Best one I ever had if I really think about it was kind of odd, or would seem odd to most people.
Management that stays the **** out of my hair so long as the job is being done, done well, and done properly.
SO often you'll get hired because management doesn't know how to do it themselves, so there is nothing more frustrating than these people who know nothing about it then trying to second guess or micromanage you -- with them being WRONG every time they do it; and no matter how many times they are PROVEN wrong, they still insist they know more about it, defeating the entire reason you were even hired.
A situation only exacerbated when they then try to BS their bosses into thinking it was your fault. There's a reason most middle managers fail upwards into their jobs by tonguing enough brown that their nose is permanently stained.
Freedom.
First, I don't /have to/ be in the office 9 to 5. I choose to arrive around 9am on most days, but they don't require me to. I also usually leave around 2pm so I can pick up my daughter from preschool.
Also, even though we have a good CTO, I have the freedom to choose some technologies, libraries, etc. to work with. We sometimes have a good argument about it, and sometimes it turns out I'm not the one who is right (and that's a good thing).
Freedom is much more important to me than anything else. In return, I'm flexible, too. If there is a tight deadline, I'm willing to be awake for all night to get things done (it already happened once or twice).
Aaron Cooper
UK Software Engineer in Singapore
Learning leave: that is, leave that I can take for use as time off to learn something of my choice that's related to my profession. (Separate from annual leave)