Seeing eye-to-eye with the boss

Quick, which is more important to employees these days: cold cash and benefits or a warm-and-fuzzy relationship with their manager?

Answer: It's not all about the Benjamins.

A survey of 500 professionals found that 95 percent left their last job because they did not get along with their manager.

Attempting to improve relationships with managers, MasteryWorks Inc., an employee-development consultancy in Annandale, Va., offers these suggestions to workers:

*Take the initiative. Don't wait for a manager to take responsibility for building the relationship - make contact yourself.

*Know your boss. Learn how to make managers look good - not in an obsequious way, but by understanding their goals and helping to achieve them.

*Keep commitments. Most managers are under the gun to deliver. They need to know that employees are going to carry their loads - and they may not give their trust until they are certain.

If you take these steps and the relationship remains rocky, then it's probably not going to work out. Make one last good-faith bid to become part of the team, but be prepared to look elsewhere for a better fit.

Compiled by Sara Steindorf

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society