FEELING demoralised? Depressed? Your job under threat?

Have a nice fish.

Faced with sinking morale among staff this year, Plymouth City Council has turned to a Seattle fishmonger to put the grin back into the daily grind.

Now toy turbots and a good line in fishy wisdom have helped to cut the number of complaints from residents about how they've been treated.

"Our contact centre used to receive around four or five complaints a month from customers about how their calls had been dealt with. We haven't had a single complaint for the last four months," a council spokeswoman said.

Customer services staff became fed up to the gills after council jobs were reorganised because of the economic downturn.

And they were left floundering when complaints surged from 2,000 to 16,000 a week after the city's rubbish collections were re-zoned in November 2008.

The council decided to scale back on the complaints by buying FISH!, a worldwide best-selling training film, which shows how fishmongers at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle bring energy, commitment and fun to their work.

The film, which has been translated into 17 languages for motivation, engagement, innovation and 'culture change' training, has netted benefits in customer satisfaction. About 360 staff have taken part in the training.

Ian McPherson, customer service manager of the council's contact centre, said: "I'm not a trainer but FISH! comes with advice on delivering a training programme and it includes a DVD of training techniques and examples, as well as customisable PowerPoint slides and documents.

"Afterwards, we send a weekly email to all participants for six weeks to remind them of the key messages from the film.

"Each team votes monthly for the individual who has shown the best 'FISH! behaviour' and that person wins soft toy fish and certificates.

"The fish are extremely sought-after and people are very proud to win them."

Holy mackerel!

Image copyright courtesy of www.videoarts.com/fish