Hard work is not always evident

Hard work can be silent.


One of my older neighbours (who I fondly call Uncle) in our small apartment complex would tend to the maintenance of the complex like making sure the water tanks were filled, the common areas were lit properly and overseeing timely repairs.

Sometime ago, he went to his native village and asked me to step in as his replacement. I was given the responsibility of making sure the water tanks were full. Other neighbours were given similar tasks and they all agreed.

Over the course of the next few days, we realised how much work it takes to keep things running efficiently and smoothly. Anytime one of us screwed up or forgot their task, it affected the entire complex. Even a slight delay in doing our assigned tasks led to fights.

By the time Uncle came back, our appreciation and respect for him increased manifold and we agreed not to take his work for granted.


I'm sure this applies to work too. We don't realise how much work is involved in the day-to-day upkeep of any team/organisation. We only notice it when something goes wrong and realise the difficulty when we have to fix it by ourselves.

Please remember to be thankful for these silent hard workers. The world goes on because of them.

#grateful