[eden-alpha]

Honestly that's what anyone employed to a company should care about. Your aim should be delivering value, which sometimes means making long term investments that improve the development environment.

You also should spend a portion time learning as it enables you to create more value over time.

And yes you should take time to get to know your colleagues, take breaks, play ping pong, etc. This helps you refresh yourself and avoid running out of steam.

But the work is meant to create value, hence why you are rewarding with currency you can exchange for things you value.

Manage a positive work life balance and and do the "fun" stuff outside of work. Life is not all work and work is not all of life.

[giantg2]

"Your aim should be delivering value, which sometimes means making long term investments that improve the development environment."

That makes sense as long as it also matches the employee's goal of being paid for the work they do. If you work at a place like my job, you will never be promoted if you do this necessary behind the scenes stuff. It's as if the motto is "if the business user doesn't see it, it never happened". Sucks if you're spending a lot time on things that are supposed to be invisible to a user, like security or availability.