Hi Kate,

I understand your unease. Steve and I work from home and have done so for about 10 years now, but we are set up so that we have offices that are in a separate part of the house from the living area, and when sales reps, clients or employees come over, we meet with them in the "office" part of the house.

If we choose to meet over a meal, we do it at a restaurant.

The only time I ever go to an employee's home it is to drop off material they need to work, which was sent to my office. And just as frequently, my staff comes here to pick this stuff up. When I do make these trips, I don't go into their homes, I meet them in their lobbies, or just knock on their doors and hand stuff over. I never "invade their space."

We USED to have a 3,000 square foot office, but after 9/11 we found ourselves in a position where the only way we could stay in business was to give each employee office equipment and send them home. So I can also empathize with your story of how the employees at your company got "sent home" three years ago.

I am guessing, as it sounds like Orchid was, that he wants to be very private in whatever he has to say, but I also agree with her that you should counter that you want to meet outside of your home, as you have in the past.

If he wants some place more private than the coffee shop, perhaps you can meet in the lobby of a public building, or rent the conference room of one of those office buildings where people rent an office and share use of the conference room.

Of course, your boss may not know that your office is in your bedroom.

I also suspect that if, as you say, the company may not be able to publish their next issue, he does want to talk to you about the future. Certainly that is what would be on my mind in a similar situation.

Good luck and god bless!

anne