I got into a long argument with my boss about a sizable percentage of our data that was irrelevant, useless, impossible to map (bit of a normalization problem), and skewing the results of several reports. To make matters worse, he could not tell me how the data was entered into the database. I took the position of archiving it if you must, but cleaning it out of the database. He took the position of "it's the only information we have."

I tried to be patient and failed. I finally offered a compromise: I would clean out the database and create a script to generate as much wrong data as he needed whenever he needed it. We do, in theory, have an infinite amount of bad numbers. Also, there is a non-zero chance that random data may actually produce the correct results, while bad data would never be correct.

Long story short, he pulled rank and I lost the battle.

The most difficult part was explaining to the new hires why the data was in there and watching them argue the same case and lose.

On the bright side, the doctor prescribed some meds that have really helped my stress level.