Your relationship should ideally be convivial, fun, mutually informative and beneficial for you both. You should be getting both guidance navigating your company's politics from your manager, and overall career growth by working on their team. Sometimes they won't be technically stronger than you, but in those cases they should be helping you grow in other ways (giving talks, mentoring others, taking on leadership tasks). In cases where they are technically more proficient you should be learning from them, perhaps not actively but at least they're pointing you in the right direction. During all this you're enjoying spending time working with this person professionally.<p>In return what you offer your manager is someone who's capable of doing work and becoming increasingly capable of working with less direction. Eventually you take ownership of initiatives. You should advocate for your team where appropriate, but never fanatically. You should be brave enough to speak up if you're worried about their course of action.<p>The main dynamic is this: In return for them helping you grow and navigate, you're trying your best to be someone who's self-sufficient, capable and someone they don't have to worry about.<p>There are a few things you should definitely not be doing. You shouldn't be spending too much time with them outside of work (an occasional happy hour or office event is a-ok). You shouldn't be getting drunk with them. You shouldn't be getting counseling or guidance on intensely personal issues like romantic relationships or personal life goals. Your relationship should pass a simple smell test: if you were to tell someone you were engaging in a behavior with your boss would they be shocked or surprised. If so it's probably not appropriate. Here's an example: "I eat lunch with my boss a few times a week." Seems fine to me. "I've eaten lunch with my boss every day for the last six months" Seems a bit off to me. Of course different people will have different limits-- it's up to you to set healthy boundaries that work for you.<p>Finally, when one of you moves on from the company, feel free to have any type of relationship you want with the manager. You're both now two independent people. I would still overall caution from becoming too intimate with them, but it's your life and you should trust yourself to steward it correctly. The reason I caution is that it's because you really don't know this person on a deeper level, and you might be surprised with what you find out. Most likely you'll maintain some professional friendship, perhaps even help each other out for several years, but after that lose touch. Ideally, you'll always look back on working with this person as a time of great fun, enjoyment and growth.