General > General Technical Chat

Does your corporation throw away useful stuff? How often and how much?

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james_s:

--- Quote from: Fred27 on May 25, 2020, 11:29:13 am ---Unfortunately this sort of mindless destruction goes on all the time. My brother used to have a removals and storage business. He had a publicly owned body pay him to store hundreds of (presumably excess) brand new printers they had bought. He stored them for a few years. Then they paid him to take them to a crusher and have them crushed - with one of their employees watching to make sure this happened. They were all boxed and unused. He couldn't persuade them to donate them to schools or anything. Maybe not quite as valuable or desirable as test gear, but a shocking and pointless waste all the same.

--- End quote ---

I would have invited the local news media to witness it and very publicly shamed the company. Actually my personal ethics would prevent me from actively participating, they'd have to hire someone else to come retrieve the equipment from me. In cases like that I don't care about the money, I don't like senseless destruction of usable equipment and would much rather see or assist in the destruction of corporations and people who authorize or engage in such practices. Any time I hear of such things that company goes on my blacklist and I will never give them a dime.

thm_w:

--- Quote from: james_s on May 25, 2020, 08:10:25 pm ---I've seen quite often one department is throwing away things while another department is buying more of those same things. The left hand doesn't talk to the right and most people simply don't care, it's not money out of their pocket. Drives me nuts though, I hate waste, and corporations are often incredibly wastedful, yet they're happy to cut amenities and benefits to save a few bucks.

--- End quote ---

Never stiff your employees over a few dollars unless you are firing them immediately after the fact.

vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: thm_w on May 25, 2020, 09:17:27 pm ---
--- Quote from: james_s on May 25, 2020, 08:10:25 pm ---I've seen quite often one department is throwing away things while another department is buying more of those same things. The left hand doesn't talk to the right and most people simply don't care, it's not money out of their pocket. Drives me nuts though, I hate waste, and corporations are often incredibly wastedful, yet they're happy to cut amenities and benefits to save a few bucks.

--- End quote ---

Never stiff your employees over a few dollars unless you are firing them immediately after the fact.

--- End quote ---

Another slightly divergent angle, is the way different industries often use the same equipment, but have no inkling of this.
A case in point, was where a TV Studio was spending big bucks sending the wheels off camera dollies back to the UK for retreading with appropriate "magic" stuff.

This was expensive, incredibly time consuming, & meant the dolly concerned was out of service for long periods.

One of the Techs (not me) checked around, & found that a local company used the same material for the wheels of hospital trolleys, tables, etc.
The upshot was that they could get all four wheels on the dolly done locally for the price of one wheel done in the UK, with a two week maximum turnaround, compared to two plus months.

One of my jobs, for my sins, in a previous job was to fix "dehydrators".
These were used to pressurise large coaxial feeders with dry air to prevent moisture ingress.

They had a lot of black nylon tubing between various parts & for the outlet.
As they came, they used brass fittings wnich included "olives"as a vital part of the sealing function.

The "olives" were effectively "consumables" as after one use, they usually would no longer seal.

We quickly used up our inadequate quota of spares, so, armed with a handful of "petty cash", I set off to the last place we had bought such bits.
They didn't have any that size, & couldn't tell when they were likely to get some more, so I was cast back on my own resources.

Looking through the "Yellow Pages", I found a likely contender.

They didn't have the parts, but pointed out that "the world had moved on", & the brass fittings had been replaced with nylon self locking fittings.
These were a "dream" to fit, so we went over to them.

When I changed employer, the TV Studio were in the process of moving & upgrading their Earth Station, which used the same sort of dehydrators.
Unfortunately, they also still had the brass fittings.

This company had their own "pet" source of the fittings, so, again, I set out with a handful of petty cash. (as a "noob"in this firm, I didn't care to "make waves" & bring up the new type in discussion).

Same story :- "Sorry, out of stock, dunno if we will stock them again!", so I went to the other place & bought the nylon ones.
I returned to work in some trepidation, however, they not only approved, but were enthusiastic about the change.

EEVblog:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on May 25, 2020, 02:44:51 pm ---Still wondering whether some office owner could not one day get you in trouble if you ever get ahold of anything (like computers) that could contain confidential information (although obviously if some company trashes stuff with confidential information, they would be pretty dumb.)
--- End quote ---

Get me in trouble with who?
The police? Nope, not their concern.
The council? Nope, not their concern.
The strata? Good luck with that, I'm on the executive committee. They'd get more in trouble for dumping their illegal office stuff in the dumpster room in the first place.
Could they sue me for some reason? Sure. Anyone is free to attempt to sue anyone at any time for any reason. Good luck.

Brumby:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on May 26, 2020, 01:39:47 am ---
--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on May 25, 2020, 02:44:51 pm ---Still wondering whether some office owner could not one day get you in trouble if you ever get ahold of anything (like computers) that could contain confidential information (although obviously if some company trashes stuff with confidential information, they would be pretty dumb.)
--- End quote ---

Get me in trouble with who?
The police? Nope, not their concern.
The council? Nope, not their concern.
The strata? Good luck with that, I'm on the executive committee. They'd get more in trouble for dumping their illegal office stuff in the dumpster room in the first place.
Could they sue me for some reason? Sure. Anyone is free to attempt to sue anyone at any time for any reason. Good luck.

--- End quote ---

The person who should be worried would be the one who put any such confidential content out in the wild.

That is just sheer stupidity.

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