After networking at a business conference in Florida, I made a number of new LinkedIn connections and caught up with an old colleague who posted a recommendation for me (three years after I started the job I was lobbying for at the time). After a few days at a mid-level tropical paradise (nice beaches, no flesh eating reptiles, some light humidity), I returned home. Immediately my boss was being short and aggressively inquisitive about my future plans. Eventually I learned through a colleague that my rapid updates to LinkedIn raised alarm bells about whether or not I’m looking to leave the firm. In the future should I blatantly acknowledge updates to my professional profile, or is there a way to be more discreet about adding incredibly flattering, overly verbose qualifications to my public bio?

While at first blush it sounds like your boss is being overly possessive, his reaction is actually rooted in a regard for your skills and a fear of losing you as an employee — even if that regard did come wrapped in some short-tempered and snappish packaging. He knows about the networking that goes on at business conferences, but he’s afraid that you might have found a better deal out there among all these other workers who see your truly awesome worth.

Assuming that you aren’t actually looking for some greener professional pastures, put his mind at ease (and possibly improve your overall professional prospects in the process) by going a bit LinkedIn crazy yourself. Hit back all of those flatterers you met at the conference, plus your co-workers, your old chemistry lab partner, and anyone else who deserves it, with a glowing blurb of their own. If this is going on, your sudden landslide of LinkedIn connections and praise isn’t a questionable new development — it’s just the way you’re networking now. When your boss realizes that it has the potential to bring in new clients and talented new employees in your network, he will stop being worked up about it.