Sometimes we can't speak at the right time

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about when it's the right time to express ourselves. Sometimes, a problem arises, and we speak too quickly, at a time when everyone involved is defensive and nobody understands what's really going on. Other times, we decide to speak when it's too late, and we hurt someone for a long time with our silence. I think this is what happened to this Redditor, whom I believe didn't have the courage to speak in the moment and let everything be, under a false pretense of an ability to let go that actually covered cowardice. What do you think? Should we let everything be, always? Or should we make an effort to repair when we think our relationships are suffering?

Landlords as a species have developed a very specific skill: treating "I hold the lease" as if it also grants access to your Tuesday afternoon, your shower schedule, and your general vibe. Ownership of drywall is somehow rebranded as ownership of a whole human being's peace of mind, which is a serious piece of "value-add" nobody signed up for

When the timeline is rougher than you would like it to be, one thing is always here to uplift our mood, and that is a bunch of gentle cat memes. 

We know the timeline has been a mess lately. We see it every day as well. You log onto social media, hoping to see some cute pictures of cats to brighten up your day, and instead, you get bombarded with a whole bunch of things that you wish you had never seen in your life. And it's like this every single day lately. We don't get breaks. When everything on the internet has become about clickbait and ragebait, when that is what the algorithm keeps pushing, then it's no surprise that this is all that we see on our timelines. And we, personally, are not okay with that at all. And at least here on ICHC, we can do something about it. 

ICHC, for us and for many other people online, has become a kind of safe space. You can log onto this website at any time of the day and not see all the things that you don't want to see. All we have here for you are adorable and silly cats and an endless supply of funny cat memes. All the things that you actually want to see on the internet without all the madness that usually surrounds them. You can feel safe coming here, unlike basically any other place on the internet. Every day, we bring you the most wholesome and funniest cat content on the internet, and not only is it pawsome for us, looking for this kind of content every day, but we also know that we're here making other people's days better by brightening your hearts one purr at a time. Have a good day, friends!

Is it ever appropriate for a manager to yell at their employees?

Even though we share a lot of stories about bad bosses and entitled managers, we don't come across many stories where a boss actively raises their voice at their employees. Not only is it really extreme to even get to a point where raised voices are required, but managers who do that don't generally get depicted as good at their jobs.

We don't know about you, but we would feel much worse from a disappointed look or a stern conversation than we would from a yelling match. It's not professional, it's not beneficial, and it definitely wouldn't make us respect our manager any longer. Yelling simply seems like the worst way to handle any situation, especially in a workplace.

The fact that there was no valid reason for this manager to yell at her employee makes it even harder to accept and proves even further that yelling truly doesn't help.

It all started when a customer came up to the register and pointed out that the price that was marked on the sticker was lower than the price showing up on the register screen. We've all been there, and we all know that the store is required to commit to a price if it is clearly marked on an item, so the cash register employee knew they had to fix it. However, they didn't have the authority to change the price on the register, so they had to call the manager. The manager, apparently, didn't know how to make it happen, so the employee simply took the supervisor card themselves and pressed the buttons necessary for the price change.

After the customer left, the manager decided she had to yell at the employee for "making her look stupid" in front of customers. She claimed that the employee was throwing her under the bus to make themselves look good, and proceeded to publicly shame the employee for basically doing the right thing.

Not only did the manager yell, but she did it without any acceptable reason other than to protect her own ego… Luckily, the employee didn't stay quiet after the yelling fest ended.

What's one non-cat food your cat is willing to risk it all for?

One thing that you learn about cats after becoming an actual cat owner yourself is that all cats are weird. They're just- weird. All of them. Without exception. Some of them might fool you for a while, seem normal, simple, flawless. But that will only last for so long. One day, out of nowhere, as you are having the most common and normal day of them all, your cat will surprise you. It will show you its true strange colors. And you know what? You will only fall in love harder. 

Cats have the strangest habits. Some cats choose the most uncomfortable places to nap on. On purpose. They seek out plants, books, egg cartons, anything that isn't a fluffy bed, and they spend hours on that thing. Some cats yell at closed doors. For no reason. With no explanation. They just sit there sometimes, staring the door and yelling. And you can open that door, and it won't make a difference. They will be just as bothered by that same door being open as they were when it was closed. 

