[wpietri]

You write this like I don't know that. I of course do, because like most people here I have written a lot of production code.

This person is in a place where they have spent years piling kludge on kludge. They never go back and fix anything, which is why they have such a mess. And here there was no emergency mentioned; he was describing their normal practice. It's duct tape all the way down.

At some point you have to draw the line and say, "No, from now on, we'll treat normal circumstances like normal circumstances, and save the duct tape for real emergencies." I am suggesting he start drawing the line. Either they'll give in or they'll negotiate his exit, and either outcome is good for him. As the Agile people say, "Either change your organization or change your organization."