At the company where this IT pilot fish works, support techs have to supply a price quote and get it approved before replacing any computer hardware.

"After having five quotes for new equipment previously rejected as too expensive, I realized this would be the same in this case," fish says. "So I decided to get a quote for secondhand equipment to save time.

"My manager went out for a meeting and came back in a rage."

Never quote for secondhand equipment again, manager tells fish. Do you think we are paupers? If we want new equipment, we'll buy it.

He also instructs fish to delete all his secondhand equipment quotes -- and then gives him a verbal warning.

Fish spends most of the night putting together a set of quotes for new equipment, so they'll be ready by the following morning.

And then?

"The next day, these new quotes were rejected for being too expensive," says fish, "and I was approached by a sheepish manager who asked, did I keep the quotes despite the fact that they told me to delete them?

"I pretended I had deleted them and complained about the warning I was given and the fact that they were wasting my time. Then I changed the dates on the ones I had previously submitted and sent them in again.

"This time, they bought them, and the hardware was delivered within a week."

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