8 Dec
2005
8 Dec
'05
3:39 p.m.
When I worked for DEC back in the late 70s / early 80s, they had a
wonderful scrap / salvage center in the Mill complex (basement of
building 5 IIRC) that sold off 'scrapped' DEC parts to employees that
would have otherwise gone to the smelter. Just about anything DEC made
could show up there (albeit in pieces, not whole systems).
I seem to remember that DEC mgmt finally shut it down when they
discovered that some employees were internally buying new DEC equipment,
dismantling it and sending the pieces to 'scrap', where they would then
go buy them for 'personal' use at a deep discount (I think the person
running the salvage operation would put this good stuff aside when it
arrived, for a small fee, of course).
I don't think it ever reopened after this fiasco.
William Donzelli wrote:
my company that
i work for has just decommissioned an hp9000 system
for scrap and 11 dec vt420's circa 1991, unopened, with keyboards.
they did not give option on taking them or buying them =/
don't you hate it when the bean counters get involved because they
think the scrappers will not be jerks and resell what they get
instead of doing their jobs and just scrapping it and keeping it from
the employees for personal use?
The problem tends to be the employees reselling the surplus. And after
that, little underground networks within the company form up to make sure
that certain items are decommissioned and go to certain employees. You can
see where this is going.
Yes, it sucks, and some bad eggs in your company probably spoiled it for
everyone.
Also, it seems to me that every so often someone comes up with new
VT420s, anyway...
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org