Fred's employer needs labor. Fred is doing labor which the employer doesn't know it should value. The employer needs to learn about the cost of maintaining code

Fred's employer needs labor. Fred is doing labor which the employer doesn't know it should value. The employer needs to learn about the cost of maintaining code over time; everyone would love to be in a position to produce features and customer value all day and never have to maintain what they've built. The employer could structure their teams and sprints so that refactoring and other maintenance tasks are built-in, but instead let it become invisible work which cuts into labor. Don't be Fred's employer. Set up teams which build tools, maintain developer infrastructure, work across the company to improve code quality standards, and ease the burden of deploying services at scale. I've been at three different employers on the equivalent of a tools team. It's a pleasure to have fellow developers as my customers, and I understand that my role is integral to not just success, but comfort and peace of mind.