K ind bosses make work better

Work isn’t always easy

In software engineering, some days are smooth—you ship features, close bugs, and everything just works. But some days? CI is broken, the deadline moved up, your PR is stuck in review, and prod just went down.

It’s in those days that the people you work with matter the most.

A kind boss changes everything

A kind boss doesn’t mean someone who’s soft on delivery or avoids hard conversations. It means someone who treats you like a human—even when things go wrong.

They don’t shame you for missing a ticket. They don’t call you out in public. They ask, “Are you okay?” before jumping to “Why isn’t this done?”

They remind you that it’s okay to have a rough day. They back you up when things go sideways. And that makes it easier to show up the next day.

There’s no perfect job, but…

No job is perfect. Even your dream company will have bugs in prod, tech debt, confusing tickets, or a sprint that goes off the rails. But kind people? They’re out there. And they’re the ones who make all of that feel manageable.

Find more of them

Find engineers who give feedback without ego. PMs who don’t ping at 11 PM. Tech leads who support you when you speak up. Surround yourself with kind people, and suddenly, work feels less like a grind and more like a team sport.

In a good team, your mistakes aren’t weapons—they’re learning moments. In a good team, you feel safe enough to grow.

Final thoughts

If you’re lucky enough to have a kind boss, hold onto them. If you don’t, keep looking. They exist. And once you find them, you’ll realize that work doesn’t have to be toxic to be productive. It can actually be something that makes you better, not just busier.