Когда начальство довольно результатом, работать становится легче.

Начальство is a collective noun. It means something like the management, the bosses, or one’s superiors as a group.

Even though it refers to people, grammatically it behaves like a singular neuter noun, so other words must agree with it in the neuter singular:

• начальство довольно
• not начальство довольны

This is similar to how English can use a singular-looking collective idea like management.

Here довольно is the short form of the adjective довольный (satisfied, pleased).

Short-form adjectives in Russian change by gender and number:

• masculine: доволен
• feminine: довольна
• neuter: довольно
• plural: довольны

Since начальство is neuter singular, the correct form is довольно.

Also, after быть or in statements like X is satisfied, Russian very often prefers the short form:

• начальство довольно результатом
• он доволен
• она довольна

The long form довольное would usually sound attributive, like довольное начальство = satisfied management / pleased bosses.

The adjective доволен / довольна / довольно / довольны normally takes the instrumental case for the thing someone is satisfied with.

So:

• доволен результатом = satisfied with the result
• довольна работой = satisfied with the work
• довольны тобой = satisfied with you

So the question is:

• Чем довольно начальство? — результатом

This is just the case pattern that goes with доволен.

Начальство usually means the bosses, the management, the authorities above you, or your superiors.

It does not normally mean one specific boss in a neutral everyday way. If you mean one boss, you would more often use:

• начальник = male boss/supervisor
• начальница = female boss/supervisor

So this sentence has the sense of:

• When the management is happy with the result...
• When the bosses are pleased with the result...

In Russian, an infinitive can act like a general activity or abstract subject.

Here работать means to work / working in a general sense. The sentence is not focused on a specific person; it means that the activity of working becomes easier.

So:

• работать становится легче
  = working becomes easier = it becomes easier to work

Russian often uses this kind of structure without naming a subject like it.

Russian often uses impersonal constructions where English uses a dummy subject like it.

English says:

• It becomes easier to work

Russian usually just says:

• работать становится легче

There is no need for a separate word meaning it. The whole infinitive phrase работать fills that role conceptually.

This is very common in Russian:

• Мне трудно понять = It is hard for me to understand
• Здесь легко дышать = It is easy to breathe here
• Работать стало лучше = It became better/easier to work

Легче is the comparative form of легко:

• легко = easily / easy
• легче = more easily / easier

With становится (becomes), Russian usually uses the comparative when something changes in degree:

• становится легче = becomes easier
• становится труднее = becomes harder
• становится лучше = becomes better

If you said становится легко, it would sound much less natural here. The idea is not just it is easy, but it gets easier than before.

The sentence expresses a general rule or repeated situation, not one single past event:

• Когда начальство довольно результатом, работать становится легче.
• When/Whenever management is pleased with the result, it becomes easier to work.

Russian often uses the present tense for this kind of general truth or habitual relationship.

If you were talking about one past situation, you could say:

• Когда начальство было довольно результатом, работать стало легче.

Grammatically it is when, but in this kind of general statement it often has the sense of whenever.

So this sentence can be understood as:

• When the management is satisfied with the result, it becomes easier to work
• or more naturally in context:
• Whenever the bosses are happy with the result, work becomes easier

The present tense in both parts helps give it that general, repeated meaning.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and you could rearrange the sentence without changing the basic meaning much.

For example:

• Когда начальство довольно результатом, работать становится легче.
• Когда начальство довольно результатом, становится легче работать.

Both are natural.

A small nuance:

• работать становится легче puts a little more focus on working
• становится легче работать puts a little more focus on the predicate becomes easier

But both are normal and understandable.

Because the sentence talks about work as an ongoing activity, not about completing one specific action.

Работать is the natural choice for general to work / working.

A perfective verb would suggest a single completed action, which does not fit well here. The sentence is about the overall experience of doing work, not finishing a particular task.

So:

• работать становится легче = working becomes easier

This is exactly the kind of situation where Russian normally uses the imperfective infinitive.

Yes. It is a complete clause meaning:

• The management is satisfied with the result

Structure:

• начальство = subject
• довольно = short-form adjective functioning as the predicate
• результатом = instrumental complement

So the full sentence is made of two clauses:

1. Когда начальство довольно результатом
2. работать становится легче

Together: When management is satisfied with the result, it becomes easier to work.