First at all, something akin to Chesterton's fence applies. Somebody new to an organization rarely understands all the factors that go into a code base, and eve

First at all, something akin to Chesterton's fence applies. Somebody new to an organization rarely understands all the factors that go into a code base, and even if they're right that the code base is bad, they are generally not yet equipped to safely fix it. Second, this might be a first for you, but a new person coming in and deciding that the current code base is unsalvageable and needs to be completely rewritten is pretty much a cliché in our industry. So what would I do? Like cheshireoctopus said, you can leave each bit of code you touch a bit cleaner than you encountered it. You can also try to get approval to start writing tests — having a test suite in place will first help you understand the existing code through and through, and then provide a safety net once you get around to proceeding to the actual refactor.