Every time I wake up in an unholy hour because of a work-related page, I just pretend that I am a doctor on-call who desperately needs to attend to a patient. No offense to all doctors out there. I know that your job of saving lives is way too sacred compared to my puny little career of diaper/shampoo/conditioner/toothpaste saving. But please understand that it’s the only way for me to trade sleep and go through with it.

A friend tweeted this earlier: It is said that in order to avoid stress, one must come in and out of work on time.

I would like to add to that: One must learn to love his work. If not love, have a little affection for it. And if that, still, deems too much, go for the R word — Respect.

Respecting your work is respecting yourself. Because after all, you made a choice of being in it. You made a choice of getting stuck in that what-you-call-a-hellhole career. Unless you’re in some sort of telenovela wherein everything happens because you have no choice. Or bad things just happen to you because you’re the bida and you’re gonna get super rich before the show ends anyway.

I know that this might make some eyebrows raise; make some pairs of eyes roll even. But trust me, nothing good comes out of being so negative. You are just stressing yourself, the other people around you, and the universe. So if ever you find yourself just ranting away half of your work hour shift, think of the choice you made. And if that’s not enough still, then it’s probably high time to start getting your ass off that reclining chair and start gearing for a career shift. One that you actually love.