The ordeals of the maintenance programmer

I'm a software engineer by profession. Every morning i start from my home as the one who has no fear and very happy.But when i entered into my office and sit in front of my workstation i turned as a coward, cursed idiot who doesn't know what to do. Don't get panic as i am.

I have to do maintenance programming.

If you look at the system we have developed, it's really easy to understand there is complete absence of overall design leadership.The system we created does not reflect any vision or worthy goals.Here is the simple description about how we build systems. Create a few modules, write a 'n' number of classes.Name it anything we like.keep the logic in as many places as we can. Use interminable sequences of delegation. Make the code as ultimate "heavyweight" champion. Don't worry about the cohesion and coupling. keep the methods which has the reputation of longer than the great wall of china.Make the method names should not convey the meaning directly. Never write the code which can defend itself. Don't write unit tests. Don't check the code coverage to identify what are the dead code. Forget about flexibility, simplicity, clarity, maintainability and robustness. Never document anything. Always believe that the maintenance programmer is the god of programming who can solve all the puzzles created through the code. Ultimately never learn anything and don't mentor the people.Feel proud about that our knowledge is a "legacy" which comprised of all obsolete techniques and always proclaim that these are the best haphazard and expedient means of building systems.

Anyway i have to live with this.Me the programmer turned as a fire-fighter.Most of the time i feel myself as an idiotic Indiana Jones who chases the trivial treasure to fix  the bug.At the end of the day, if the work what i have done is not satisfying, i have to say to myself "Man you are a poor guy"