[bread_butter]

I feel it all comes down to communicating your strengths to your bosses, assuming they are reasonable engineers themselves. I am hoping to learn such a trick from someone who might have done that or partially attempted doing it and learnt something.

[rachelbythebay]

Nobody's ever cared about the stuff I made never happen by being good ahead of time. They've only ever really cared about the fixes to stuff that blew up. It helped that whatever blew up wasn't mine, I guess, but not that much.

Really, a lot of places just put up with your personal desires for excellence as long as you keep saving their bacon. Stop saving their bacon or throw the "balance" off from their point of view, and they won't appreciate you any more.

Sorry, but management tends to suck in this regard. If you find someplace that's different, hang onto it!