I've had a number of what i thought of as "developer only tools" that i generated to make my life easier suddenly get promoted into tools the QA or helpdesk people use on a daily basis, and some even deployed to end users/clients to make their lives easier as well.
some wiggle room for back burner projects, as well as allowances for being allowed to work on projects not specifically blessed upon by the higher ups can certainly have a positive impact.
Lowell