> But you have to imagine what it must sound like from the perspective of a PM or EM. Itd be like my PM saying “I spent the last month organizing all eng docs to be properly formatted with bullet points.”
If your managers think that, and don't understand the value of refactors, you've already lost. You can try explaining it to them, but if this is how they perceive that type of work, it's a sign that you're working at a company that doesn't understand software engineering.
Of course, new features have to be built, and bugs have to be fixed. Those are always priorities. But refactors are just as important for keeping the software in a maintainable state, precisely because they enable new features to be built faster, more efficiently, and in a more robust way.
If your managers think that, and don't understand the value of refactors, you've already lost. You can try explaining it to them, but if this is how they perceive that type of work, it's a sign that you're working at a company that doesn't understand software engineering.
Of course, new features have to be built, and bugs have to be fixed. Those are always priorities. But refactors are just as important for keeping the software in a maintainable state, precisely because they enable new features to be built faster, more efficiently, and in a more robust way.