Recognizing the Scavenger Fish and Burnout

The fable introduces a scavenger fish that stops taking crap from others, disrupting the equilibrium of the fish tank. The scavenger fish represents an over-functioner who cleans up everyone's messes and prevents anxiety from permeating the system. When the fish stops over-functioning, others in the tank become dysfunctional and disoriented, unable to deal with their own crap. The moral of the story is that over-functioning leads to burnout. This fable highlights the resistance of the system to change and the unintentional sabotage by individuals to restore the previous balance.