[lijana]

I work in audit and currently am the only person who works under my boss. When I came into the organisation about just under 2 years ago, I noticed a certain creepiness about him (I sensed it) that I wasn't able to put my hands on.
When I went into the audit team, there was 1 admin assistant, and 1 guy who worked as a business continuity/risk officer.
I noticed over the couple of months of working there that the boss was very terse with the admin assistant (who was a guy who was studying for a Phd). He would sometimes be very short with him and raise his tone a little. When I came in the boss took me out for a coffee and told me about all the other staff members. He told me that the admin assistant was doing a PhD yet he doesnt know why this guy is in an admin position, he told me that the risk officer is an old guy who has little experience in the risk field. He also told me about a previous lady who worked in audit who moved onto to a secondment in another position. He said that he raised questions about her performance and she got annoyed and left to do this secondment. In audit we write a lot of reports and he said that he had to rewrite all her reports (meaning her work quality was bad).
Over time I noticed, that this boss would come in, walk past the risk officer and never ever say 'hi' or greet him. When I first worked there , the risk officer and the boss had catchups weekly. Then after a couple of months, they stopped this and the boss and the risk officer did not speak and the boss pretended to ignore the guy or avoid.
The Admin assistant found another secondment in the organisation and left. The risk officer also moved after a year and reported directly to the head boss of the department whom my boss also reports to. He moved to another level.
My boss told me that the risk officer often came in early at 7 am and then went to breakfast with his friends. Then he logged the time as coming in at 7 am.
A new admin assistant lady came to work with us after the previous left. This lady was quite jovial and enjoyed to ask about how your weekend is etc. She was not the smartest of people, however she wasn't an idiot if she was taught properly. He however thought she was not very bright. The way he talked about her and expressed about her was that she was a dumbass (although he didnt say this directly).
He asked the admin assistant to keep track of the risk officer's coming in and going out and see if he returns on time from lunch etc. I think she was against doing this as she said it felt bad to do that.
My boss has a bit of a sulk on his face most of the time when he walks in and out or around the office. His face looks like its permanently annoyed or as if he is deeply depressed. He also appears to not have a family, e.g. he is in his late 40s, however does not appear to have a wife or kids. He never talks about his personal life. I also have never dared to ask for fear of coming across as invasive if he is a private person.
Once I asked him about his weekend and he said that he drove to a place, (about 3 hours away), had a coffee and came back.
The boss was very curt and annoyed with the new admin assistant. She would greet him and he would often ignore her chance to talk to him more or interact with him more deeper. Eventually she left our section and went on a secondment to another area, this was after half a year.
My boss was hiring new auditors for our section and he hired a young graduate who had worked 3 years at a big 4 professional firm. He seemed to like the guy in the beginning. This new hire was quite well spoken and appeared to ask a lot of questions. However over the course of 3 months, my boss opinion of the guy changed and he said the guy's report had to be rewritten. He also said that he had little experience. He said to the new hire that he should leave and go back to the big 4 company where he originally came from, my boss told me.
The new hire eventually left after 3 months. Once my boss told me that the new hire talked a lot about travel and that he was 'not focussed'. However I did not see any indication of him being 'not focussed'.
We had some contractors work with us. There was a total of 3 contractors over time of 1 year. One contractor was an older gentlemen who already had retired and doing audit as his second job. He said to me about this contractor that he did not write good reports and that he had to 'rewrite his reports'.
He was also very terse when he talked with the contractor.
There was another lady contractor, who was a brazilian lady. She worked for 1 month, was in the middle of an audit and one day just disappeared . I asked my boss where she went and he was very tightlipped about her. He didnt actually tell me what happened to her and to this day I dont know if she left herself or was fired by him. From conversation snippets I've heard of them talking and he was also very terse with her.
