The smell of fish never goes away

Writing is a passion of mine. I enjoy pouring out a string of words that join together to form fun sentences. Sometimes these sentences help people learn. Sometimes they allow me to vent. But today, they are a pointy spear that I will brandish against something that ruins careers and company reputations alike.

Even if you try to hide it, it never goes away. The more you try to hide, the worse the cocktail of aromatics and fish carcasses mutates to the point where stepping in a 12-mile radius of your business will make people vomit.

The old bait-and-switch

As much as we humans pride ourselves on our superior intellect, at the end of the day, we are no more different than a fish in the sea. Is that shiny golden fish I see? I must chase it because it is obviously better than all the other fish I see. Out of the water, barely breathing, we see a face. As he removes the hook from our bleeding gullet, he slowly says:

We are sorry to inform you that we won't be renewing your contract as It does not align with our vision for the future.

And just like floppy fish, we are thrown back out into the sea, bleeding our way to the bottom. We faintly hear him, muffled from the depth of water:

We trust that you will find an opportunity out there that better suits your skillset.

Weird thing to say to a fish if you ask me. The fish did not relocate hundreds of miles to come to you, it did not uproot its family to pursue an opportunity, and it definitely didn't ask to have a lovely excuse to be asked "What happened here?" in every interview it ever has.

All the fish wanted was a nice meal that was a bit fancier and shinier than its usual diet. It didn't want its dying corpse to be thrown back into the ocean because it wasn't a fit for the dish that some fancy 5-star chef was putting together.

Fish are stupid and don't have feelings, so I guess it's fine.

The stench of deceit never washes away

The smell of discarded fish can never wash off. Every time you spray it with water hoping to clean it away, you only manage to revive the stench for everyone to choke on.

I think it's fair to say that the fish analogy can be dropped by now.

Most of you identified with the fish, some of you are right. But some are holding a fish hook, forgetting if they had pulled it from someone else's mouth or from their own.

No business is stupid enough to pull a bait and switch on a client. Best case scenario? they never buy from you again. But mess with the wrong client, and they have grounds for legal action against you for fraud. Not a path many legal companies want to venture on.

Most of the fishermen out there fish in their own little aquarium. They find a nice exotic specimen, probably from a tropical reef, take it out of its element, and plop right in that little aquarium. But once the missus points out that orange and white striped clownfish just doesn't fit with the grey homogenous bunch they already got.

So down the drain, you go.

Whenever the vacancy is filled, the question will pop up as soon as they arrive at the office.

What happened to the old guy?

You can dodge the question, or give a corporate non-answer. But deep down, you know.

The smell of fish will never go away.

It's ok to feel gutted

Puns are the lowest form of humor, but I seem to be hooked on the fish analogy.

If you feel cheated, used, and discarded; it is ok. You will bounce back eventually.

It won't feel like it when you are suspended in a stagnant sea of despair, both floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. But you will bounce back.

Know that you are not alone, they discarded others, the same way they did you. It is not a comment on you, your skills, your personality, or your success. That is the way they always operated, even before you came on board.

But be sure that once their boat springs a couple of holes, all the fish will swim away, and nobody will be there to save the boat or its captain.

The shinier the bait, the deeper the hook

It is easy to resort to victim-blaming and tell people to wake up. But as good as the bait might be, there are always ways to find the seems. Always trust your nose and never ignore a fishy smell. If it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime, it probably isn't.

Sizing yourself up can be a great way to understand where the limits of your skillset are and how much outside of them you can reach before you become a vulnerable target.

This article was sparked by a real situation that one of my good friends experienced recently. It might not be filled with rich and valuable advice. But if it made even one person feel like their struggle is visible and that everyone understands their feelings, then it did its job.

I hope you are reading this, from one fish to another.