of minutes late to a meeting without your bosses flipping out. There's a difference between it taking one minute to log on to Zoom and routinely being 20 minutes late to meetings. Any reasonable person would understand that, but the boss in this story is not reasonable. 

For some reason, the boss of Reddit user RotaryPhoneDialer decided it was a good idea to move their Monday morning meeting, which is always at the same time. He didn't move it an hour earlier or later. He moved it three minutes earlier than usual, and then asked RotaryPhoneDialer why they were a minute late. Obviously, something fishy is going on here, and some internet sleuths offered their insights into why a boss would do such a thing to their employee. Spoiler alert: they might be on the cutting room floor soon.

Cats know where they are wanted and where they are not. 

We always talk about how cats are the ones who choose their families rather than the other way around. Cats just… know. They know which humans are ready to adopt a cat, sometimes even before the humans themselves know it. They know which house will spoil them properly. They know where they will be appreciated, respected and loved. We quite know how they know it. We just know that they do. That is how the CDS - the cat distribution system - came to exist as a term on the internet. Because we needed a name to capture this phenomenon. 

Cats also know where they are not wanted. That's why sometimes, a family may adopt a cat, but the cat might decide that someone else is more fitting. And they will do something about it. Cats will just straight-up leave if they feel like they don't belong anymore. Of course, that doesn't happen often. If you are someone who is blessed to be chosen by a cat, then you generally love that cat till the very end. But sometimes, life happens. 

We're sure that this family didn't plan to have not one, but two kids who are allergic to cats, but that, tragically, is exactly what happened. One kid, they could deal with, but two? They were still trying. But things changed in the house, and the kitty was feeling it too. So, the cat escaped, taking matters into his own hands. He walked out and went straight for the house where he knew he would be wanted. 

The owners of said house saw the cat, realized that this was probably not a stray, and tried to reunite the cat with his family. But after the family explained the situation, and after the neighbors saw just how well this random cat was getting along with them and with their dogs, it was decided to let the cat stay. As if the humans had any choice in the matter. They didn't know it, but the cat had already chosen, and the decision is always in the cat's paws. 

Do you LOL every single day?

As a meme expert, I can say with confidence that you must meme every single day. Whether you create your own, DM the group with a million, or scroll through some to make yourself laugh, it is an extremely important part of your day. Why is that? Because a dad without LOLing is simply a day lost. You're going to tell me that you enjoy days when you don't laugh? When you don't even give a little smirk and blow some air out of your nose? Uh-oh, bestie. You deserve a better life. 

Let me tell you about the days I did not even smile once: During these days, the light in my eyes started to leave, it was hard to talk to the people close to me, and my heart felt so heavy that I could hardly get out of bed. Searching for certified specialists helped a bit, but I needed something else. I need a way to smile, even just a little bit! 

Cue memes. This was a tool on the internet that actually helped! Laughter, even just a little bit, every day started to bring the light back into my eyes. It also helped me communicate with close ones around me again, and sending memes to your therapist is also helpful. 

So, meme on your lunch break, on the bus home, while you have a snack, or whenever! Just make sure you smile and LOL. It's worth it and us meme experts are here to help!

They could have made so many other choices, but they chose to throw her out of a moving car at 65 miles per hour. 

Some kittens are born into litters filled with love and handed straight into the arms of humans who love them. They will never know sadness more than being left alone for 8 hours while their pawrents go off to work, and never have a fear greater than their mortal enemy, the vacuum cleaner. Others are not so lucky. Some are born to stray moms, live their whole lives as feral cats, and if they're lucky get rescued by some kind purrson and get to experience love at some point in their lives. And then there are cats like the kitten in @jewelias_woof_pack's video, who start their lives seeing the worst from humanity.

While driving on a major highway in Portland, a dog rescuer and her son saw a black car in front of them throw a box out of the car window while going 65 mph. From that box scurried a tiny tortioseshell kitten, who darted in between speeding cars while dragging the box with her. They slammed on the brakes and pulled over to help. After some searching, they found her, and brought her to the emergency vet to get examined.

This kitten didn't deserve to be abandoned, let alone thrown out of a moving car. Less than 2-months-old, this cat has known nothing but fear, pain, and uncertainty. Purrhaps this kitten was from an unexpected "oopsie litter", but that's still no reason to resort to such… cruelty. But luckily, for every terrible person whose instinct is to do something like this, there is another person whose instinct is to pull over and rescue them.

