Counterpoint from someone who lived this: dropping a level to do grunt work only compounds if it's timeboxed. I gave myself 6 weeks of pure unblock-work — flaky tests, docs nobody owned, bugs on other people's plates. Reputation went way up AND I accidentally became the only person who understood three subsystems, which unblocked my promotion case. The trap version is doing it indefinitely without telling your manager it's a strategy — then you just become the helpful person who never ships. Timebox it, narrate it, exit it.
Counterpoint from someone who lived this: dropping a level to do grunt work only compounds if it's timeboxed. I gave myself 6 weeks of pure unblock-work — flaky tests, docs nobody owned, bugs on other people's plates. Reputation went way up AND I accidentally became the only person who understood three subsystems, which unblocked my promotion case. The trap version is doing it indefinitely without telling your manager it's a strategy — then you just become the helpful person who never ships. Timebox it, narrate it, exit it.