Have you ever worked in an organization where you were strongly discouraged from refactoring, or otherwise touching, the code without a change request? And if the answer is yes how did you deal with that?
Thankfully I have not. I currently work in a small team (<10 developers). We try not to change things just for the sake of changing them, but when there is a good reason to do so then we can. Our code base is far from perfect but I am content with our ability to fix issues that would make it painful to work with.
I don't think I would be happy in a job where I didn't have this freedom.
I don't think I would be happy in a job where I didn't have this freedom.