Sure you can. They paid for the codebase, it's theirs. You don't own it, whether you have the responsibility for keeping it maintained or not. That's true no matter which approach the company takes to managing their technical infrastructure. They can make decisions about it with or without your input and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's theirs, not yours.
What you own is a responsibility to that codebase and to that company. A responsibility that the company is paying you for. It's your responsibility to not fuck up that codebase. If there are conflicts, you need to bring them up to your employer and let them make the decision.
What I think you're not getting is that tasks like cleaning up, refactoring, etc. are part of the job and that you're not doing your job properly if you don't do them. You do not bring these up to your employer or allow him to stop you from doing them, because they're part of the job.
If you work in construction, clean up is part of the job, you don't ask your boss whether you clean up or not, you clean up and he pays you for the time. Same with dev work. It's not up to them, you are a professional and nobody should tell you how to work. If they don't like it they can fire you, and you can go somewhere that appreciates your professionalism. You'll probably get paid more too.
> You do not bring these up to your employer or allow him to stop you from doing them, because they're part of the job.
I agree with that. Don't need to discuss how sausage is made. OP was pointing out that there are circumstances where the sausage making is micromanaged, which puts a kink in this plan.
Wouldn't put a kink in mine. I'd just carry on as usual. When I write code, I don't release it until it's been cleaned and refactored to my satisfaction. If a micromanaging boss wants to know my progress, the answer is simple. It's not done. He wants to know why, I'll tell him. I'm not happy with X class and I'm cleaning up the methods and reorganizing it. Should only take another hour.
If he starts getting 1984 on me and demanding I cut it short and deploy, then it's time for a closed-door meeting. He might be my boss, but he's not telling me how to do my job.
Sure you can. They paid for the codebase, it's theirs. You don't own it, whether you have the responsibility for keeping it maintained or not. That's true no matter which approach the company takes to managing their technical infrastructure. They can make decisions about it with or without your input and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's theirs, not yours.
What you own is a responsibility to that codebase and to that company. A responsibility that the company is paying you for. It's your responsibility to not fuck up that codebase. If there are conflicts, you need to bring them up to your employer and let them make the decision.
What I think you're not getting is that tasks like cleaning up, refactoring, etc. are part of the job and that you're not doing your job properly if you don't do them. You do not bring these up to your employer or allow him to stop you from doing them, because they're part of the job.
If you work in construction, clean up is part of the job, you don't ask your boss whether you clean up or not, you clean up and he pays you for the time. Same with dev work. It's not up to them, you are a professional and nobody should tell you how to work. If they don't like it they can fire you, and you can go somewhere that appreciates your professionalism. You'll probably get paid more too.