[znagengast]

I have to play devils advocate here because for every one of these cases, there is probably a dozen of similar stories where the ambitious new guy actually did nuke the system with a risky friday release and then logged off for the weekend xD

[ludicity]

Let me hit you with the extra spicy take - since the department doesn't really produce business value anyway, taking the system offline for a week would have dropped the bill to 0 and been the greatest possible cost saving.

Yes, management would have killed me, but I would have been absolved at the Pearly Gates.

[therealdrag0]

Another’s devils advocate is that part of being a senior engineer is writing good public facing one pagers that communicate the problem and the solution.

Sure you shouldn’t have to do that for every single change. But when something significant comes along it’s wise to document it and socialize it.

If OP had done this they may not have been asked to make PowerPoints or dread conversations or hide anything. They could just point at the public doc that explains it all in technical non political language that also educates other teams how they can improve too. This is leadership and mentorship opportunity.