Some cats sit in sinks or on laptops or on puzzles. Other cats like singing at 3 in the morning or exactly when your work meeting starts when you're working from home. Other cats have emotional support items, ranging from blankets to carrots. But all cats - every single cat in the world - has at least one non-cat food that they are obsessed with and that they will risk everything to get. Every cat is weird about a food like that. And we knew that our audience knows what we're talking about, so we asked you guys to tell us about it - about the strangest, silliest non-cat food that your cat loved, and your answers, as always, did not disappoint. 

To have a guilty conscience

The most ridiculous part of this story is that the supposedly betrayed part is not even angry. The only one who's freaking out is the one who has a guilty conscience. It's sad how you can find out, years later, that not all of your friends have the capacity to have an honest, heart-to-heart conversation. Maybe you used to keep them in your life because you thought they could; maybe it was because they were never put to the test. This friend was apparently put to the test and failed it miserably. The sad part is that no one was going to attack him if he were upfront about what he was doing; the only thing against him in this situation was his own mind. Would you have had the courage to confront this situation?

What we want more than anything is for every stray cat that we feed to find a home. We just wish we could know about it when it finally happens. 

As hard as it is to believe, there is a limit to how many cats one person can have in their home. I had to learn that from personal experience. Once there are too many of them, their relationships get complicated, the personal space each of them has gets diminished, and their quality of life gets worse overall. That's why I feed stray cats. Because I can't make all of them not stray cats on my own. And feeding the stray cats around my building is one of the constant highlights of my days. But as nice as feeding stray cats is, what I want more than anything for each and every one of them, is for them to find their forever homes. The problem is that I can never know about it. 

You hope and pray that every cat you feed gets adopted someday, and it does happen sometimes, but to you, the person feeding them, they just disappear one day. If you're lucky, the person who adopted the cat knows you've been feeding it, and they come tell you about the adoption. But, like the kind person who shared their story on r/Straycats found out, most people have no clue who you are, and they adopt the cats with no way of letting you know about it. I wish what happened to this person would happen to me with every stray cat that I feed. I hope that every once in a while, I will see these cats through the windows of my neighbors, chonky, fluffy and living their absolute best lives just like itty-bitty Dusti is. 

Going through an extensive interview process just to get rejected after all. That sounds like poor planning on the company's recruitment team's part. 

Interviews can be awful and stressful, but the complete interview process, well, that's just lunacy. You're going to 3 or 4 rounds of interviews with different recruiters that expect different things from you. You take tests, start to study your future job, spend weeks, all just to discover they end up hiring someone internally. How is that possible? Does the recruitment team just like to torture unemployed people seeking a stable job? Is the company trying to justify the salary of the recruiters? Are they just pretending they are hiring so the company seems to be growing? I just think it proves that these people don't care at all about their candidates or future employees. 

Everything was easier before, without job-looking platforms and elevated tests. Before, you just went directly to the company to leave your resume, or just checked which companies were hiring from the newspaper. One interview or even none, and they call you to tell you that you got the job or not, easy peasy. When I read stories like this one with people being so frustrated about the job market, I think that maybe the industry is wrong. There is some big change we need to be doing, going a little bit back to the basics. Not forcing unemployed people onto a several-week trial. 

Maybe there is a reason for things to work like this, but, from my perspective, this doesn't seem fair. It seems like a manipulative scheme that makes you believe that you got a job when you didn't. Is unfair, and it dehumanizes the candidates who are putting so much effort just to get a chance to get a job position.

 

Should future renters have to pay before they are allowed to read a lease?

A couple found a beautiful townhouse they wanted to rent, and immediately contacted the landlord. The man asked to be paid in advance the $600 security deposit fee, as well as $300 for a pet fee, before sending them the lease. When the couple got the paperwork, they backed out since the lease was full of red flags and strange things. The landlord, however, is refusing to return the deposit since the property was taken off the market, and the money was to make up for the lost time.

Now, we all know every state is different, and some things change when it comes to renting a property. However, nothing sounds as strange as this fake security deposit that's not refundable because the house was taken off the market when the couple showed interest. In most cases, the money is sent once people can read the lease and agree to it. Not the other way around.

The thing that I found to be the weirdest is that the landlord states that keeping that amount of money "is common practice" when renting properties, a thing that the renters never heard about. Also, they had to pay to read the lease and didn't sign a thing that could lead them to lose that money. They followed the instructions that the landlord said, and found themselves in this crazy situation.

The community in r/Renters was helpful and gave the couple some good information on how to proceed. Most of them confirmed they should go ahead and contact a lawyer to have this situation legally reviewed since there's nothing that could prevent them from recovering the money. Scroll down and find out what happened.

