Is your superior your friend?

I've gotten along with all my bosses, but I've never told them until I had already accepted the offer for the next place. I didn't want them to start looking elsewhere and then have myself not get the new job.

Sometimes, you've got to separate business from personal.

 

It puts both you and your supervisor/friend in a bad position. True enough, they can help you if they have connections and experience, but, in the end, they have to look out for themselves as well. They know you will likely be gone soon, and they have to worry about filling a position. They have to worry about the future of their department because it directly affects them. They might have to wonder, if you have a bad day with your work, whether or not you are checking out already or just had a bad day. Next time you ask for a day off or two, they will naturally think you are interviewing. The idea here is, keep your personal life to yourself in this situation because, even the best of bosses are forced to at least think about themselves in these instances. If you want to maintain a friendship, be sure to tell them as soon as you know something definitively. And you can tell them first. A reasonable-minded person can't fault you for handling it that way.

 

I think it would be unlikely that my boss could help me in a job search (except perhaps as a reference) because if I was looking for a job, it wouldn't be in newspapers.

(Unless The Plain Dealer thing comes through.)

 

I think the relationship rules for bosses are the same as they are for sources and the people you cover -- you can be friendly, but you can't be friends.

 

I've had 6 SEs in my life (I think), and I felt comfortable getting beers with two of them. Just so happens, they were my final two SEs. Also just realized that half of my SEs didn't leave on their own terms.

I've had decent professional relationships with most of them, and would have felt comfortable giving them advance notice about a pending job move. That said, I couldn't tell you whether I did or not.

 

I agree with this completely.

I've heard two horror stories (one I know to be true, one purported to be true, though I didn't know the person to verify) of people who told their bosses they were looking or interviewing for another job.

One told his boss that he was interviewing elsewhere. The SE then informed him that the reporter had just made his life easier, because the company was going to make layoffs and they had to decide who was going to be cut from the sports department. The reporter didn't get the job, but did get laid off. I know that one to be true.

I won't bother with the other one because I'm not sure I believe it, but it at least gives me pause when considering if I should tell a boss about another job before I actually get an offer.

 

Oh, come on. Don't be a cocktease.

 

I just really doubt it's true, so it seems stupid to post it. It doesn't sound likely, though the acquaintance who told me about it swears it happened to a co-worker. But what the hell.

My acquaintance said his paper had been frequently giving work to a freelancer who had been laid off from a bigger paper. The SE had been trying to get management to add a position so they could hire him because the SE thought that highly of his writing. He had also come from a bigger paper, so the SE was convinced it would be coup to have a writer of this caliber on staff.

Anyway, a reporter, who apparently thought of the SE as a friend, told him one night over beers that he was looking elsewhere and he had an interview lined up. A few days later, the managing editor fired the reporter and hired the freelancer to replace him.

 

I've heard of a similar story.

 

I feel like it's probably an Urban Legend at this point. But it still would make me think twice about it.

 

As one on the broadcast side, I am friends with my boss. He can always tell when I'm leaving.

I buy new ties, get haircuts and my stories are much better. No fooling him.

 

In my second-to-last TV job I just barely survived massive layoffs and for the next month everyone in the place was walking around like they were at a funeral. We were all looking and I was the first one to get an interview and even though I wasn't all that close to any of them, I let it be known that I was looking and interviewing and they were understanding.
At my last TV gig I hated my news director and he hated me and the first he heard about me looking elsewhere was when I slapped my two-week notice down on his desk one morning.