You might have to give the join a name in the query in either case, because what if you want to go two levels deep, e.g. join in your boss's boss? Both can't be

You might have to give the join a name in the query in either case, because what if you want to go two levels deep, e.g. join in your boss's boss? Both can't be manager. All I'm interested in is making the queries more concise. Otherwise, I like the loose coupling between related entities in the relational model. I would have been hesitant to add join information to the table declaration if it wasn't already there. But since it's already there as a constraint, you might as well get all the mileage you can out of it.