Does your employer not have periodic internal needs, things that are basically "hey, we really need something that Xs", that isn't really directly funded, but which they'd be willing to let you take a week on?
What about devops? Are there any areas where you either aren't collecting data you might want, or you are collecting it but only recovering it after it's caused an issue? Maybe a small utility there will, while nibbling a bit at your productive hours (few hours a week), lead to enough gains over the long term as to offset it.
Sure, if your employer prevents you from touching anything outside your dev box without a TPS report signed by the head of engineering, the head of QA, legal, and Gryphon (the mythical animal one), and any code that passes always has to be in Java, you're out of luck, but that seems like the kind of environment to flee.
What about devops? Are there any areas where you either aren't collecting data you might want, or you are collecting it but only recovering it after it's caused an issue? Maybe a small utility there will, while nibbling a bit at your productive hours (few hours a week), lead to enough gains over the long term as to offset it.
Sure, if your employer prevents you from touching anything outside your dev box without a TPS report signed by the head of engineering, the head of QA, legal, and Gryphon (the mythical animal one), and any code that passes always has to be in Java, you're out of luck, but that seems like the kind of environment to flee.