Playing a part in millions of stories

WHERE ARE YOU?

There are all sorts of things that you learn about life when you’re working with Grab. Some of them are obvious and some less so, but running in the background is the thought that what we do here every day can have some impact.

Occasionally though, that thought comes to the very forefront of your mind.
I had an experience once at the airport – a small moment, but one that made me stop and think. I had called for a ride, through Grab of course, and got a notification that my driver had arrived. So far so good, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. Anyone who’s ever been at an airport will know that’s not an unusual situation!

So, I called him.
No answer.
Strange.

After a little searching I eventually found him and started to ask him why he hadn’t answered my call, he looked at me for a second then reached for his phone and began tapping out a message. When he was done he handed me his phone and this is what I read…

“I’m sorry, I cannot speak or hear, but I can talk through text”.

I felt a little overwhelmed. Firstly and most obviously, I felt bad at my initial irritation at not being able to locate him. There are so many things that we all take for granted through the course of our day and, as I sat in the back of his car it made me think about that. How hard it must be, I thought, to have to deal with those kinds of obstacles every single day of your life, and yet here he was, getting on with it – it tends to put your own struggles into perspective.

It wasn’t really until later, after the experience had been with me for a while that I realised something else. That the company I work for was playing a central role in that man’s life.

We often talk about our ‘mission’, about the reason we come to work every day. It’s always there, as I said, in the background – that what we do has a positive impact on the lives of people in Southeast Asia – and it can be very easy to take it for granted. But here was a man, working hard for himself and his family, and enabled to do it by Grab.

When you talk about ‘Grab life with both hands’ it strikes me that this man was doing exactly that – ignoring his physical situation and making the very most of the opportunities that are presented to him.
And I’m proud of the small part I play in millions of stories like this across the region.

If you’d like to discover what part you could play at Grab, check out our open roles on our careers site.