Ask HN: What is an acceptable or normal busy-work overhead in your org

I'd like to poll this community to understand overheads you encounter in the business of delivering a software solution. By overhead I mean things that if they were cut would not impact the quality of the product you ship

Some examples of overhead (and this is not exhaustive) might be

- Preparing slideware or other collateral for checkpoint reviews, exec reviews including time spent reviewing them with other stakeholder ahead of the "final review"

- Managing up, communicating status for the purpose of visibility and not so much to inform a relevant stakeholder

Some examples of the reverse (i.e things that are core and not overhead) are

- Designing the stuff including prototypes that are unsuccessful

- Implementing solution, fixing bugs

- Working with customers at requirements gathering time and later at each iteration of the product

- etc. ....

Love to hear. If possible, provide the following context and anything you find relevant

Here's an example

Company: BigCo

Overhead: 40%

Details: Feel free to add anything you might have about your product.