Corporate America has found a new way to fire people without technically firing them: math. Not real math, obviously. The kind of math where the answer is predetermined, and the numbers are just there for flavor, like parsley on a cafeteria tray

Fortune 500 companies are rarely ever the good guys in any story, and naming names is really my thing, so let's just get into it inc.

Here's the plot in its purest form. You take a job where you talk to strangers on the phone, strangers who are, by definition, calling because something already went wrong in their day. Then you tell those strangers to grade you on a scale of 1 to 10, except secretly it's a scale of 1 to 2, because anything below a 9 counts as a personal betrayal. It's like a restaurant handing out comment cards that say "rate your meal 1-10" but quietly shredding every card that isn't a 9 or 10, then telling the chef he's fired because people "hated" the food, using data that's mostly confetti.

The genius of this system is that it doesn't measure whether you're good at your job. It measures whether a random assortment of humans, some of whom are having the worst day of their month, felt sufficiently delighted by a phone call to leave a rave review. It's the same energy as expecting a five-star Yelp review from someone whose car just got towed, except the tow truck is also somehow your fault now.

And the real punchline is the sample size problem. One cranky customer, one dropped call, one guy who apparently couldn't tell a man's voice from a woman's, and suddenly you need to go collect dozens of flawless report cards just to break even. It's less "customer service metric" and more "escape room designed by someone who hates you," where the exit door requires forty consecutive strangers to unanimously agree you're a delight, on a day when your hours got cut in half.

When one door closes, another one opens. 

It's never consoling in the moment, but it's true. Everyone experiences a loss of some sort in their lifetime, but it's important to remember how things could turn out. In Reddit's r/CatDistributionSystem, a man experiences first hand what it feels like to have the cat distribution system laughing at you. He had a 20 year old cat, Manx, and it was his best friend and soul cat. 20 is really senior for a cat, so after Manx crossed the rainbow bridge, the person didn't want to adopt again for at least another year, but the distribution system had something else in mind. 

He wasn't ready for another cat so soon, but he got one anyway. He had already put his old things in storage, when he ends up rescuing a 12 year old Norwegian Forest cat from the streets. He initially takes him in as a foster, but after forming a bond and connection with him, he realizes he can't give him up. The little guy is a good boy who didn't deserve to be hungry outside, covered in dirt and fleas, and finally has a good home. They get him cleaned up at the vet, and the rest is history! 

Why would someone explicitly say to their current boss that they are actively seeking a new position elsewhere? That would just get you fired.

If you were to hate the current place you work at, what would you do? Probably seek another job, right? And once you got that new position, you would most likely resign as soon as you possibly can, right? You probably are thinking that all this is obvious. Well, it is, for anyone with common sense. The problem is that, as we have seen in multiple of these Reddit stories, common sense is not really a quality most bosses have. They usually think that everything is some kind of attack. 

Instead of looking at it as a great opportunity that a colleague got, they see it as the employee trying to ruin them. As if they weren't leaving a toxic company that didn't value their efforts and didn't even pay accordingly, and instead they were just trying to ruin their boss's career by leaving without much notice. I don't really understand how they take it so personal, is obvious that if the employee isn't valued, they are going to leave someday. Especially in this story, where the manager knew that they had asked for a raise and that was "still being processed" after months. 

And what is all this drama even for? They are going to leave anyway. Unless the company offered an amazing salary increase (and maybe even that wouldn't work), the employee is not going to stay somewhere she isn't valued. So let it be. As a manager, don't take it personally. Try to look for a solution to your own problem and let the employee leave with a good image of yourself, where you don't seem like a dramatic boss that can't understand the idea of bettering yourself. 

Accept it and move on! Somebody else is going to take that position soon, and everything will be fixed. For a moment, you just need to congratulate your colleague for their good work and say bye nicely. 
 

Sunday silliness of cat memes just in case you're feeling on the chaotic side today. 

Imagine if you could shrink things so small that they could fit in your pocket? How easy would it be to park! You'd never have to drive around looking for a parking spot, spending $20 for that two hour movie, and another 30 minutes parallel parking. We'd be able to sneak someone on a flight with us by just putting them in our pocket. But I guess TSA would catch them in those cameras, and then you'd have a lot of explaining to do. But if we could shrink things to be bite sized, miniature, and teeny tiny, it's obvious we would put our cats in our pockets. 

