Working from home with humans during COVID, part 2

Hi again.

I previously wrote a blog post called Working from home with humans during COVID which recognized one of the coolest parts of my human working from home now—participating in videoconferences and seeing the others working for OCLC. (The really coolest part of my human working from home is sitting on her lap during the day.)

Anyway, I have more OCLC friends to introduce you to.

The dogs are alright

I still don’t understand what’s up with all of the dogs. But this group is almost cool. For instance, Max is an athletic guy who is a great co-worker for his human. . . even though he goes kinda berserk when the doorbell rings. What’s with that?! Hazel is similar, sometimes making her presence well known during virtual presentations. I’m sure the humans sometimes wish they could put their dogs on mute, like with a remote control. They can be soooo loud. Olive and Luna are friendly and snuggly but sometimes just sit and stare at their human. But that’s okay. I sometimes do that, too.

Chica is also high energy and can really zoom on Zoom. Pete is more laid back, mostly just cuddling next to his human co-worker during the day.

The cats are cool

I notice that one dog is particularly cool, and that’s a nifty Airedale named Heather, who has developed a special relationship with her furry kitten co-worker, Havana. Havana has the distinction of being a “foster fail,” where the foster human ends up keeping the pet they were temporarily caring for. Doesn’t sound much like failure to me.

Like Havana, Churro was also adopted during the pandemic, along with his mom, Prudence (who is too shy to be photographed). I see a lot of Churro’s fluffy tail on video calls. I also like his taco truck.

Tonks is elegant in her tuxedo. That’s a good look for a cat, suiting our natural pride and elegance, and she accessorizes the look with a cute collar and bell.

Alex and Andie are the furry co-workers of OCLC Library Manager and Corporate Archivist Kem Lang. They are bonded siblings and seem happiest when in a cardboard box together. They may be our oldest furry coworkers, at 18.

I’m not much into cardboard boxes myself. I much prefer a basket, which I call my “workstation.”

There’s one furry (?) coworker I have yet to figure out, and that’s Twisby. Twisby has highly developed listening skills and can sit for hours without moving a muscle. They are really dedicated, and I think they work very long hours.

What’s next?

I can hardly believe it’s been over two years since my human and I began working together full time. She tells me that soon she will be returning to the office in a “hybrid” format, 3 days/week. This feels like it could be a major disruption to my routine. And to the important ways that we collaborate together. I like to help my human when she goes through her email each morning. I warm her lap when the house is still cold. I parade my fluffy tail during video calls. I’m skeptical that she can work efficiently without me now.

My human said she had a recent dream about returning to the office, and that lots of ginger cats like me were there. I think that means she’ll miss me, too.

Thanks to my human co-worker, Senior Program Officer Rebecca Bryant, as well as Senior Manager Merrilee Proffitt for their assistance with this post.