Jennifer DeRosa worked as news anchor Tucker Carlson’s representative at the Washington Speaker’s Bureau in Virginia before joining him in New York to work on CNN’s Crossfire as a producer and executive assistant. In 2005, CNN abruptly canceled the show and Carlson took DeRosa to his next gig at MSNBC. But the network planned to make cutbacks, and DeRosa was faced with a choice of becoming a guest producer on another show or taking a severance package.

“My initial reaction was panic,” says DeRosa, on hearing about the cutbacks, “I thought I would work for Tucker for the rest of my life.” She ultimately decided to take the severance package and is now executive assistant to Linda Sawyer, C.E.O. of ad agency Deutsch, Inc.

Donna Truglio’s career has suffered periods of turmoil that come with the constant executive changes in the publishing world. In 1980, Truglio began a ten-year working relationship with the publisher of House & Garden magazine. After that boss ended his run with the company, Truglio worked for incoming publisher Kevin Madden before Condé Nast, which also publishes this Web site, shuttered the magazine for the first time. She then spent a year at Bon Appétit before that title’s publisher left the magazine; later, it was a similar story at Architectural Digest.

“I’ve chosen to stay when people left. I’ve worked for seven publishers,” she says. By 1997 she felt she needed a change of scenery and has spent the last six years with American Express Publishing. She’s now with travel magazine Departures and has been the executive assistant to publisher Ed Ventimiglia for the past three years.

“You hope to tie yourself to a person, and when things happen, it’s very sad and disappointing,” says Truglio. “You build a relationship of trust and complete understanding. When they leave it can be upsetting.”

When the relationship works out, though, it can be great for both parties. Fran Crane is executive assistant to Michael Clinton, the publishing director and number two executive at Hearst Magazines. “We’ve worked together for 21 years and I’ve been married for 22,” she recalls. Crane spent the first part of her career with Clinton while he was at GQ, (also published by Condé Nast) and has now been with Clinton at Hearst for ten years.

“He went from being ad director [at GQ] to publisher, we did that; then he got promoted to corporate, so we made that move; and he went into management, and we made that move,” says Crane describing Mr. Clinton’s rise through the magazine industry.

She can’t say enough good things about her boss—and she keeps him in line. Early on, she warned him to stop making frantic calls to her from the street whenever a car service didn’t show up. She recalls saying, “If you call me from the street, I’m gonna go home. Get a cab.” She has stuck with Mr. Clinton because of their rapport. “You get to realize how special it is to find someone you’re in sync with.”