Abhijith Nair

That day was like any other day, I was posted in the first shift (06:00 AM – 03:30 PM). I had woken up at 05:00 AM, had taken a very cold shower. I was dressed up, yet I didn’t feel like going to the office. Realizing that my salary was at stake, I killed my morning blues, put my earphones on with my favorite podcast playing I walked towards my office. At 6 AM in December, Bangalore is not very bright; the sun was yet to wake up and it was misty outside.

I being the first one to enter my office the whole floor used to be dark and always had a haunting vibe. But today as I entered the office, through the corner of my eye, I could see far away in a corner a system lit up. I saw the man’s silhouette sitting in front of that system typing away with full concentration as if he was hacking into a server. I started walking towards the person and that is when I realized it is the same cubicle that I sit in. My breath got heavier as I approached him and yet the man did not seem to notice the sound of my footsteps.

“Ranjith, Is that you? Why are you still here?” the man was none other than my lead who had stepped in yesterday for his second shift (2:00 PM – 11:00 PM). He turns around and says “Oh! What time is it?”

“It’s 06:00 AM, haven’t you been here since yesterday at 2 PM?”

Ranjith, with dark circles under his eyes and beard that had started to show grey because of the stress from the last few weeks, smiled and said, “Yes Abhi! just had some issues that had to be taken care of.” To which I immediately shot back, “But the people working from ‘on-site’ could have taken care of it. Why do you have to spend the whole night alone in the office?”

Still smiling he replied, “Well it just had to be done. There were multiple issues and I knew how to fix this issue. Nevertheless, I had the company of Venkat (colleague/teammate) till 2 AM, so it was fine.”

“Alright!”

I could not stop thinking to myself, why did he still stay? Back at home, he has two lovely daughters and a wife with whom he could have spent a peaceful night. As a fresher, I never really could understand his dedication and hard work.

After a few minutes, a few more teammates from the first shift joined in. We offered to drop him back home, as he was sleep-deprived. He started laughing out loud. “Oh, Abhi! I can go on without sleep and work at full efficiency for 48hours. Probably after that, my efficiency will drop a bit.”

This moment left a very lasting impression on me. Most of the leaders lead by handing out work to their teammates and only a few lead by example. Ours was a very strong team, people jelled well with each other, everyone was very supportive and considerate to each other. Maybe the reason for all of this was Ranjith, he brought in a lot of ethics and standards on the table for all of us to follow. A small gesture from him made a huge impact. That is when I learned, no matter how small or big the work, I would do it; I would do it to the best of my abilities and make an impact on the lives of people around me. This is also something that I strongly advise everyone else to do, once you take up a responsibility give it your all, that is when you earn true respect and win hearts.

IT is not just any other job; you find some of the most inspiring and genuine people working here.

Total Work Experience : 1.8 Years(Infosys)