alt Hacker NewsWere you doing it on your own time? From your described “a lot of effort,” I assume it was not but please correct me if I’m wrong.
If you’re being paid for your time by someone else, it’s fair to notify them how you plan to use a significant chunk of that money before you do it. Unless of course you were employed to _not_ do that.
I am not suggesting explaining a day or two of work. But it sounds like you’re talking weeks.
It would be like if I was expected to deliver A by the end of the quarter and instead I delivered A + B. The value gain from B was more than A. Your manager (and hopefully higher up the org) better know about B, or they will attack it as a threat.
Also, I’m not being paid for my time, I’m being paid to do a job. “Trading your time for money” is one of the most self defeating views on work you can have. It reduces you from a worker with agency to a detached prostitue, and is harmful to both the employer and employee.