We’ve had fish in the ireckon office since forever. Well, forever for me… they’ve been there since before I started here, so to me that = forever.
The fish have always been fish. I can only assume that they’ve always needed feeding and talking to, and they’ve always had their little quirks and characteristics that make them interesting and loveable. However, it wasn’t until we moved office a couple of months ago that I really paid much attention to them.
Through an interesting and very different desk arrangement, and a change in responsibilities, the fish all of a sudden were reliant on me. They now need me to feed them, keep an eye on them, and make sure their home is in good condition for them to live and thrive in. Now I must say, being a parent for the first time has not been easy, I have on occasion forgotten about them, and I’ve had to learn about all the new tasks I now need to perform as a part of my parental duties, but I have learnt a lot and am certainly enjoying it.
I know that a majority of the fish in our tank are Mollies. Mollies are live breeders, and I’ve learnt a lot about what this means. I also know that some of the bottom-feeders (I call them Clown-Sharks even though I know it’s wrong) have been around a long time – and they have a different personality altogether! I’ve been so interested in the last few weeks that I’ve found myself gazing into their tank watching them swim around! I’ve watched a YouTube video of Mollies giving birth, I’ve Googled how to tell the difference between the sexes, and just generally spent time observing their behaviour and trying to find out as much as I can online.
I’m not the only one in the office who’s been paying more attention. Since I have started naming our finned friends and being an internal advocate for their place within ireckon, others seem to have jumped on board and taken to them with a similar amount of enthusiasm.
Before the fish-craze began, I had friends/co-workers entering the office and asking ‘how was your weekend?’, ‘what did you get up to last night?’, ‘we doing lunch today?’. Now all they ask is ‘How is Chops?’, ‘Have we had any babies yet?’, ‘Is Chops lying on his side again trying to freak you out?’
I’m not taking the lack of interest in me personally (honest), but it’s interesting to me that the fish have been there all along, right under our noses, and few of the people in the office have really paid much attention, let alone taken the time to inquire about them and help me name them.
As I consider our forever fish, and continue to enjoy their company more and more, I’m also lead to think about what else is under our noses that we are not entirely aware of, or – that we are aware of but spend little time nurturing and paying attention to simply because it is just ‘there’. Whether it is an idea or process, a person or relationship, it might just be time to revisit, reassess and spend some real time thinking about its value.
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