fraternizing with one's superiors

The fine line between sycophant and colleague ~ a forced laugh to a joke one didn't quite get (or even quite hear) ~ feigning interest in activities entirely foreign to one's nature ~ suppressing one's real interests, one's real style of discourse ~ the metamorphosis of weak future goals into concrete projects in progress ~ conversely, the metamorphosis of petty accomplishments into grand achievements ~ can one opt out of the game? Can one be oneself, but not sell oneself? Or, perhaps, they are simply the same thing . . .