Embrace the MESS...

2020. If we live to be a hundred, we’ll never forget this year and how we dragged ourselves through the greatest health, economic and psychological disaster to hit America in 240 years. Millions infected, hospital filled to overflowing, and the death toll now surpassing that of World War II. At the peak of the Great Depression, 20.5 million people were unemployed. In April 2020, 23.5 million with 35 million filing for unemployment in the last 9 months. And, for the first time, there was a confederate flag in the US Capitol. It’s the apocalypse!! Do I have your attention now?

 And what did we do? We Embraced the Mess! We pulled through. We toughened up. We stayed inside and cooked and wore loose clothes to hide the inevitable Covid-15. We wore masks outside, were socially distanced and never shook hands. We invested our retirement savings in toilet paper, sanitizer and Lysol wipes! We did what had to be done. We realized quickly that swimming against the flow was a futile endeavor, and so we learned to do meetings online, get dressed only from the waist up and never sent an invite to your current boss to join your job interview on Zoom! The phrase of the year became “You’re on mute!” And we all know how it feels when your kids charge into the room while your meeting with the VP and someone else in the meeting says “Now I know why you always like to come to the office.”

 But we persevere. We charge ahead. We bugger on. We find what motivates us and we get the job done, day after day, until that golden day when we can join the herd of immunity and return to the comfort of a tiny cube with no view, a wobbly chair and a neighbor who’s screaming on the phone and likes a lot of garlic with lunch. Ahh. The good old days!

 And at Infosys, we were all fortunate enough to work for a company that prioritized our health & safety, that eased our transition to work-from-home and never forced, or even urged us to come to the office. And we knew we could depend on Infosys to keep us all working, with little regard for the financial pain the company would have to endure. Infosys took care of their employees first. They put us ahead of profits – and then had the greatest quarter in history!! Infosys invested in us and we paid them back! What more could anyone ask for while the world is turning upside down.

 We will endure. Stay inside! Stay safe! Embrace the Mess!!