How insanely cute would it be to take your cat wherever you go? You could bring them around like dog owners can bring their dogs everywhere. They could sit with you at work, purring on your lap as you type away. They could join you at that new fancy fish restaurant, and of course you have to order the big salmon for them. And we could take them to our friend's homes so that they can have a cat play date, even if your cat isn't the very social type.

Our imaginations can really run wild, and that's why this cute collection of curious cats will spark joy and happiness into your day, even if it's for a tiny amount of time. Take this pocket sized phone and scroll away your worries with cat memes that will make you go from worried to carefree.  

Is it accidental, or are they using weaponized incompetence?

Having new hires to train can be a pain in the neck (just ask my bosses lol), especially if they seem not to care much about learning their tasks and the rhythm of the company. It's one thing if they make mistakes because they are new and still don't have the hang of it, and a very different thing if they are simply irresponsible. 

Anyone can make mistakes when they are confused, but skipping work hours, lying about something you said before, and being generally not trustworthy are not innocent mistakes. Reddit user u/amethystkitten420 is a hotel receptionist who had a new coworker doing just that during the first two weeks of working there. 

When these things happen, it makes you wonder whether they are doing it on purpose, if they are actively trying to get fired, or if they are simply not cut out for that job. All of these options are equally possible, but depending on the person, it gets easier or harder to realize which one it is. Even so, it would make no sense for someone who was hired two weeks ago to be underperforming intentionally. The logical explanation is that she's not good at her job, or maybe she enjoys making other people's work lives miserable. Not a very good attitude to have, but definitely a realistic option. 

Having a bad coworker can drive you mad and make your job all the more complicated, so it's better to stay as far away from them as possible. We're not saying they deserve to get fired; they can still learn, and their performance can meet expectations. Still, they're going to need help from management and to receive the right warnings for their inappropriate behavior. Eventually, they will get better, or, worst-case scenario, the managers will have to make some tough decisions.

Cats truly make our lives better, one meow and purr at a time.

It's not a secret that we love cats here. Like, we're a whole website dedicated to cats - memes and jokes, adoption stories, and general cat cuteness that took over the internet long ago. But it's not just a facade - we truly all love cats here. We went around the office to hear some of the I Can Has Cheezburger staff gush about their cats:

"My cat, Waffles, has this habit of sitting directly on my keyboard the second I start typing - like clockwork, every single day. I used to get annoyed, but now I just accept that whatever paragraph I'm writing is going to have a few extra 'zzzzz's in it courtesy of him. Honestly, working from home with a cat means my 'coworker' is unbothered by deadlines and demands snacks on a schedule that has nothing to do with actual hunger. Wouldn't trade it for anything. He's basically my supervisor at this point, and he's terrible at performance reviews."

"I adopted my cat Bobbert the Girl two years ago from a cat shelter, and she's completely changed how I start my mornings. She headbutts my coffee mug until I pay attention to her, which honestly is a better wake-up call than any alarm. What gets me is how much personality she has - she's dramatic, she's stubborn, and she's weirdly obsessed with trying to squeeze her head into my shoes. Scrolling through cat memes all day for work and then coming home to my own tiny menace? It's the dream job, honestly. I don't think I could do this job without a cat of my own."

"People assume working here means I'm just professionally cat-obsessed, and okay, fair, but it's also personal. My cat Miso is thirteen now, mostly deaf, and somehow still the bossiest creature I've ever met. She naps on my desk while I design, and I swear she critiques my color choices by knocking things off the table when she disagrees. Cats don't need to do much to make your day better - Miso just exists near me, purring, and somehow that's enough. I think that's what this whole site gets right: the little things cats do really are the whole point."

Cats are humanity's greatest mischief buddies.

Despite cats' popularity (which is well deserved - look how cute cats are!), most people think of dogs as their best friends. But the fact that you can take your dog to the park in ease, unlike a cat who needs leash training for literal months or years, doesn't mean they're the only BFF candidate. The friendship between humans and their animals isn't measured in constant proximity alone. It's also about the mutual love, and… the shenanigans you are up to together, against the world. And cats? Oh, they're the meowing masters of mischief.

When you chase each other at 4 AM, in a full-on zoomies mode. When you watch them trip your legs because they know you're about to give them a yummy treat. When they jump on the ceiling and somehow latch on and stay there. Cats are silly, and these funny experiences we have with them are a crucial part of a human-cat friendship. It's a friendship that fills our hearts and never fails to make us laugh.

