I make a point to work toward some tangible goal so that I always have something to point to - although I've never actually been in a position where I'm asked,

I make a point to work toward some tangible goal so that I always have something to point to - although I've never actually been in a position where I'm asked, "justify the time you've spent here", I go out of my way to make sure I do have a good answer in case somebody ever does. However... nobody ever really asks. Instead, they always try to put a "process" in place to automate that; Scrum, the unholy beast that "agile" has spawned into is the ultimate automated "are you doing anything" checker. I can't help but notice how infinitely gameable it is, though - story points and sprints almost _invite_ abuse. I do get useful work done in spite of the time that's wasted feeding the "prove that you're doing something" beast, but it would be trivially easy to spend all my time making myself look good on paper while not actually producing anything defensible.