Maybe I'm reading too much into it. in my company we have EU and UK offices and most roles/departments have counterparts. Our department has suffered a few attritions which has meant that a couple of my colleagues have nobody to report to (apart from very senior management). So I was thinking today that maybe there should be a dotted line to my boss and the reply was... No I think it should be to you. Was that lip service or a real hint? Nobody knows of course, but for now I'd like to think it's the latter.