Episode 288: Working hardly, and hard working

The office rewards its employees with a certain monetary value when they go "beyond the call of duty" and work harder to get things done on time.

The first time I got it, was 4 years ago. I had stayed back till 10pm (the first of its kind in this office) while my manager worked in the neighbouring cubicle wondering why someone who joined only a few months ago had to stay this late! A few weeks later, I was "rewarded". And I wondered what I did to deserve it...

In the next four years, I wondered what was expected out of me to get another reward. I was still under the same manager and felt I did a lot more to deserve more rewards. They never came my way, and the recessive trend in the market only strangled what little came our way in terms of salary hikes and monetary rewards. I wondered what more I had to do to get another one.

Last month, the office laptop came home. And brought with it unsolicited (alright, I did solicit it secretly) responsibility. It translated into longer hours at work, lesser hours on Facebook, GTalk, flickr and Google Reader. It also translated into still lesser blog posts.

Till one day last week when the new manager (who took over in May) called to tell me about my reward.

Hard work pays. Visibility pays even more.