General > General Technical Chat
I died a little inside today.
Lightages:
Yes, it is the old ridiculous problem with government and red tape. They write off the equipment a little each year until it is "worth nothing" on paper. Then when it is completely written off the equipment can become a tax burden. So when the equipment is to be removed from the books they must destroy it because any other action reapplies a value on the equipment and they have to give back they taxes deducted for the depreciation they have claimed. It is very sad and very wasteful.
I was doing some work comissioning some equipment at an IBM research centre one day and saw rolling shelves all around the building in hallways with the "to be destroyed" stickers all over them. Some of it looked brand new in condition and most of it was very expensive equipment. I added up the estimated used value on one pile and I also died a bit that day. There was over $250,000 worth of equipment on just that one pile. There must have been 20-25 rolling shelves around the hallways. Oscilloscopes, meters, scales, microscopes, power supplies, etc....
I watched as they carted one out to the portable crusher they had in the receiving bay and watched and listened as the ram closed down. :-[
JuKu:
How come you didn't volunteer to destroy some of it?
Lightages:
I forgot to mention that there was some government official standing at the crusher marking down each serial number as each bit of equipment got thrown in.
ivan747:
--- Quote from: dr.diesel on April 04, 2013, 02:39:49 pm ---This is actually pretty common. If they give it to you, then someone else finds out, bitches they didn't get something, complains to HR and all hell breaks out.
Many companies have an internal auction site, gives everybody a chance.
--- End quote ---
When I start my own business emporium the size of Google I will have my own internal eBay for the test equipment the company trashes away and isn't good enough for me. ;D
On a more serious note, imagine all you could do with that perfectly good equipment in a developing country like mine! We need that stuff! :palm: I am sure you could donate a bunch of those to the state universities (with the tiny budgets they have, they would definitely take advantage of anything) and even private ones. Jeez, you can even sell them for a ridiculous to students or a good price to local companies. |O
Radio Tech:
--- Quote from: dr.diesel on April 04, 2013, 02:39:49 pm ---This is actually pretty common. If they give it to you, then someone else finds out, bitches they didn't get something, complains to HR and all hell breaks out.
Many companies have an internal auction site, gives everybody a chance.
--- End quote ---
Pretty good point there. And this is what drove our company to stop. We used to have a very large fabrication shop at the manufacturing facility I work at. We build industrial fork lifts. So we are talking about tons of scrap metal. Metals plates from 1/16 of an inch thick to over 4 inches thick. Various widths and sizes. It was a paradise! If you wanted to build a utility trailer there was plenty of scrap to use and this stuff went for cheap. Also included was test gear from the lab and also computers
Every quarter the plant would have an auction for employees only. 100 bucks would give you 2 truckloads of scrap. But there was a greedy manager that had a home based welding shop. He took 2 pallets of metal and hid them in the yard. The morning of the auction someone discovered his stash. And since it was located outside it was moved to the auction area and sold.
The manager of the department went to HR and convinced them that the company should sell the scape to a recycler instead of auctioning it off to employees. And they followed suit. We have tried to get the company to change this but said they would be liable if someone got hurt at home.
Now the only thing you are allowed to take home is wood and card board. And do not take a picture of anything in the facility with your personal phone. That is grounds for termination since we are foreign tradeā¦
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