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Relationship with boss


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Anyone here have tips on having a friend/professional relationship with your boss? I mean how do you get along well with him or her and not let it sour.

How to keep them close as a friend and far away to avoid getting fired or in trouble?

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I think it really depends on the boss and the job.

 

I was - and still am - good friends with lots of my bosses. But I was an Executive Assistant so I was privy to a lot of personal information about their lives.

 

Also, these were not EVER remotely sexually in nature. We were good friends and not lovers.

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You don't shoot for "friend." You shoot for just being professional and letting him know you pay attention and hear him like in meetings, by not doing like everyone else and putting your head down and avoiding reacting, but like just watching and nodding.

 

But at least if you're female and he's male, you'd be making a mistake to try to be friends, because men misinterpret that as sexual interest and that will only get you in a bad situation.

 

You can maybe find a little buddy room, but if you go acting all friendly, it will likely be misinterpreted.

 

If this isn't an opposite sex situation, then you be professional and casual but let them take the lead. You really don't want to be off-work friends with your boss usually, unless you're in a very casual environment and where you wouldn't mind changing jobs.

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With most of my bosses (which in my industry tends to be mostly men) I have just kept things professional. My industry often tries to get people to revolve their lives around the office so it's not uncommon for most people to putt their friends from the office too. The one boss I was able to do that who was male thought of me as one of the guys but I know he had a lot of respect for my work too but I still usually declined any one on one time outside of the office or group settings.

 

The only people I have been able to cross into friends who were men without it getting weird (for men) were guys it was obviously not going to work with - gay, huge age difference, etc. I would be social at happy hours and such but never spent time outside of work with them outside of the group.

 

I do try to keep a distance though from the married ones regardless since I'm been on the receiving end of them wanting to start affairs way too often. I was lucky that the one boss who tried that on me waited until I quit before he made a move. It would have been really difficult had he done it while I was working there.

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