If he is a good entrepreneur, he would tell you up front that your services are no longer needed and give you several weeks advance notice. It makes no sense from a business owner's perspective to create elaborate schemes to turf you out by snooping around you, etc.

He sounds business-wise, desperate. Yes, the hard copy publishing world is hurting all over the place. Since I am a librarian, I am aware of publishing firm corporate mergers in this area since it affects vendor relations, contracts with people in the library world who manage content acquisition budgets.

Why not stick to having coffee with him as usual not far from home? It's your home, not his.

By the way, my partner owns a business with 2 other business partners. He has never met in the homes nor requested such of his 2 other partners. He has only invited 1 biz partner ONCE into our home for a meeting. I know, because I was around at home myself part way during their meeting. In our building we having meeting room space for residents in common facilities floor, where he does have business meetings.

I would suggest that you ask him what his biz strategy is for next months. You need to seriously think the possibility that you might be laid off because his biz is suffering.

It's tough. I know. I've been job searching for last 18 months (meanwhile helping out my partner with his company blog for free.)