A Corporate Job

Blog 28 of 30

Work, family, parents, in-laws, children, home, dog, husband, Kreeda, the Trust – it was all becoming, a lot to handle. But there was one more thing – helping my husband out with his business. It started off with my pitching in for marketing and communications, because after all that was my area of specialization. 

My husband runs an IT company which is our bread-and-butter business alongside a genset company started by my father-in-law. When my husband took over it was a small company of about 20 people. Over a period of time, the business grew, the challenges grow, but I was careful to maintain arm’s length. I wanted my own identity. I wanted my space. I did not just want to be, Sidharth’s wife. I did not just want to be someone who helped him with his business. That’s why I always did things on my own. But, never say never, right? So, things changed.  

As the business grew. I saw my husband needing more and more support. I started helping out more and more. It started with small HR issues, administration, and the like. I started going into the office. I also took a call to move out of the house and merge offices. It was a win win for both of us. We had more space in the house with the children growing up. We were able to share resources. The Masterpage creative team supported Power Center with all the design and marketing, while the finance and accounts team supported Masterpage.  

However, after years of working, in the creative space, in a flexible work environment, working with a truly corporate organization with structure and processes was quite a challenge. It took me some time to adapt, it took my husband time to adapt, it took people in the office time to adapt. But then Covid hastened the process.

Many things happened during the Covid 19 pandemic, both personally and professionally, that left us shaken, depressed and dejected. It was a tough time and needed us to rally around and adapt, but we simply could not find the strength to do so.

One evening one of our employees called me. “Mam!” he said, “If you and sir are so dejected and so depressed, where will we in the office find strength. We need you to be strong for all of us because if you are strong, we will be strong.” The words cut through my mind and shook me to the very core.

My mind drifted back to the office. It had become a sober place. People wandered around, stressed worried, tense about their future, about the future of the organization. That realization shook us both and me in particular because I realized that until then, my work with the company had still been at arm’s length. I had to get involved. I could get involved and I could make a difference.

And in some strange way, coincidence or otherwise when I changed, things changed in the office and the business picked up.

At the end of the day, if we cannot adapt, we cannot grow. I realized that when I came to work at Power Centre. At first I was filled with fear and trepidation – the fear that I did not know enough, the fear that I would fail in a corporate organization, the fear that when the time came to try make a difference in this space, I would be found wanting.

But over time I realized that what I had learned in my other roles could be applied to make a difference here. Rather than being unprepared, I was fully prepared, I was ready and over a period of time, I was able to take on the mantle of marketing, HR, admin and much much more.  

This was not a Masterpage in the true sense of the world. This was another organization. But Masterpage for me had become more than an organization. It had become, a belief, a thought process or way of working if you will. Joining my husband’s business early would have left me with no identity of my own. No learning of my own. Now I came in as a professional with experience, knowledge, and ideas that could truly make a difference.

I think it’s important for every one of us to have an identity of our own. Not as a daughter or son or a parent, or just someone’s husband or wife. No matter what it is, that identity defines us and gives us strength in ourselves. I had gone many places and done many things, but I had to find confidence in what I had learned and who I had become – that happened when I found a corporate job!