If you can't get a straight answer from your manager, or your manager doesn't know, then the company isn't healthy. Managers (a) love to brag about success and

If you can't get a straight answer from your manager, or your manager doesn't know, then the company isn't healthy. Managers (a) love to brag about success and (b) it's their job to retain you, and part of retention is informing you about the company's financials. It's totally okay to ask questions like 'how long can we survive if we don't grow' and 'how long does this continue before we close our doors or fire people'. The good news is if you don't know about the health of the company you're probably too junior to be first on the chopping block. If you're asking the harder question of 'are we going to be #3 in our sector in 5 years', you can't trust your managers on that one. They're too optimistic. Do serious competitive market research like you'd do when starting a company -- find a way to measure comparative sales, marketing activity, team strength. Read the linkedin pages of the leadership and key players and look for missing skillsets.