In order for a worker to bother with this

1) It has to be alright to make miscellaneous changes like this, and

2) It has to contribute to getting promoted.

The second point is IMO why random QoL changes like this are rare in large corporations.

I don't know that #2 is universally true. I am at a point in my career now where I will be able to comfortably retire without ever being promoted again (i.,e. CoL raises only). Judging by the salary ranges I see on offer for jobs for people with 5+ years of experience, this can't be that rare.

When I see a pain point that looks soluble, I take a crack at it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I get recognized for it, sometimes I don't. One, relatively minor (to me) thing, ended up being a big business win and my manager made sure I got a fat bonus for it. Other things have seemed more like a win for me that nobody but 2 of my peers ended up caring about.

#1 is true to the nth power though. I've seen places where if you do something even one millimeter outside of your silo, it will come up as a negative in your performance review. As in, if you write a 5 line perl script that makes you significantly more productive, do not share it as you will be asked time and time again why you wasted your time on something outside of your job description.

I think something missing for the context of TFA is that the gaming industry tends to be much more deadline focused than other industries. In theory you might be free to "make miscellaneous changes like this" but only if things aren't already behind schedule, and things are always behind schedule.

> As in, if you write a 5 line perl script that makes you significantly more productive, do not share it as you will be asked time and time again why you wasted your time on something outside of your job description.

This sounds like something I'd see in a Dilbert comic. Do you mind sharing what industry you work in? Perhaps you saw this in old-fashioned industries like banking or insurance? Have you experienced this in tech?

This specific story was a friend working for a large defense contractor. I've never worked directly for a defense contractor, but know enough people that have that I should note that culture varies greatly from site to site; different sites of very large companies might as well be different companies (and in many cases were different companies before being purchased).

That sort of thing also varies with perceived team performance. If your team is perceived by upper mid-management (or higher) as being "good" then individuals on the team have more freedom. If your team is perceived as being "not good" then every deviation from standard practices is clearly the cause of the poor team performance.

I've had this situation fluctuate at my workplace. When misc changes are supported, and those improvements are actually valued by management, I've seen the system improve dramatically.

I've also seen a single-minded focus on pushing cards across a board, which seems to typically correlate with higher levels of a dogmatic SCRUM process.

Pushing cards is great, but not when it prevents the various little things that have to happen to cultivate quality software. Especially not when there's a gatekeeper prioritizing these things into oblivion.

#2: Just do your assigned task well, that's it.