Sunday, February 3, 2008

Night Life.. !!

Nopes, am not talking about the Night Life of Bombay (sounds better than Mumbai), which is quite interesting actually. I am referring to my night life. I work in the night shift at an MNC bank. I remember when I was offered this profile, I was really excited since I pretty much liked the job but I was split in two minds whether to accept the night shift and work for a good process or continue working in the day timings but not for an interesting process.

I eventually ended up accepting the new job and thought I would get over the night shift thingy since we had a lot of people working nights anyways. I was supposed to work from 6.30 PM to 3.30 AM officially. I have always liked the idea of going to work earlier than usual and kindof finishing most of the work that can be done asap and just casually enjoy the rest of the day and leave on time (I still do that).

Initially, it was different. Since I was on training, I had to go according to the schedule prepared by my trainers and approved by my TL. I ususally used to go on time go to sleep as soon as I get home (5 mins from my office) :-) and get up by around 10-11 AM the next day. I should admit that was my honeymoon period (ask any of my colleagues about it) in office. I had not been given much of a responsibility yet in the team so was enjoying my training.

Gradually, months passed by and we had a majot transition in the team when out TL moved on the another team and even further some months later another senior member of the team was moved to another process. That left me as one of the most experienced members of the team with which came a lot of responsibility which in turn meant long working hours. That is when I realised, damn! this was not a piece of cake. I am not denying the fact that I am the only one working overtime in the office, a lot of people worked for even longer hours. But I was quick to realise that the difference lied not in the work, but in something else.

Soon I realised the reason behind my constant headache, tremendous increase in coffee intake, loss of weight, weariness, and the like was the awkward working hours (now I felt it was awkward). My style of working was now suddenly a nightmare. Come early to work, go home really late, or I should say early in the morning the next day. Soon, I was called the night watchman.. quite a funny name actually.

And it still continues, it'll probably be somewhere around 2.30 AM by the time I finish writing this blog. After this I have another host of things to do by the time I am done for the day and at the end of it all again reach home early in the morning. Trust me it is not funny to share the lift with the newspaper vendor or the milkman everyday in the morning after a tiring day's work.

Quite depressing as this article may seem, its not really a sad story. Afterall, not everything comes on a platter in life. I am sure this experience is going to make me tough, as a person. I am never going to forget these days(read: nights) ever. Looking at it from a wider perspective, this is going to help me immensly in the long years to come in my career. Hope my managers read it.. ;-)

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