Comment by bee_rider

I generally believe engineering is right in this sort of hypothetical. But, at some point if they really are focusing on code quality… I mean, ultimately the point of code quality is to deliver features/reduce maintenance over the long run, right? So if they really are doing a good job of improving code quality, over the long run they should have a good relationship with management and the political capital to make this request.

From an outside point of view, focusing on code quality and playing videogames instead of working look identical over the short term (or more realistically, working on little niche bits of the code or doing tidying-up busywork that doesn’t really improve the overall quality of the project—it could legitimately be hard to tell the difference). Of course, it should eventually become apparent that the latter group didn’t actually accomplish anything in that time.

“How do you balance the,” I guess it is a social thing/judgement call ultimately.