Dissing honesty

  One of the more niggling conundrums that gave me cause to pause early-on was the disclaimer, "To be honest with you, blah blah yadda yadda ..."

  I was once "managed" by a fidgety, Napoleonic cretin, who would preface most (but not all) of his responses with, "To be honest with you, ..."

  It was thus under the "direction" of this person that I began to wonder if he was actually being dishonest the rest of the time.

  I mean, when engaging in face-to-face, boss-to-underling, inside the workplace don't you kind of expect forthrightness from your boss all the time?

  Was I to assume that he was lying if he didn't preface a retort with the aforementioned disclaimer?

  I guess it's akin to the axiom, "The more he spoke of his honesty, the faster we counted our spoons."