Tips On Dealing With IT Equipment After Layoffs

November 25, 2008

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Citigroup recently eliminated 52,000 jobs – just one of the large companies slimming down on their operations. This has forced IT departments to deal with hundreds and even thousands of desktops and notebooks that are no longer in use, eWeek.com reports.

Here’s advice on what to do with extra IT equipment:

1. Companies should be aware of their refresh cycle if and when layoffs are announced, this helps reduce the amount of extra IT equipment when the economy is unstable.
2. Repurpose the machines for other tasks or assign IT equipment to other employees who may have older PCs.
3. IT departments that decide to dispose of older PCs could look into companies that offer recovery, recycling and disposal services such as Dell, Hewleet-Packard, IBM, Intechra and Redemtech. These services can also completely destroy PCs if there is concern about security and data being compromised.
4. IT departments could also donate unwanted PCs to charity. One bonus is that companies that do so may be able to claim a tax credit.

Many companies such as Best Buy, Dell, Lenovo, National Instruments, Office Depot, Sharp and Toshiba, also offer free e-waste recycling programs.

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Reader Comments

The world is different today compared to the past (compared to even just a year ago). The constant march of technology makes it possible for a smaller work force to do virtually the same job as a larger workforce. As white collar employees are handed pink slips, an employer like a bank (Citigroup) or a brokerage may be prudent to generously retain their e-mail records. The records are a valuable asset to the employer, relating to intellectual property, project management, customer relationships and more. –Ben http://legal-beagle.typepad.com/wrights_legal_beagle/2008/10/retain-e-mail-of-former-employees.html

Benjamin Wright | November 26th, 2008

well, it’s not as simple as doing more with less people. In fact I think that technology can’t replace the necessary amount of people. Companies usually aren’t thinking efficiency when they lay off thousands of people, they’re thinking it’s a financial necessity, or they can be replaced with cheaper offshore talent, or both. We could only hope that efficiency is in mind, but even if it was then it would be a surprise to me if there was any kind of measurement of the effect on productivity, instrinsic knowledge, morale, or any other vital non-financial metric. I think these layoff rounds are bandaids.

And we’ve moved along files and emails when former workers have moved. No one has time or patience to reference a huge bundle of someone else’s materials.

newphase75 | November 26th, 2008