Love in the Time of Corona: A Tale of Being Empathetically Strong and Closely Knit

I know the title is a bit cliched and ‘love’ is too strong a word to describe an employee-employer relationship. 

Not to mention, most of the time, ’empathetically strong’ and ‘closely knit’ are nothing but corporate buzzwords. 

But these are very difficult times. COVID has hit us hard and affected every aspect of our lives – health, wealth, relationships, job. With the economy hitting an all-time low and health infrastructure on the verge of collapse, our lives are engulfed in a certain kind of perplexity and uncertainty. 

Under the circumstances, when a company stands by you like a pillar you can hold onto, you can’t think of anything but ‘love’ to describe the relationship. 

Do I sound a little emotional? It’s ok, I guess. Embibe has given me reason enough to be emotional. Especially because I owe my life to the company, to Aditi, and a lot of other people here who stood by me. 

In April 2020, amidst the lockdown, I fell sick. No, it wasn’t COVID. But we didn’t know it then. 

I had severe diarrhea which led to electrolyte imbalance in the body, thereby affecting the normal functioning of my kidneys. Within 12 hours, I was so dehydrated that I could even count my ribs. 

I was alone in Bangalore. Most of the people in our building too had left before the lockdown. The owner was out of the station. To make it worse, it was raining heavily. Because of the lockdown, there was no Uber-Ola. And I was not able to reach out to any ambulance services. 

At around 9 in the evening, with no other option left, I messaged Aditi. Within half an hour, I was picked up from home. Within the next one hour, I was admitted to Manipal Hospital and was taken to the ICU where I was for the next two days. 

COVID was still new and people had very less information about it. Hospitals wouldn’t admit patients so easily. The HR Head pulled some strings and made sure I got a bed. Also, my reporting manager reached the hospital within half an hour to make sure everything happened smoothly.

My wife, my parents, everybody was dead worried about me. With airports closed, there was no way for them to come to Bangalore and they were feeling helpless. 

My reporting manager and another person from HR were in constant touch with them, answering a hundred questions from them every day, assuring them that everything’s going to be all right. 

Another person, she didn’t even have a personal vehicle, reached the hospital to do all the formalities for the insurance. 

Despite the restrictions on traveling, my reporting manager visited me every single day. He lived with his family – his wife, a little daughter, his mother. Hospitals are hotbeds of infection and yet, it didn’t stop him from taking care of me. 

And Aditi and Karan were always in touch. 

I was released after seven days. My reporting manager didn’t want me to stay alone. So, he arranged for another flat for me that was near his place. I didn’t go there but it was always an option. 

The way the Embibe family took care of everything was highly commendable. To be honest, I didn’t expect it – the way they got involved and made sure I got the best treatment and care. I didn’t even know many of them personally and neither did they know me. But all these didn’t matter. 

I still get scared thinking about what would have happened if Aditi hadn’t seen my message on time or if people hadn’t come forward. I mean they could have used an easy excuse – COVID and lockdown, and nobody would have blamed them. But they didn’t. And here I am, all alive and fit, writing this post. 

This was my experience with Embibe during one of the most difficult times of my life. This made me realize that for us, ’empathetically strong’ and ‘closely knit’ are not hollow buzzwords. And in the last year especially, I have seen multiple scenarios where, the organization and its people have gone out of their way to help a fellow colleague, to take care of the family. 

While other companies, even big companies, fired left and right or cut salaries of their employees, Embibe paid full salary to all its members on time. Not just that, the leadership team has been extremely lenient in the quarterly performance reviews and we got very high variables in all the last four quarters. In fact, for the 4th quarter, the management has decided to pay 100% variable to all the members of Embibe. 

Not just that. 

We have conducted tests on a regular basis. No, it has nothing to do with whether or not you’re coming to the office. In any way, the past year has been mostly ‘work for home’ for 90% of the people. But even for them, tests were conducted if anybody had any doubt or showed any symptoms. Arrangements were made to collect samples from home. For people who started working from the office after there were relaxations in restrictions, tests were conducted for them every now and then. The office also took care of our lunch and dinner so that nobody had to go outside. 

A dedicated team has taken it upon themselves to handle the COVID crisis. They are literally available 24X7 and I have no idea how they are doing it. Somebody is sick, somebody is in need of a hospital bed or some medications or oxygen cylinder, this team is trying its best to make the necessary arrangements. Even for those who are working remotely. Every time I see a colleague from a remote area dropping a message in our WhatsApp/Flock groups thanking Embibe for the Oximeter they received or Remdesivir for a serious patient, be it a family member or even a friend, it brings tears to my eyes. 

A few weeks back, we were in a meeting with Aditi. She said two of our colleagues had lost their fathers and then went silent for the next two minutes. To her, it’s a personal loss. She truly considers everyone in Embibe as her own family and does everything in her capacity to help us. She is always available on WhatsApp. And this particular mindset, that everything is personal, that we need to be empathetic towards each other in these difficult times, the realization that we are a closely-knit family, has trickled down to each of us. Our WhatsApp and Flock groups are always active. And it’s not just the dedicated COVID team. Every single one of us is trying to help and support others with information and resources. I haven’t seen this anywhere. 

I think these stories need to be shared and heard. Not many companies would do what Embibe has been doing and that’s what makes us awesome. That’s what shows the humanness and integrity with which we operate as a company. 

I have completed my fourth year at Embibe today. And I thought of taking this opportunity to jot down the most important thing that I learned in the last one year at Embibe – to be empathetically strong and closely knit. 

How else would you make a dent in the universe, change the face of something as important as education, change the lives of the millions? What’s the point of education if it doesn’t make you an empathetic person? And what’s a better way to achieve it than starting closer home?

(This article was first published on LinkedIn.)