Management tends to set a bar for effort based on how hard our peers work. In a competitive environment this can lead to an ugly race to burnout. By straining to meet expectations, devs inadvertently increase the pressure on each other to perform - higher and higher - to the point that 60+hr weeks are normalized.
By doing the minimum, you're pushing back against that and helping to keep the bar in a reasonable place. It is really a favor to other developers (and in many cases to the company, since burnout can destroy whole projects in the end).
Management tends to set a bar for effort based on how hard our peers work. In a competitive environment this can lead to an ugly race to burnout. By straining to meet expectations, devs inadvertently increase the pressure on each other to perform - higher and higher - to the point that 60+hr weeks are normalized.
By doing the minimum, you're pushing back against that and helping to keep the bar in a reasonable place. It is really a favor to other developers (and in many cases to the company, since burnout can destroy whole projects in the end).