The Show Must Go On

At 26 years, I was already running the show as a legal expert when I got married; and then followed my first born. Managing the responsibilities of a baby was impossible with the long hours at the law firm so I quit.

Valuable Skills

Nurturing a child I realized brought its own set of valuable experiences – more patience, determination and resilience than before. Qualities that a good workplace could use and the role at Infyni offered me that possibility.

My day begins very early. I log in to the system much before dawn and make sure all the classes for the day are assigned to the moderators, ensure the links work and double check to avoid technical glitches.

It helped that my responsibilities were very well defined by the company. Infyni conducts live online classes for kids, professionals as well as students and I am responsible for how the chess classes are running. The first year as a Moderator exposed me to students and their parents. Soon, Infyni’s chess classes became so popular that today, it is the number one selling course for kids.

Baby Steps

What helps is to take small steps. When I joined I was unsure if I could juggle both home and work and if the tradeoffs were worth it. But with encouragement and patience from the incredible leadership team at Infyni, I found a new version of myself and a set of skills I didn’t know I had.

New mothers face a loss of confidence when returning to work. This is not just a challenge women have to work on. It’s a shift in mindset that organizations and workplace have to start considering seriously.

With almost 5 classes each day, going up to 10 during the weekend, we brought in more Moderators. Eventually, I assumed the role of Academic in charge. This is a role I love – training them to speak to students’ parents, auditing the performance of our chess instructors and having to find last-minute solutions to schedule changes, unexpected power outages at instructors’ end, and so on.

There is never a dull moment at Infyni. Sometimes when the chaos appears to take over I think of MS Dhoni – my all-time hero – and his captaincy. Taking a page out of his attitude, I stop everything and calm myself down. What I have come to learn at Infyni is that no matter what happens at the backstage, the show must eventually go on.

Financial Empowerment

Women often have to take a break from their career, for family reasons. The one piece of advice I give my women friends is to take out at least a few hours for oneself. Studying, freelancing or working a manageable shift keeps us from feeling “we are out of the loop.”

Plus, the financial empowerment that comes with it is an incredible feeling. I have been putting aside a part of my earnings for a holiday. Sometime soon, maybe for New Year I will surprise our small family with a vacation to Bali. ~ Written by Tejal Shah

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