To be honest, I did not have a great personal relationship with him, and he was just my senior colleague in office. He was 50, and I was 30 — safe to say there was nothing common between us. He was a native of South Asian community, and had been working in the same company for almost 30 years. Lets call him “J”!

We never had a cup of coffee together, or even went for a meal. He was merely an acquaintance from a separate department, and I would often collaborate with him for certain deliverables.

I remember during one of our conversations, we were preparing our monthly work plans, and I was sharing what help I would be needing from him and his team. Our plan was set for the next 30 days of work — but little did we both know that life always has different plans for all of us.

I. The first email

The very next day, when I opened my mailbox, there was an email talking about the sudden demise of ‘J’. He had suffered a heart attack and died within his sleep last night. The date of the death ceremony was mentioned and everyone was requested to make a contribution if they feel so.

The email came as a shock to me, as it was to almost everyone in the office. It was no time for him to go, at least not yet. I wondered that we often plan for years ahead, but the fact remains that we do not even know if we will be able to take the very next breath.

I did not have any personal relationship with him, and hence his untimely death did not affect me much. But I still felt that a final good bye should have been in order, and letting him know that he has been a great colleague to work with. I remember the very famous lines from the book “Life of Pie”:

I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye. — Yann Martel, Life of Pi

II. The second email

While I was still reflecting on my thoughts about life and death and everything in between, another email popped up which stated as follows:

From now on, all the emails and job tasks that were assigned to “J” shall now be directed to “M” from the same department.

This email came to me as a bigger shock than the one before. There was nothing wrong with anything stated in the email, but I learnt that each one of us is nothing but a single resource in the 100,000 employees company — even if we have spent 30 years in the same company. Such is the unfortunate situation with almost every single multinational corporation that exist today.

I learnt a very important lesson that day — i.e. we should decide our priorities correctly. There are people for whom we are their entire life. Their day does not start or end without us. But for others, we are as insignificant as a name in an email!

P.S. No one on their death bed has ever wished that they had spent more time in office. Please do spend more time with your family and your loved ones.

https://medium.com/@thesilentmonk/996-and-karoshi-if-you-don-t-know-these-two-words-you-are-living-a-better-life-c62bbce2f7b9

If you like my articles, please do subscribe so that you never miss one!