Is Your Boss Hiding Something? Uncover the Signs of a Dodgy Leader

Does your boss come across as somewhat dodgy?

You've been working for your boss for quite some time now—perhaps months or even years—and things seemed fine at first. But lately, you've started noticing odd behaviours that don’t quite fit the mold of a competent leader.

They say things that don't add up or act in ways that leave you questioning whether they should be in charge at all. Could it be that your boss is a bit...dodgy? Let’s break it down further.

Qualified For The Job?

Does your boss seem oddly out of touch with basic office tools? Maybe they fumble with their laptop or struggle to open simple applications like email or Microsoft Teams. Worse still, they might ask you to print something because they "just can’t figure out the printer." And what about during meetings?

Have you ever asked them a straightforward question in their supposed area of expertise, only to receive a response so illogical or vague that it makes you wonder how they even got the job? While they boast years of experience and qualifications, they somehow always manage to delegate decision-making to one of their underlings. Could it be that they’re simply out of their depth—or are they hiding something?

The Suspiciously Vague Past

Ask your boss about their previous jobs, and you might get a response that raises more questions than it answers.

If they claim they were a "self-employed entrepreneur in business retail," they might as well have been selling counterfeit designer watches from a street corner. And if they describe themselves as an "international sales tycoon," don’t be surprised if they were just moving dubious goods like contraband candy to sketchy outlets. If, when you try to Google their former employers, all you find is a 404 error, something’s definitely off.

Either these companies were scrubbed from the internet by some secret agency, or your boss might not want you to know just what kind of “business” they were really in.

The Statistics Problem

Have you noticed that every meeting seems to involve an impressive-looking PowerPoint presentation, complete with pie charts and graphs that don’t quite make sense? Perhaps last month’s sales tanked, but your boss spins it into a "growth opportunity" with some mind-bogglingly optimistic predictions.

You know the numbers don’t add up, yet somehow, they manage to convince higher-ups who haven’t checked in with the finance team. It’s like watching a magician pull off an elaborate illusion—only this time, the trick is fooling people with fake data and questionable assumptions. At some point, you wonder: do the bosses above actually believe this, or are they in on it too?

The Classic Missing In Action

Has your boss ever mysteriously vanished just when they're needed the most? They claim to be in "important meetings" that no one else seems to know about, often at the most crucial moments—like right before a major deadline or during a company-wide Wi-Fi outage.

One minute they're at their desk, the next they’re "off-site" doing "strategic visioning" or some other vague corporate speak. It’s almost like they have a sixth sense for avoiding responsibility. Could they be dodging work, or is there something more secretive going on?

The Side Stall Hustle In The Office

Does your boss frequently send out emails offering "deals" on used iPhones, luxury perfumes, or high-end watches—often at suspiciously low prices? Maybe you’ve seen them in the back of the office, surrounded by stacks of cardboard boxes that look more like a makeshift warehouse than an office space.

It’s as if they’ve turned their office into a side hustle for peddling questionable goods. At this point, you start to wonder if you’re working for a corporate leader or someone running a market stall out of a storage room. Either way, something’s not right.

The Technophobe

One minute your boss is talking about "blockchain-enabled AI ecosystems" and the next, they can’t even unmute themselves on a Microsoft Teams call. This is the classic case of a tech-savvy pretender: they drop just enough jargon to sound impressive in meetings but struggle with the most basic technology in practice.

You might have even caught them yelling at their iPad, demanding, “Why won’t it listen to me?!” While we've all had tech troubles, it’s different when your boss pretends to be a cutting-edge innovator one minute and a complete technophobe the next. The inconsistency is enough to raise some eyebrows.

Final Verdict: Is Your Boss Dodgy?

If any of these scenarios sound familiar, then congratulations! You may have a dodgy boss on your hands. Whether they're a master of deception, secretly working for some shadowy agency, or simply a bit peculiar, one thing’s for sure: your boss isn’t what they seem. But let’s be honest—every workplace could use a little dodginess to keep things interesting.

As long as their behaviour remains relatively harmless, why not embrace the weirdness? At least your team meetings won’t be boring. And hey, if you can get a cut-price iPhone that only speaks Russian, maybe that’s not such a bad deal after all.