In the author's defense, it wasn't all his fault. Whoever thought it was a good idea to: 1. Work directly on the production database 2. Not have daily backups

In the author's defense, it wasn't all his fault. Whoever thought it was a good idea to: 1. Work directly on the production database 2. Not have daily backups 3. Not have data migrations in place for these kinds of situations needs to be fired immediately. My guess is it was one of the 'senior' engineers and that the author only worked with what they gave him. I've worked with all kinds of bozos but I've never seen this kind of incompetence. Ridiculous.