> And it says a lot about the company culture that I never felt I was risking being fired.

Yes. I feel that insecure upper managers are a pox on the tech industry (probably other industries, as well). They create a really toxic culture.

I used to work for a Japanese company. My manager didn't speak English, and was 7,000 miles away, but was willing to listen to me. However, I had to deal with the way my interaction developed. Sometimes, the Japanese can be quite ... strident ... when they feel as if they are not being approached with respect.

They had a consensus-based style, which welcomed input from all levels, but would also be pretty brutal, to bad input.

Helped me to develop a habit of making sure all my ducks were in a row, before opening my mouth.

Relationships also matter. I worked directly for people who really feared this senior person for reasons I never really understood. But I knew how far I could push things and tell the exec they were just wrong. Which is probably one of the reasons they hired me. To be honest, I was probably in a position where if I pushed a bit too far I’d probably have been ok.