Having fun while working in a Big4.
September End = Quarter end as per Big4 lingo. And quarter end invites a whole lot of workload a whole lot of work pressure (especially if the project is related to a listed entity).
In te midst of this crazy timeline, I decided to enjoy a teensy bit of the festive season and booked Garba Night Event tickets for me and all my colleagues.
But the work pressure was so much, we couldn't even find time to go shopping for garba outfits. At somewhere around 5pm I told my manager that we need to find some way to go to this event.
He asked us to shut our laptops down and go to the event, while he'd stay back and take care of any pending deliverables.
We logged off after about an hour and went home, got dressed and went to the event. We danced our hearts out, played dandiya and did some garba moves, had fun-filled after office hours.
We left the venue at around 10.30 and reached home within an hour or so. I felt extremely guilty for leaving work behind, so I decided to login for an hour or so, only to find out that all my colleagues had already logged in, and were working even before me.
I believe that all my colleagues were as tired as I was still chose to work, and our manager didn't even ask us to work post the event, it was a collective feeling of responsibility, which made each of us do this.
I'm not glorifying over-working and toxic work culture, but sometimes as proud as we are to be a part of "Big4" we have to give in all of ourselves to send out deliverables due on the statutory deadlines.
I don't know how long this is sustainable, but I know for sure that these are the years to learn, to work hard and to grow and that is what I'll keep in mind, while I sustain this highly demanding job β¨