Farewell:

So finally it has ended. One year working with one of the Big Four Audit firms. Funnily I was nostalgic and a little melancholy when I left. I thought I would be ridiculously excited but I will really miss the people I worked with.

Working with this firm was hands down the funniest experience I've ever had in my life. It’s a job where nothing is fixed starting from the office location, office timings, who you will be working with, the amount of time you will get in that client, work scope and so on and so forth. As a person who firmly enjoys routine and consistency I found it supremely disconcerting to be thrown back and forth every other week.

Every week I would be sent to some location in some other emirate that I was unfamiliar with. I don’t mind long drives but I do unnecessarily panic when I’m unsure of the way. Thank you GPS for always being there for me. It was actually fun getting lost a couple of times. Given the long distances that I had to travel I got to spend a lot of time in my lovely car – the holy mobile, listening to my praise and worship music and doing my favorite pastime – thinking. I also got to learn a lot of road ways that I otherwise would not have known.

Putting in long hours was exhausting. I realized that giving people more than enough time to work was counter-productive. Our work hours would start usually by 8:30 am and end around 8 – 9 pm in the night. However because we were so used to staying late and working that we would take things easy in the first half of the day and suddenly start working hard around 4 pm. If our work hours were restricted and we were forced to go home at 6 pm we would put in the same effort from start to finish.

I had various client interactions and it varied from client to client. We had some clients who were just so rude and unreasonable and we also had clients who were downright scared of auditors. It was hilarious to be referred to as Madam by people who were my grandfather’s age and to be brought coffee every two hours by the office peon. I had to suppress my mirth several times watching people squirm when I asked them questions because they were so scared of my position.

My colleagues were another level altogether. It’s difficult to remain in this field and retain your humanity because of the amount of pressure that is mounted upon you. The long work hours, the level of quality required and just the competitiveness that prevailed in this field was so high that there was a tendency to lose all the core values that make you human. Kindness, concern, and basic etiquette were all long forgotten.

I had some colleagues who were so ambitious that they never ever slept. Like zombies they worked day and night, ate lunch while working, barely ever saw their family, and it seems like they never ever went home. While their enthusiasm for the job was admirable I could not help but feel sad for these people who lived to work instead of working to live. They never got to enjoy their life and had lost sight of what was the true goal.

I had one true friend among all this. A female colleague who was there for me every time I needed her. We got thrown into this job with very little training and without her I could not have survived. We had much in common; we both were hard core fans of reading, literature and poetry. We also shared the same distaste for the rat race we were forced into. It was unreal to meet someone like her, a true gem of a person and I was glad for a friend like her.

Now as a department we never had fun. In fact we hated fun. On my last day there was a staff party being held and our administrators stormed into the room and tried to force us all to go for the party. We adamantly stuck to our seats because we wanted to work but our administrators were unrelenting. Finally we hid in the neighboring room so that we wouldn't have to go for the party. After two minutes the absurdity of the situation hit us and we burst into laughter. Only in an audit firm would we adamantly insist on not going for a party and try to work instead!

Stock count season was hilarious. We had to climb over boxes in dusty warehouses to count, and I had great fun with the forklifts. The forklifts had the unusual ability to go up while moving forward at the same time so I would spread my arms out and pretend like I was flying. Then I would remember that I was a professional and compose myself and return to my meek demeanor. Stock counts usually happened in the end of the year so while friends and family were having a blast during Christmas and New year we would be in some dusty warehouse counting boxes as the year ticked down.

My department had a shared passion for cricket to the extent that certain cricket websites were blocked in the office. We were constantly updated on match scores and during the T20 cup the rivalry between teams bordered on murderous. We would constantly call each other to rub unfortunate match scores in the faces of our colleagues supporting the opposing team. I never was a cricket fan but now I have fond memories whenever I remember the sport.

I must not forget my fossil of a laptop. It was so old, broken and chipped in several places; it wouldn't last even two minutes without the charger. Moreover it shut down routinely and lost all my data every once in a while. I called the IT guys more often than my mother because my laptop had so many issues. I wanted to donate it to Dubai Museum but the IT guys wanted it back when I left. I pray for the unfortunate person who gets to use it next.

All in all it was interesting experience. It was a hard slog and I’m glad it’s over but I will miss my colleagues. I remember each one of you fondly and will definitely pray for you.