It’s back in the days of CRT monitors and this pilot fish has had to get really practical when it comes to dealing with old IT gear.

The practice had been to save old PCs, printers and related electronic junk in an abandoned building owned by the company, fish says. “Then we make an annual trip to the computer recycler in a nearby town.”

But when the boss hears about this, he issues an order: All that stuff goes straight into the trash bin. No discussion — just toss it all in the dumpster, he says.

Fish knows it’s a really bad idea to dump lead-filled CRTs and circuit boards that way — and probably illegal. So he waits until a week when the boss is away, loads the junk into his truck and carts it off to the recycler. Cost for recycling a year’s worth of e-junk: $100.

But when he takes his credit card slip to accounting, the admin tells him, “You need the boss’s signature on the expense form.”

Uh-oh.

“Fortunately, the boss’s second-in-command signed off and saved my bacon,” says fish. And, he adds, she now gets faster service from the IT department than anyone.

Sharky recycles true tales of IT life every day. Send me yours at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.