At CDN Digital, one woman quietly holds the newsroom together. Not just with policy or paperwork, but with warmth, wisdom, and the occasional tough love.
Love is boundless. If you can measure it, then that’s not love.
AILEEN PASTERA
HR ASSOCIATE, CDN DIGITAL
Marilyn “Aileen” Pastera or Miss Ai is more than just another branch in the organizational chart as HR—she’s the heart of it. To many, she’s not just a colleague, but the office mom.
Before The Office
Long before she puts on her HR hat, Aileen is a mother first. For three years, she has walked the familiar steps of work and home, balancing deadlines with motherhood. “Work, balay, work, balay,” she says, summing up her routine. It’s a cycle she has come to master, though not without struggle. A single mom to her now 18-year-old daughter, Aileen draws strength from being practical. “Things won’t always go according to plan,” she admits. “That’s why time management and always having a plan B is necessary.”
Raised in a traditional household, Aileen is a self-described disciplinarian. A mom who believes in tough love. But she’s also learned that parenthood, like work, requires adaptability. “I had her when I was 36,” she explains, noting the generational gap. “So, I adjust. I meet her where she’s at—language, music, friends. I can never be a mom if di ko mag-adjust.”
(So, I adjust. I meet her where she’s at—language, music, friends. I can never be a mom if I don’t adjust.)
Office Mom Mode: On
That value of adaptability carries into her second family—the CDN team. To many of her colleagues, especially the younger staff, Aileen is more than an HR associate. She’s a source of advice, a steady presence, a disciplinarian when needed, but always with heart. “It’s exciting,” she says of her office mom role. “There are different personalities. It’s like having an extended family.”
But being the office mom doesn’t mean she has it easy. “The office is tougher to handle than my own daughter,” she laughs. But even with this title, she is careful not to overstep. “Everyone was raised differently, so I make sure to respect those boundaries.”
Watching team members come and go has also tugged at her heartstrings. “If someone resigns, I feel like I’ve lost one of my children,” she admits. “But when someone new comes in, I get excited wondering what kind of personality I’ll meet next. And then, I wonder when they’ll resign!” she says with a chuckle.
Not Superwoman
Motherhood, she believes, has no limits. “Love is boundless. If you can measure it, then that’s not love,” she says. She’s learned to let go slowly, giving her daughter the space to grow and make mistakes. “I used to spoonfeed, but I realized she has to build her own confidence. I won’t be here forever,” she confesses.
The hardest part of being a single mom, she says, is the expectation that she can do it all. “People think you’re superwoman, when you’re really not,” Aileen shares. “But I always go back to day one—the moment I decided to raise a child on my own—to remind myself how far I’ve come and that I can keep going.”
To fellow single moms this Mother’s Day, Aileen offers encouragement: “Just be strong. Be there for your kid as both mother and father. Kaya natin ’to.”
(Just be strong. Be there for your kid as both mother and father. We can do this.)
Aileen’s story is not just one of strength, but about quiet leadership and showing up every single day for the people who rely on her. At home or in the office, she mothers with courage. And all her children are better for it.
