Big Blue, I am not a native speaker of English so perhaps I misused the word “intimate”. By this I meant “very personal”, the sort of stuff you don’t share with just anyone. I wasn’t talking about discussing the colour of her panties. I don’t think speaking about very personal things with an employee is crossing a boundary, as you put it. If both sides are comfortable with it, there is nothing ethically wrong with it. It’s a matter of personal preference, not a universally acknowledged boundary, no?