Love Life + Corporate Ladder Part 2 - Guidelines For Work-Love Balance

We discussed earlier the pros and cons of being in love, even as you're building your career. Now we're giving you guidelines for keeping oneself in top professional form, no matter what season, in your lovelife:

1. Understand the power of your emotions. So learn which to bring. As a rule, keep the office free of the nega signals. If you must vent and dump, you have real-life, non-office friends, right? This it the time to count on them to fill this need. Or beg for them to rise up to the occasion. If your only friends are those from the office, make sure that you discuss your broken heart OUTSIDE the office. We're sorry, even if your heart is in pieces, you can't let that affect your work, ideally.

2. If you can't contain yourself, you would have to take a break. Never mind the fact that you'll need to take a pay cut. Compose yourself for a day or two. Your misery need not contaminate other people. Your workmates may care, we may care about your heart, but it's just not professional to weep all over the office.

3. Understand one thing: Problems at home are forgotten the moment your feet leave the doormat. Likewise, work-related worries are locked in the office the moment the elevator door closes behind you. While you may not perfect this instantly, practicing it helps keep life well-compartmentalized.

4. If you must resign because of a breakup, do it responsibly. Make sure that you will give the company ample time to prepare, find your replacement, and of course, do make allowances for a proper turnover. While we understand that your heart feels like it's being crushed over and over and then roasted over a fire pit at the moment, do have mercy on your company's Human Resources gal (or guy). They too have things to juggle and problems to deal with. Have a bit of compassion for other people and do things in order. Not only will it be great for practicing professionalism, you may find that in being merciful to others, your heart may feel a little lighter.

5. Don't kill a career just because of a broken heart. Sure you may need to heal, but if you still actually like your job, you don't have to leave it. Just take a week off to make space for yourself and heal. Then come back to your job and rebuild. If it's that bad, then, make sure you follow #4.

6. As a rule, think twice before you jump into an office romance. When it goes sour, it's among the messiest situations in life. There are better fish in the sea. If they're not showing up, maybe you're fishing in the wrong waters.

Life is complicated enough as it is. So when we make the wrong moves or fail to keep proper boundaries, it grows even more messy. Thus, it would be in your best interests to conduct your life in the most sensible and orderly way possible. This way, life would be as great as it should be, and no compartment (i.e. work, or lovelife) would be draining the life out of the other. Enjoy, have fun, and remember, we get the most fun out of life if we keep the mess to a minimum! Less cleanups! Happy Monday!