Firm posts lucrative office cat-sitting job

If you can maintain regular feeding, grooming and playing with a cat, you might be in with a chance for this job.

Other requirements are to play it classical music every Friday, and make a monthly visit to a luxury department store to buy new toys.

But this is not a cat-sitting ad for an eccentric private individual. It’s a job ad to look after a company’s office cat called Jerry.

The pay for the role has raised eyebrows, with the rate advertised at between £65 and £100 an hour, depending on experience.

The firm says it is looking for one or two candidates to commit to a total of 40 hours per week, although the actual hours worked are expected to be much lower – between 8 to 12 hours a week for someone working part-time.

Duties include providing fresh milk and food, “gentle daily grooming” and creating a “respectful environment suitable for a sensitive animal”.

The company advertising the job runs an aviation marketplace based in central London.

Jerry the British Shorthair belongs to its boss Viktor Martynov, who started bringing him in as he was spending so much time in the office and on business trips.

“I think for cats it’s not very good,” he told World Business Report.

He said bringing Jerry into the office also improved staff morale.

“Everybody wants to pet him and he also cheers up my colleagues, they have more motivation to come to the office right now,” Mr Martynov said.

The sales team even has a morning tradition of touching the cat at the start of the day for good luck.

And Mr Martynov says Jerry once even helped get a deal on a business jet over the line.

In the middle of tense negotiations, Jerry jumped on to the client’s lap.

“It turned out that he’s a cat lover and his mood immediately changed.

“So you could say that Jerry also helped us with our work.”

The company, Aviamarket, says it has already had more than 250 applications for the role.

The advert asks for previous experience looking after animals and “excellent time management”.

It’s not the only bizarre job ad to have cropped up on a jobs listing site.

In 2023 Blackpool Zoo asked for candidates to become official seagull scarers, which involved dressing up as birds.

Over the years, many food and drink companies have advertised for “professional tasters” for things like beer and chocolate.

And last year, the Tasmanian tourist board posted “adverts” for jobs including wallaby walker and paranormal investigator, in a bid to encourage more tourism to the island during the off-season.