I try to never ever use the word "refactor" or "clean up" in any of my work items or even commit messages. My boss and other teams I am collaborating with are like clients to me. Restaurant bills typically do not include explicit line items for "dish washing, mopping, grease-trap cleaning, oil disposal, etc."

The downside is that other people/teams can appear to work much faster and put you at a disadvantage or even risk of being let go due to this perception. Unfortunately this is where IMO you have to play the game and make sure you toot your own horn to the right people sometimes.

If you work in a kitchen, you’re expected to keep the kitchen clean. The trick to that is knowing how to efficiently clear up, and being prepared for the waves when they come.

As an engineer it’s no different. If you’re not keeping in top of your own debt, you’re actually falling behind.

Yeah just do it as part of your work without telling people. You're paid to write software and part of writing software is refactoring.