The key is finding ways to express yourself while doing your job. This is especially important if your job is no more gratifying than getting paid. If you are doing something tedious like data entry or documentation or bill collection, it's important to find a way to slip your personality into your daily routine. Bring your favorite lunch every day, listen to your favorite music on your iPod, or find a way to tell your favorite (clean) joke. It's important to take that job and make it part of you, rather than making yourself part of the job.

So the next time you find yourself staring blankly at the computer screen, feeling it suck your soul away in an entirely unique and diabolical kind of way, think about what you can do to take it back. Find ways to exercise empowerment rather than submitting to soul crushing defeat. Let your personality show, and keep you and your co workers from becoming mindless drones, just another cog in the wheel, doing its part and nothing more. Employers don't want robots, no matter what some might think they want living, breathing people that can think for themselves, catch mistakes, and contribute in unique ways, and, thus, elevate the company to a new level. So don't let your soul get taken into the night; fight for it, no matter how droll the job is, because as long as you're fighting, you can never lose.

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