After much thought and inaction, I've compiled a quick list of basic things you can do at work to reduce your tangible value to the company (coming to a bank account near you, soon !).
- Answer questions on devel forums
- Write a technical blog
- Live the company values
- Write cool hacks
- Have a serious hobby
- Contribute to an open source project
All of these things shout out that you have too much free time. If you send detailed, well thought out answers to a question on a devel forum - you aren't working hard enough. If you've got time to write a decent blog about technology - you aren't working hard enough. If you actually live the company values (for instance, like I do) - your irreverance and sense of humour do not suit a professional in this business. So is going around your product managers to actually build something that you personally like, without any input from the product strategy team - that's not what you get paid for. And hobbies - they waste your time and cost you money. Without a hobby to spend your disposable income on, you won't need as much money as you're asking for now.
But the last one takes the cake. Assume your full time job involves working on an open source project. Now answer me this, "what *competitive* advantage does your work bring to this company ?". After all the code that you write automatically becomes available to everybody - irrespective of who paid for the development costs. Code thus released drops to near zero value and ergo, the process of creating it ...
These should just about work, but YMMV.
PS: I'm being seriously *sarcastic* (or tersely ironic) here - these things are a potential investment in your betterment, do them, be a better person and as the Bhagavat Gita said - Karmanye vadhikarasthe, ma phaleshu kadachara (do your duty and expect no reward).
--The term investment (the basis of all capital) is pretty much forgotten.
Instead, investing money is considered spending it.
-- slashdot #18632805