Blog Assignment 2

I cannot think of any articles or publications I have had to read since I began my education at Southern Miss.  However, when I was in junior college I had read the book Fish! by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen.  This book describes how a manager is forced with the obstacle of turning her uncooperative inefficient employees into a  department which is very effective, cooperative, and on top of things.  The manager ends up learning valuable lessons through everyday life at Pike's Place fish market.  She relates these everyday activities to her department, and she ends up helping the department make many great changes, and her department becomes an effective team.

This book raises issues about team work and "burnout" in the workplace.  Sometimes employees get too comfortable in the workplace, and they tend to make careless errors, and this can lead to bigger problems on the job.  The manager's department had gotten out of hand, and she was forced to turn the employees around before everyone lost their jobs.  I think the authors felt like they could convince employees to be a hard-working team and to get jobs done effectively and quickly without laziness.  The authors are successful in relating everyday tasks to how jobs should be accomplished in the workplace.

In the beginning of this book the tone is somewhat negative and derogatory because the department of employees have not been performing up to par of what management thinks they should have.  At the end of the book, the tone is positive and motivating because the manager and the employees have been very successful in turning the department around and becoming a cooperative and effective team.  Sometimes employees are comfortable just getting the job done and they tend to leave out important steps or details.  This book informs the reader that a good team is an efficient team.  In order to become efficient you must work together and perform every task to the best of your ability.  The positive tone at the end of the book somewhat makes the reader feel motivated and ready to be part of an effective team.

There are three writers in this publication, and each writer has a background in a business setting.  Each writer seems to have some knowledge of how things should go in a professional setting, and I think this helps the book to have an accurate view of the work environment and what is expected of professional employees.

I think the message of this book is important for everyone.  However, I think it is very relevant to employees in a work environment who have become "too comfortable" with their job.  Some employees tend to get lazy and careless when they have worked at the same place for a long period of time.  This book uses real-life everyday examples and compares these examples to issues in the workplace.  The author shows that if people can work together in a fish market and make great things happen, that anyone in any workplace should be able to make great things happen.  Working in a fish market is not the best job, and the employees at the fish market all cooperate and get the job done in an efficient manner.  The office employees understand this, and they each learn that it is better to work as a team and get things done in the best way possible.  This not only makes the employees happy, but it will also make the managers of the company happy.  Therefore, the company as a whole will be better off if each team works together.