It was two o’clock in the morning. Furious, my boss stood in front of me, screaming. “That’s bullshit! Don’t ever bullshit me!” he said, in response to my last, clearly unsatisfactory answer.

To be fair, I don’t think I had particularly distinguished myself in the task I had been set that day – to fly off to a provincial city, conduct an important interview, and come back with the quotes my editor had been looking for. Within a few months I was no longer working for that boss or even for that organisation.