New issues arising with the AI revolution

I get it; it's a terrible position to be in. Sometimes we reveal things accidentally that compromise other people's work.

Low-key, we wish we'd never said certain things and that they were discovered some other way that left us out of the equation. If we're lucky enough, that could happen, but if we are asked about an issue directly, the chances of the issue revealing itself decrease a lot.

We'd have to lie and compromise our work ethic only to cover for someone else's mistakes. This employee got half his team put under review over a comment he made to a manager without thinking too much about it. 

As bad as this sounds, I side with the employee this time because he was honest and didn't mean to cause harm. I think this was an honest mistake, but it could definitely cost him some friends at the office or mess up the work environment a little.

The other option would've been to keep quiet and talk about it privately with his coworkers first, so they would have time to fix their mistakes before they got discovered, but honestly, I think pleasing everyone isn't that easy, and that's precisely what happened this time. An omelette was made, and a few eggs were broken.

Sometimes, you simply have enough on your plate, and your manager comes in and asks you something, you simply answer with good intentions, and then it causes some trouble.

This employee posted this story on the /careerguidance subreddit and is asking what he can do, from now on, to improve his tense situation with his coworkers. What would you advise him to do?

Coworkers can turn even the calmest employee into a hissterical mess, and these cats perfectly understand the struggle of sharing a workplace with people who test your last nerve.

Every office has that one coworker. They schedule meetings that could have been emails, ask questions while you're clearly busy, and somehow always appear beside your desk the second you're trying to concentrate. Much like an annoyed cat with airplane ears, sometimes all you can do is stare and hope they understand the warning.

Then there's the coworker who wants to chat first thing in the morning. Please respect the claws before coffee. We haven't even opened our inbox yet, and someone is already asking what we did over the weekend. Give us at least three business hours to become approachable.

Group projects bring their own special brand of feline frustration. One person disappears until everything is finished, another has seventeen opinions but does none of the work, and somehow you're left cleaning up the mess. Cats would never tolerate this nonsense. One well-timed swat and workplace responsibilities would be redistributed immediately.

Lunch doesn't offer much relief either. Someone is heating up something questionable in the microwave, another person has stolen your favorite spot, and there's always a coworker hovering nearby while you're trying to eat. Touch our lunch and the claws are officially coming out.

By 5 PM, we're channeling the energy of a cat who has been bothered during a nap one too many times. The laptop closes, the social battery hits zero, and every remaining problem becomes tomorrow's problem.

Until then, these cranky cat memes are here for every hooman who loves their job just a little more when their coworkers aren't around.

We're all searching for that job that pays really well, takes little of our time, and doesn't require that much effort, but still somehow leaves us feeling that our purpose in life is fulfilled. This job exists almost as a fantasy. And like being in an alternative "indie" rock band in the 00s or 2010s, you kinda had to be born into it.

The woman could hear the meows from afar. They were coming from the parking garage. She got closer until a small gray kitten answered her near a parked car.

Cat lovers know that this is not an ordinary moment. This is a true visit from the cat distribution system, ladies and gentlemen. The woman named Katie even said she had been feeling lonely, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a companion appeared in her way. Coincidence? I don't think so. A series of small decisions changed both Katie's and the little cat's lives. The timing is perfect. Katie felt alone, and outside was a kitten who also needed company. 

Katie shows the kitten her apartment and names the kitten Poppy Lou. She was so determined to adopt her that she didn't even need the baby cat to convince her of anything. Being adorable was enough. Being missing in the parking lot was enough. Hearing her meowing was enough. Poppy Lou's arrival doesn't erase every lonely day, but now there's another set of paws moving inside the apartment, asking for food, asking for attention, asking for cuddles... Asking for care. And Katie was willing to give that to her. 

The story doesn't end there. The kitten also meets another cat, the resident cat who becomes her big feline brother. That introduction also adds to the happy ending. The new kitten entered a home shared with two more cats. That has its challenges, of course. But they seem to get along pretty well. As long as there are clear boundaries between them and regular meals for everyone, the cats will be absolutely fine. 

Does romance ever have a place in the office?

The workplace has started many a love story, but that doesn't mean that all of them are good ones. When it comes to our professional life, developing relationships that are anything other than platonic and focused on the job comes with a lot of risks. If a relationship ends up not working out, then perhaps a career trajectory won't, either. 

