Mumbai CEO goes offline for 16 days, returns to 3,000 messages and a powerful realisation
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Piramal Finance, Jairam Sridharan, has spoken at length about the outcome of taking a long break from
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Piramal Finance, Jairam Sridharan, has spoken at length about the outcome of taking a long break from work and social media, and the realisation it brought him. In a LinkedIn post, Sridharan shared that when he returned from his 16-day break, he was greeted by thousands of unread messages and emails. Yet his biggest realisation was simple: “Everything in the world has carried on just fine without me.” A complete break from work Describing his time away, Sridharan wrote: “Returned to 'normal life' yesterday night, after a 16 day break. Per my usual custom, for these 16 days I did not access email, didn't pick up any calls, stayed away from WhatsApp, didn't engage in any social media chatter, didn't watch the news... Basically avoided anything that could remotely bring me back to 'work mode'.
Dedicated the time fully to family and friends and our time together.” The CEO said he intentionally avoided anything that could pull him back into professional responsibilities, choosing instead to focus entirely on spending time with family and friends. Thousands of messages awaited him When he finally switched his phone back on, Sridharan found around 3,000 unread WhatsApp messages, nearly 2,000 emails and hundreds of missed calls. Some of those calls had come from his boss and one of the company's partners. He also discovered that several important developments had taken place during his absence. Also Read | Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants AI models regulated like airplanes Reflecting on what he missed, Sridharan wrote: “May's month end drill came and went. My absence made no difference. RBI made some big ticket policy announcements on the forex side.
Rupee is still at 95 though. Oil, however, seems to have fallen below $100. I don't know why, but let's not look a gift house in the mouth, shall we?” He noted that work continued as usual despite his absence, while major economic developments also unfolded. Personal milestones and a key realisation Sridharan said a close friend experienced a significant and difficult life event while he was away. He also missed Royal Challengers Bengaluru winning the IPL 2026 title and returned to find that the road outside his home had been dug up. Despite everything that happened during those two weeks, he said the most important lesson remained: “Everything in the world has carried on just fine without me.” 'Priceless' time with family Looking back on the experience, Sridharan acknowledged that disconnecting entirely comes with trade-offs.
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