I believe it is healthier to have a stark perspective on what is actually happening in employer/employee relationships, and keep work as something that I do in order to be able to afford a place to live and food to eat and nothing more. Whether I enjoy whatever job I have at the time is secondary to this: it’s a bonus, but again I try very hard not to let my job become a part of how I see myself.

If you let yourself become “friends” with your boss I think you’re in danger of blurring these lines and getting into the strange position where not only must you do something you don’t necessarily want to do, but you must do it or let a “friend” down. This seems like a fast-track way of burning out.