There was another lady contractor who worked for us for about 3 or 4 months. When she came onboard, he commented that she had a lot of previous experience and was very experienced. However overtime, he told me that she was very bad and that he had to rewrite her reports. He said she plagiarised things from best practice guides however he himself does this and he has specifically stated this. He and the contractor also seemed to often be in disagreement about things and often raise voices in agitated tones with each other. Over time he asked her not to come back.
My boss worked as an assistant director and was offered a director position for the whole of the department however on a contract basis of 5 years. He declined this offer due to it being on contract and also he appears to not want to do much work.
I would often finish audits based on a specified time however he would finish reviewing the audits 3 months later... He would often say he is going through it, when I asked him about how he is going with the audit.
Overtime, recently a new director was hired for the audit division. This new director has a completely different vision for the audit branch. He believes audits should be much shorter e.g. finish in 1 week rather than in 30 days and do much less detailed audits but more quantity of audits.
He also has many ideas of how to rejuvenate the audit branch and completely change the audit structure and also add in more employees. However there is one catch, that we would be reapplying for our jobs, as this new job created is for the whole of the department audit as we were only audit of one area.
My boss and I were invited to attend a meeting for the new audit structure, however he decided not to attend. During the week before the meeting, he unexpectedly went on leave and after a week told me he is sick. I asked him what it was and he said that 'he was ###$'. He then told me that he had to go through chemotherapy. However he wouldnt say what type of cancer or anything. He then told me after the new year that he would be coming back 1 week and then going on leave for 1 month. He told me that his doctor told him to stay inside as he could contract some virus. He also said that the doctor was 'worried about him'.
After the christmas break, he came back and during that first week he told me that he would be on leave for 3 weeks. However after the end of the week when I asked him about things and his plans, he said he would play it by ear (i.e. leave).
During the course of last 2 weeks, he has been leaving early at 3pm or 2 and disappearing. When he leaves, there are two ways, one to walk past my desk and the other is a longer way to go the other way (not in my visibility). He has always taken the longer way , so as somehow for me not to be seen. He also comes in the longer way and does not say hi or bye or greet me. He also has a look of complete dissatisfaction on his face and looks very pissed.
When I told him about the new director and also the new department head, he told me that they are bullies and ratbags. He told me to avoid the new department head as the guy is a bad person/bully and that I should avoid them. He told me the new department head came from another organisation where he was a very higher up executive and that no one liked him there.
I was once in a meeting with a lady for an audit review, and the lady told me that my boss is a 'lunatic'. She then said 'I know you can't say anything as he is your boss'.
I know the above is a very long story however , I feel stuck in my situation. My boss appears to display many bad characteristics however I understand that the job of internal audit is also a difficult job and you may not be embraced by everyone and many people will dislike you. Also internal audit is a hard job, that requires analytical brains to do it and not everyone is great at it. It can also be a very political job, where you have to balance both sides and deal with people who dislike you from the go get.
Am I being too sympathetic to this boss? Does the boss's behaviour seem quite concerning? What do you advise my course of action is?

[growlycat]

The boss sounds like he lacks self awareness and that it is always somebody else who is the problem. It doesn't sound like a good situation.

However, if you like the job and want to say, you could offer to have a talk over coffee in private and ask him for feedback. Of course be prepared for crazy untrue feedback but maybe he'll open up as long as you don't get defensive. It's always good to know where you stand. Asking doesn't make anything any worse.

[friday1967]

The way you tell it, it does sound like he is not the greatest but it also sounds like you are doing okay. What about how you feel about your job? Do you like it? Do you value it? It doesn't sound like you are having a hard time other than wondering if your boss might not be a good boss.

Sometimes I think of people as gears. We all have issues. Think of the issues as the teeth of the gear. If your issues don't get aggravated or clash with the issues of others, you can work together well. If your issues do clash, then the teeth of the gears don't line up, the gears jam, and you get pain points.

If you like your work life and he's not clashing with you, is there a problem? He doesn't sound unethical or mean.

Wondering if you might live and let live? Choose your battles? There is no perfect job.