Is it ok to tell my boss @ work, that I'm heavily involved with real estate?

[Henri Meli]

I have a 9-6 job and recently, my company went from cubicles to open space office set-ups. I seat pretty much next to my boss now. As I grow my business more and more, I have found myself getting calls from brokers, insurance, agents, bankers, ... etc in the middle of the day during meetings and such (on my cellphone, nothing on my business phone). 

A few months ago, I had mentioned it to my co-workers that I do have a volume of real estate investments and was looking to add more. The information might have trickled up to my boss and in the last couple of 1x1 sessions with my boss, he tried to ask me all the other "interesting things" I do outside of work. Although my boss seems like a "nice and reasonable" person, I don't want him to know any of my personal business.

Does your manager @ work know you are an investor? Have you had that conversation with them? Just curious how various folks have handled this situation. If you were a manager at your job, how would you handle this situation?

[Dan C.]

I have worked a long time in a corporate environment.  A few things come to mind regarding this topic based on what I have observed over the years.

- The appearance of being distracted by an outside interest, even if brief, is something that can make bosses or owners very angry.  They can view it as tantamount to stealing from them.  It can trigger greater scrutiny, suspicion of your work and bad reviews. 

- It is not uncommon to have a peer who is interested in making themselves look better by making you look bad.  Outside interests interrupting your work is definitely something that a peer like this will try to exploit to make you look bad.

For this reason I avoid making any personal calls where they can be overheard, even if others do so. I also avoid casual conversation about my REI interests, particularly when it is in a common area and heard by many. If a co-worker becomes a trusted friend and you are having lunch together, something like that can be OK to discuss personal things.