“Hi Cathy,

“Last year we decided to buy a house. We fell in love with a home that’s a 30-minute commute from where I work. I went to my boss. I explained that we were buying a home. He assured me there was no reason to worry about my job.

“A few months later I got a horrendous performance review. Now I’m on track to be terminated. If I take another job, I’m facing a 2-hour commute or we will have to sell our dream house.

“What went wrong?”

Of course I can’t read your boss’s mind. But I have the following suggestions for anyone who considers buying a home:

(1) Make sure you have funds to cover at least 6-12 months of living expenses in case your job is unexpectedly terminated.

(2) I advise my clients not to discuss personal affairs with their bosses. The only exception might be maternity leave or legally-mandated family leave, and then you go through HR and dot all the i’s.

You’ll never know what feelings your announcement will create among your bosses and colleagues.

Maybe she’s thinking, “They’re buying a house in Gardenville? Hmm…I can’t afford to live there. Must have a rich spouse.”

Or maybe he just notices you more. Now he’s thinking, “I notice Lilianne seems to miss meetings a lot.” Or, “Manuel needs to improve his writing skills.”

Or she thinks, “Why is Helene so concerned about her job? Maybe she’s covering…”

Of course your boss might be genuinely happy for you. But most of us can’t control our subconscious, not-so-nice feelings. We’re not even aware of them.

(3) Want some assurance of job security? Talk to a lawyer first. Find out if your boss’s email to you (“Nothing to worry about! Congrats on the new home!”) has any legal standing. I am not a lawyer. I am not giving legal advice. But my experience says you can’t take those assurances to the bank, let alone the courtroom.

If you’re a lawyer reading this post, please add a comment.

Verbal assurance? Forget it. Unless your boss makes a big announcement on tape, or you’ve got credible witnesses unconnected with the company, it’s your word against his.

A contract? Now you’ve got a new ball game…and the lawyers are the ones who pass the ball around.

Finally, apart from the job, think marketability. When you move to a location where you’ll have trouble basing a new job search, you’re losing marketability. Believe me, I’ve been there!

If your current employer is the only game in town — and maybe in a 25-mile radius — you’re taking a risk. Nothing wrong with risks. But when you go out on a stormy sea in a leaky boat, you’ll wear a life preserver. You won’t wait till you get out on the ocean to decide if you need to pack one or not.

My readers are smart. You get the drift.

Check out my website for more.

This week’s decision was both easier and harder. Candidate Merisa wouldn’t shut up, even in the Boardroom.

Placed in charge of Marketing, Merisa kept pushing her ideas. Change the name of the salad. Put some chickens on the street. When she failed to sell her team, she wouldn’t stop.

Even in the Boardroom, she interrupted The Donald as well as everyone else.

Sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it? How could a smart, attractive business woman make this mistake?

Anyone who asks hasn’t been a career consultant very long.

For example, my client “Ursula” was a talented smart marketing manager of a professional services company. She’d been fast-tracked all the way.

Until her new boss gave her a less than steller performance review.

Ursula called me. “I’ve brought up the point several times. He just doesn’t want to talk about it.”

After we talked, Ursula realized reluctantly that she had to move on. If she pressed the point, she’d just irritate her new boss further.

She realized she may already be at the top of the pay scale in her job category, so her manager may decide to hold back and let others catch up. (Fair? I have no idea. Reality? Often, yes.)

She realized she was completing an assignment from her previous boss that her current boss dismissed as a waste of time. Dropping the project was not an option.

And she realized that new bosses, like new brooms, sometimes sweep clean.

The solution? Drop the subject. Her boss was an ardent football fan so we agreed she would say nothing. But if asked, she would draw an analogy to a team that didn’t like the ref’s call but chose to go on with the game.

And that’s not all. Ursula needed to identify an appropriate, ethical recruiter. She might not begin a job search energetically, but she needed to have all her ducks lined up, just in case. And she needed to get into some pretty aggressive networking.

I’m not sure what happened. I did get a one-line email: “All goes well. Thanks for the help!”