What makes a job unbearable for you?

Being made to ship something you know is sloppy.Working somewhere that nobody actually needs you.Effort that nobody measures and nobody notices.Doing the same interchangeable thing as everybody else.Constant interruption, and no time to think properly.

What do you want from a manager?

That they know what is actually going on with you.That they say where the bar is and whether you cleared it.That they see the thing in your work nobody else sees.That they leave you alone and ask good questions.That they are consistent, and never change the rules quietly.

Pick the work you would do for nothing:

Something with a scoreboard you could win.Something only you would ever have made.Something you could go all the way to the bottom of.Something for people who would be in trouble without it.Something new, somewhere else, starting on Monday.

What would actually make you leave?

Being asked to make it ordinary.Being made to attend everything.Being lied to about how the company is really doing.Realising the next five years look exactly like this one.Being managed by somebody who is frightened of you.

How you behave when a project is going badly:

Withdraw, understand it properly, come back with the diagnosis.Name the risk again, and prepare for the worst version.Reframe it, produce five options, and lift the mood.Take control of it immediately, whether or not it was yours.Keep everybody working, and absorb the friction yourself.

What people value about you at work:

You spot what is going to go wrong before it does.You make hard weeks survivable.You say the thing everybody else was avoiding.Everybody can work with you, including people who can't work together.Your standards. Things are right because you were there.

Pick the thing you are worst at:

Staying with something after the interesting part.Being told what to do by somebody with less nerve than you.Saying what you want before the decision has been made.Letting anything go out at ninety percent.Asking for something for yourself.

What does a genuinely good day at work look like?

A real problem, your call, and no committee.Everybody fine, nothing on fire, steady progress.One thing finished properly, to your own standard.Somebody telling you that you made a difference.A visible win, and everybody knowing it was yours.

How you would want your work to matter:

It held things together for people who needed that.It made something that was wrong, right.It looked after people, individually, by name.It was the best anybody had done at that thing.It was unmistakably yours, and nobody else could have.