Ditto.

I don't fuck around with workload and priorities.

"Hey can you get X done this month?".

"Possibly. I have to review the requirements and see if it fits on the schedule. Otherwise you'll have to bump down A, B or C I'm working on. A and B are due this month. Decide if C or X is more important."

I think I'm at that level. Though it's less about trust and respect and more about fear. Nobody know how anything works, so they're afraid that things will break and nobody will know how to fix it if I'm gone.

I learned this when they were talking about doing RTO and I just said "No, I'm not doing that."

I suspect people think I play favourites because some people almost always get told no, while others don't. But really it's more due to the fact the managers are clueless so they're always asking for stuff that doesn't make sense, while the people who actually do work make sensible requests so their requests get done.