When the cat’s away, the mice will play

When the cat’s away, the mice will play means when the person who is usually in charge, is absent, the workers will stop working.
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English Saying: When the cat’s away, the mice will play

Every boss knows that when the cat’s away, the mice will play.

It’s one of the reasons they always have a second in command.

Has your boss ever gone away on a business trip or been out of the office for a while?

If this has happened, then you’ve probably noticed too that the mood of the office changed.

Your co-workers became more relaxed, joked around a bit, and maybe even took longer-than-usual lunch breaks, and, as a result, less work was done.

Once the boss returns, they can suspect that the workers have gotten up to something, but of course, there’s no proof.

That’s why, in English, we have the saying when the cat’s away, the mice will play.


This means that when the person usually in charge is absent, the other people will be bad little boys and girls.


This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).  

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 71.  

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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