This isn't necessary. Just notify your immediate manager every time you hit a milestone (e.g. complete a piece of assigned work), and notify them every time you

This isn't necessary. Just notify your immediate manager every time you hit a milestone (e.g. complete a piece of assigned work), and notify them every time you've run out of work. Part of the issue with the perception of developer effort seems to be the fact that the developers aren't communicating their success to the manager. The manager sees the failures (admittedly he fails to recognise them as failures), because they're working late and looking stressed. The manager doesn't see the successes, because he fails to understand what success looks like. The solution isn't to emulate a failure, the solution is to educate the manager (through gentle notifications of work done) as to what success looks like.