Like I said, this may not always work, but it is better for your long term relationship with your manager. Is it? I think you're making a pretty big logical ju

Like I said, this may not always work, but it is better for your long term relationship with your manager. Is it? I think you're making a pretty big logical jump here. It's just as easy -- maybe easier! -- to argue that letting your manager retain his Feeling of Importance (a la Dale Carnegie) is the better way to maintain a good working relationship. Only you can know whether your husband or wife would be happy if you answered "How does this make me look?" with "Fat." Same principal applies to telling your manager you're faking things to soothe his ego and need to tweak… regardless of how diplomatically you put it.