Age of Aquariums

Other than location, my job hasn’t really changed much over the past 3.5 years. Sure, I have more responsibility than when I started with my company, but the overall description of my role is basically the same. I work with a lot of front line people who speak to potential customers over the phone. The main area of the office is a big room filled with many workstations (cubes). I have a separate office (that I share with a great coworker) but it is attached to the main room, so I generally have a very clear idea of what is happening ‘out there’ at all times, which is part of my job.

One of the main responsibilities of my coworker is to keep his team motivated. People I have worked with in the US in similar roles as his accomplish this by having a quick motivational meeting with their team at the beginning of the shift and then doing a short cheer somewhat along the lines of, “Go team!” My coworker on the other hand, is one of those ultra-charismatic people who can cultivate a following without much effort. His motivational meetings usually include long, drawn out cheers reminiscent of my organized sports days. (ie - 'I see a hole out there! I see a hole out there! I see a H-O-L-E hole out there! So hit the ball out there! So hit the ball out there! So hit the B-A-L-L ball out there!) The ones he does are a little bit more work-related, but the concept and sing-songyness are the same. Anyway, this probably wouldn't fly in a US office because people would be too self-conscious (or just not care enough) to cheer on and on about how much they love their company, but it goes over really well here in Spore.

Well, the motivational cheers have progressed. I noticed one day that the main room had become significantly darker. I went out there to see why the lights were off and what did I encounter? It was ghost story time. I kid you not. There were 35 people sitting on the floor telling ghost stories at 10:00am.

Now, the ghost stories haven't been a recurring thing, but another office quirk has - fish. At last count, we had over 40 fish in our office. You may be picturing a big tank with beautiful tropical fish in it. Nope. Most of the fish are these very pretty Siamese (I've also heard Japanese) fighting fish, which spread their fins and puff themselves out a bit when they are getting ready to fight. And they like to fight each other. This means that you can't keep them in the same tank or they will kill one another. So, instead of one big fish tank, we have over 40 small ones throughout the office. Oh, and if you put two of the tanks next to each other the fish start ramming against the glass when they see the other so you need to put some sort of divider between the tanks.

You may wonder how this fish thing got so out of control. Well, one person got one and then my coworker liked it so he got a couple and, remember what I said about cultivating a following and charisma? Yeah, well that lead to more and more people buying fish. Please keep in mind that I really am not a big fan of fish. I think they are pretty icky, so this wasn't my ideal work environment.

We changed offices recently and I kid you not, the memo about the move said in all seriousness, 'The movers will NOT be responsible for thr transportation of fish or fish tanks.' So, what happened to all of the little fighters? One of the guys adopted all of them and took them home. We have been in the new office for 2 weeks now and so far, it's fish-free.