I suppose sucking up is a transferable skill

The most important thing to say about this snarky is that a.) it's a real-life use case, and b.) I've used it.  It's hard for management to argue in a large company that cross pollination is a bad thing, although there are limits put on someone skipping out in order to maintain a level of slacking to which they might be accustomed.

I have a laundry list of statements that tend to get you past that uncomfortable, "I'm applying for another opening in house" conversation with a manager.  Here are just a few.

• I’m exploring my options.  I like to know what’s out there.  Sometimes it means I meet someone who might apply here when we have an opening.
• I love this company.  We’re such a big happy family, so I’m looking at the diversity of opportunities in house…
• I’d like to contribute at a higher level some day, and that means exploring many parts of the business.  Did you know there’s a book written by an in house author that says the best employees have had a breadth of roles and eventually even work a customer-facing job at some point?
• How does management feel about how long I’ve been in this role?  Do YOU think I could benefit from another experience?

Snarky: He wanted to know why I was applying for other internal openings. I said our department is run so well that there are other groups which could benefit from what I take from here to there.
Title: I suppose sucking up is a transferable skill