Oh no! The consequences of my own actions

Facing reality can sometimes be hard; one can realize that one was living well beyond one's means, or that one lost not only a relationship but also a specific lifestyle. To me, separations come with these types of literal and concrete costs. You have to find another place; there's nobody available to pick you up from a party or the hospital, and of course, you no longer have a partner to share your life with, which is the most important part. For the girlfriend in this story, it seems the most important part was the apartment they shared, because her suggestion to go back to the relationship was made only when she realized she couldn't afford the lifestyle she wanted on her own, and that is a very cynical way of managing her finances and her relationship to others.

Why make all that scene if the employee is going to leave anyway? Just accept the notice and move on!

Toxic workplaces are not something you can recognize from afar. When you notice it is toxic, you are already working there and just looking forward to getting another job and leaving. So when you do, you find another place that values you more, that seeks benefits for hard workers, and in which your career can grow. You don't just leave. You run away. Is finding what you were looking for all along. There is no step in between. You just leave everything and leave. So, in this Reddit story, this employee decided to leave a 10-days notice. I was impressed. That is not really common to do when the company you work at mistreated you as they did to her. But I admire the fact that they wanted to end things correctly and professionally.

What I did not value is the attitude of the boss, a manager who had no reason to scream and demand anything from the worker. You, as an employee, don't really have the obligation to notify a company 2 weeks prior that you are leaving. But if you do is always better. But, as it's not an obligation, if you do notify them, they have no right to tell you that it should have been more days of notice or anything. You are not a slave. You have a job that you can leave whenever you want, especially if the company is mistreating you. 
 

In this case, this employee was unhappy with their job and found a new opportunity that was actually in their field. What reason did they have to stay? Stop working in retail to work in something that you're passionate about, that doesn't seem crazy, just as a wise decision. How can a company that is doing nothing for this employee compete? It can't. They just have to accept the fact that the employee didn't just leave to somewhere where they probably can leave without having to go through a dramatic scene. 
 

Finding a discarded kitten is emotionally overwhelming enough for most of us cat loving hoomans. But to then discover, like this rescuer did, that your saved kitten will not eat nor go to the toilet. Well, that is one heck of a harrowing experience and we hope you will join us to find out how this pawrent and their kitten overcame their first furious hurdle together.

Reddit's r/cats subreddit is full of stories about kittens being found and abandoned in boxes. For some reason it seems to be cruel hoomans' favorite choice of dumping receptacle. Nonetheless, our story is of that ilk but it has a slightly scary twist added to it, one that if pawrent and kitten could not overcome would end in a trip over the rainbow bridge. And there is no more heartbreaking outcome than seeing the feline you have worked tirelessly to save slip away.

But this pawrent was not about to let anything happen to his new feline love. And he set about trying all the different options he had to hand to help this cute critter let go. However, this pawrent was no expert, and when his homemade attempts did not quite pan out he turned to the pawfessionals. Who also did not initially figure out how to help this sweet kitten. But with his pawrent's perseverance he made it to a super clever vet who straight away saw the problem and put things right as they should have been from the start. 
 

Warning: cute cat memes might send you off to sleep this meowning.

The thing about cats is that they're so multifaceted. Being chaotic and zooming one moment, and off to cuddle you the next, there's no predicting what they'll do, but they always manage to bring a smile to our faces. Even when we've had the worst day, even if our cat misbehaves, when that little furballs sees us upset, he or she knows when to kick cuddle mode into gear. Some people never get to experience the warmth and touch of another person, never get the pleasure of a cuddle. Cats allow us to get the love and care we need without the difficulty around managing how someone else feels. It's too easy to just grab a cat and let him or her fall right to sleep on you. Maybe you're mid movie, maybe you're scrolling before bed, but either way, your cat will make it to you to give you some much needed love. 

When cats are around the people they love and care about (aka their owners), their brains actually release oxytocin. If you didn't know already, oxytocin is known as the "love" chemical. It's released when you feel safe and bonded to someone or something. So when you say you really love your cat you're not lying! There's a whole neuro network of transmitters regulating those feelings of safety, warmth, connection, and love. It's so important that we get that in our daily lives. 

Having the comfort and love from an animal or person is just as important as getting food, water, and shelter. Without care and support, we actually don't develop properly. Our motor functions won't be the same, our cognitive functions won't work as well, and it's a handicap no one wants to live with. So as the winter months preside over us, and as the skies get darker and colder by each day, take the time to recognize how love and connection can help combat whatever bad energies you may be feeling this winter. Use cats and cat memes as your oxytocin IV, and here at I Can Has Cheezburger, there's no stopping you.