This is not to say that it is always a bad idea to date somebody who you have met through work, but it is definitely something to be approached with caution. We all know that relationships outside of the workplace can be explosive when they do not go well, and mixing in office politics can only make that worse.

From this perspective, getting romantic with a coworker is probably best avoided. If things go well, it could be the start of something much more enduring than a career, but if they don't, there are all kinds of problems that could happen. Blending these two areas of life together requires a lot of care that, quite often, those who pursue relationships through work are not interested in exercising.

Questioning Life Paths In Your Thirties

There comes a time in everyone's life when we can't help but question the path society expects us to follow.

Sometimes we question it and realize our desires differ from the ones society imposes on us, and we have to confront the fact that our path might look different from other people's.

In theory, all that sounds wonderful, but if we decide to live a life different from what was expected of us, we're met with a lot of resistance from the environment and sometimes, even from ourselves.

The fact that this person posted his decision on Reddit with so much peace shows me that he is about to live a life full of freedom and enjoyment, and that he is breaking free from expectations that didn't come from him or his family.

Luckily, in this day and age, there are lots of alternative paths you can explore without being judged, and in my opinion, this is one of the best eras to be different.

Once you make the decision, you tend to meet other people who think like you and realize there were always so many options available that you didn't know about. Some people say that's when 'the net appears'.

To me, it's never too late to live a life that we're proud of and march to the beat of our own drum. If we're not doing that, who are we trying to please, really?

This Redditor got this off his chest, and it got me thinking: am I living for myself? Honestly, I'm inspired.

Cats love looking out the window, and if a set of blinds happens to stand between them and the neighborhood drama, those blinds never stood a chance.

A window is basically feline television. Birds are flying around, squirrels are making questionable choices, neighbors are walking dogs, and random leaves keep blowing past. There's an entire world of entertainment happening outside, and your cat has important surveillance duties to perform. Expecting them to wait patiently while you open the blinds is asking far too much.

Instead, cats prefer renovations.

One paw slips between two slats. Then comes the head. Maybe the opening needs to be a little wider, so another paw gets involved. Before long, one perfectly normal set of blinds has a cat-sized viewing window permanently installed in the middle. Congratulations on the new home improvement! Your security guard can now monitor the premises without obstruction.

Hoomans might see bent blinds, snapped pieces, and another household item that needs replacing. Cats see improved visibility. Who designed these things without considering feline access in the first place? If the blinds keep falling back into position, they clearly need further modification.

There's also no point replacing them and expecting different results. Your cat remembers exactly where their favorite lookout spot is, and some fresh blinds aren't going to interfere with the morning bird report. Those new slats could be destroyed before you've even thrown away the packaging.

At some point, cat pawrents simply accept that pristine blinds and curious felines may never coexist peacefully. Leave a section raised, surrender the windowsill, and save yourself the repair bill.

The neighborhood isn't going to watch itself, and your feline security guard needs an unobstructed view.

Being family doesn't mean you automatically become a free nanny.

Sometimes family members will assume that just because you are family, you have to do stuff for them without complaining. These activities for which you have to take time off your life to do are going to be called "little favors", but they won't be that little. They can go from providing a home to somebody to cooking or cleaning for them. They are actual tasks that take time and effort. And the worst thing is that you won't get out of them no matter how busy you are. They will be mentioned as "helping out", which makes them impossible to say no to or to be believed when you use an excuse to get out of them, no matter if the excuse is real or not.

The worst thing about this kind of commitment is that you never fully agree to them. It's mostly just something that is expected of you because you are related to the person who asked for the favor. In this story, the sister requests that the aunt babysit the niece. Why her? Because she's family. Why for free? You guessed it! Because she's family. Being related is the only explanation for these compulsory requests that have no way out. Or maybe they do, but you have to take into account the fact that if you get out of these tasks, then you will become a villain. A bad person that can't even do something for family members. But I will say, sometimes it is just better to be the villain.

Saying no can be extremely hard, especially when it's to family. But learning to use that powerful word in your favor will save you from becomimg a people pleaser. The word no is a way out. It makes us free. And we have every right to use it. That's why I fully support this woman, this aunt who already has a child that she wants to concentrate on. This mother who is tired and doesn't want to take more responsibility when she's already tired enough. But what do you think? Do you believe that we have to do everything for family? Or are boundaries our new motto?