Last week, my fellow bookworm friends and I went National Bookstore’s warehouse sale. We were able to buy books for as low as Php15! :)
It is written from the perspective of an office worker named Mary Jane. She and her husband relocated to Seattle for work. Unfortunately, her husband unexpectedly passed away too soon due to aneurysm and she had to make ends meet for her family.
Mary Jane was a supervisor in a financial company and later, got promoted to lead a new team. The new team she was assigned to was a tough one as it was always the butt of jokes in their office. The department was called “toxic energy dump” and the members there were called zombies because they were so slow, inefficient, don’t get things done, don’t pick up the phone when it rings and they intentionally misplace documents. For the team members, their work in the accounting department is the most boring work because it was the same everyday.
One lunch break, Mary Jane went out for a walk and stumbled upon the action at the Pike Place Fish Market. There was so much energy in the market. Buying and selling of fish was almost like a show.
During that trip, Mary Jane met one of the fishmongers named Lonnie. Their conversation lead to the discussion of Mary Jane’s challenges in the office and Lonnie, in turn, shared with her the story on how Pike Place was transformed from a plain fish market to a world-famous one.
Here are excerpts from an insightful conversation between Mary Jane and Lonnie:
Lonnie: “Have you ever considered the fact that any work can be boring to the person who has to do it? Some dudes travel all over the world for business. It sounds pretty exciting to me, but they tell me it gets old fast. I guess given the right conditions, any job can be dull.
...There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself. That was the biggest lesson we learned in building the world-famous Pike Place Fish Market. We can choose the attitude we bring to our work. “
Mary Jane: Why wouldn’t you have a choice about the work itself?
Lonnie: Good point. You can always quit your job, and so in that sense, you have a choice about the work you do. But it might not be a smart thing to do given your responsibilities and other factors. That’s what I mean by choice. On the other hand, you always have a choice about the attitude you bring to the job.
...We can bring a moody attitude and have a depressing day. We can bring a grouchy attitude and irritate our co-workers and customers. Or we can bring a sunny, playful and cheerful attitude and have a great day. We can choose the kind of day we will have. We spent a lot of time talking about this choice, and we realized as long as we are going to be at work, we might as well have the best day we can have.
...Working in a fish market is cold, wet, smelly, sloppy, difficult work. But we have a choice about our attitude while we are doing that work.”
Lonnie also shared the other ingredients of their success – that of being playful, conscious effort to make someone else’s day and being totally present when you interact with people. Beautiful lessons.
The book is just an easy read – a little over 100 pages – you can quickly finish it in one reading. It would make a great gift to people who always complain about work or who have lost the spark in their work life.
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Anyway, I haven’t been to Seattle yet but I remember watching Pike Place Fish Market's flying fish attraction in a travel show before. Someday, I hope I could visit this world-famous market and see these wonderful guys in action.
I quickly read up about the Pike Place Fish Market and learned that it was founded in 1930. In 1965, it was purchased by one of the fish market employees named John Yokoyama.
In 1986, the fish market was almost on the brink of bankruptcy. At that point, Yokoyama and his employees decided to make a change by changing their attitude. And they committed to become world-famous by introducing games and customer performances.
By 1990, just 4 years after that positive change, TV shows started featuring them. And guess what today? The Pike Place Fish Market attracts up to 10,000 daily visitors. Wow. :)
If you want to read more about the Pike Place Fish Market, you can visit their website here.
