What Your Boss Wishes She Could Tell You

"I'd miss you terribly, but you really should look for another job."

You can do this job, but it might not be the best one for you. Maybe your boss loves you but sees that you're in a dead-end position, and she can't promote you. Or maybe she sees that you should be somewhere better suited to your talents. The copy desk supervisor at a major publication told me: "I've certainly known people who worked for me who were smart and good journalists who, nevertheless, didn't have the particular weird skill set they needed to be good copy editors. And yeah, it would have been nice to be able to say that instead of engaging in a mutually frustrating struggle to get them up to speed." And how wonderful if these floundering staffers moved to a job where they could do their best work.