What it's like to work at Cycling '74

Cycling ’74 is a completely distributed company theoretically located in San Francisco. It’s technically not located in San Francisco any more due to the fact that it no longer has an office. Its corporate records are stored in my house in Santa Cruz and we pay city business license tax there as well. The only actual office where people go to work every day outside of their places of residence is in Berlin. We (indirectly) rent a small space for three people.

So people are always asking us, how does it work out if everyone works from home?

I know this sounds like some sort of internet meme, but it’s literally true: one of the major hazards of working from home is…cats.

Earlier this week, the high-powered Cycling ’74 executive team was having its high-powered weekly conference call when one member of the team, who wishes to remain anonymous, suddenly interrupted me (I tend to talk way too much) and said, “Uh, my cat has just exploded all over me and I need to go…now.”

So, naturally, because of our cat-friendly corporate policies, we suspended the meeting until our co-worker could take a shower and remove the charming scent of feline spray.

The meeting ended without further incident an hour later. I also need to point out that I spent the entire time in bed, since I woke up right when the meeting was supposed to start. After the meeting concluded, I remained in bed to write up the action items. I had almost finished my summary when I detected telltale cat scratching a few inches away from me. Further unpleasant investigation revealed that yes, due to the dog blocking the path to the litter box, my cat had just peed all over the bed.

I subsequently sent an e-mail to the rest of the meeting participants describing the incident; subject line: “universal resonance.” It turned out that two other people at the meeting were cleaning up after their cats.

Finally, Darwin responded that he had just banished his cat to the outdoors. “I’ve seen the future.”