Dear Prudence,
I work at a talent agency as an assistant. The entertainment industry is notoriously hard to break into and the agency world can be ruthless. The line between business and personal is often blurry. Recently my boss took a phone call with one of her friends, Sadie, a development executive. Assistants normally listen in on calls in case their boss discusses a meeting that needs to be set or a script that needs to be sent. This time the subject of discussion was one of my assistant friends, Jeremy, who is up for a job that he really wants at Sadie's company. Sadie said that Jeremy's boss went behind Jeremy's back and gave him a terrible reference. Jeremy is an amazing assistant, and his boss—who is conniving—said he supported Jeremy’s desire to move to a higher-level job. But it turns out Jeremy's boss is sabotaging Jeremy to keep him longer. Do I tell Jeremy that he needs to watch his back? If I do, I reveal information I heard on a personal phone call. If I don't, Jeremy might keep losing out on great jobs and not know why.