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One good question I've asked and answered has been "Is this a good place to
work?" or "Would you advise a friend to work here?" It tends to engender
fairly useful responses, from "This is a great place or I wouldn't work
here," to "This is a good place to work if. . ." "If you enjoy structure"
(i.e. being micromanaged :-)) or "if you like working independently" (i.e.
no one's being paid to manage you :-)). I always ask the interviewer to
describe the office environment. This is another question that, as far as
I can tell, is usually answered fairly honestly--anyway, you can usually
read enough between the lines to get an inkling of what the office is like.
