Dear Rachel,
How do you deal with a department manager who is a body block between her staff and upper management? -- Just call me invisible.

Dear Invisible,
Somewhere early in your career, whether it's in media planning and buying or some other field, you are bound to run into one of those sorts of managers.

They strive to take credit for the work of everyone under them, sucking up to top management, without bothering to pass some of the crumbs of praise to those working under her.

Some sort of paranoia is at work, certainly. Or perhaps they didn't get enough attention when they were 3.

It really doesn't matter. You're stuck with the person, and your challenge is to make the most of it.

Your options depend on how well you are doing working for her. If you are getting raises and good reviews and the occasional promotion when it comes up, you really don't have much to be concerned about. As these things happen, your boss will move on, or you will, either to a work for a different manager at the agency or to another agency entirely.

If you are not getting raises, good reviews and promotions, that's a very different situation, and you must act, or at least put the wheels in motion.

You need to get out, and you cannot afford to waste a lot of time. Your best bet is to buff up your resume and begin floating it around to other agencies in town. You may nose around your agency and see what openings might exist, though you have to do it in a way where she will not find out.

She strikes me as a person who will take your efforts to get out from under her as a personal affront and act accordingly.

The one thing you don't want to do is challenge her head on, going over her head to upper management or trying to upstage her in some fashion.

This is sure to bring out the claws. You don't need that, and you'd probably end up the worse for it. Management is surely aware of her need to grab all the attention, and while they may not particularly care for it--or really for her, for that matter--they have her in place for a reason. The last thing they want is a confrontation.

But more important, it's not a good fight for you.

The best advice in business is and always has been: Pick your fights. Go to the mat over things that really matter to you and your career, and where winning is not only possible but will deliver rewards that justify the aggravation.

This is not one of those times.