Said It Here

Why is our IT department forced to scavenge old hardware?

IT staff face severe equipment shortages and wear and tear because leadership delays or denies replacement requests. This leaves workers scavenging parts from departing employees and handing out busted gear with cracked lids, forcing them to take the blame from frustrated users while leadership avoids accountability.

Overview
People affected2 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found3 items attempted
Community agreement66 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Scavenging parts from old equipment
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  2. 2
    Handing out damaged or used devices
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  3. 3
    Keeping a shared spreadsheet tracking requests and user impact to create a paper trail
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In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/ITManagers2 people · September 2026

“we often have little to no kit and rely on scavenging and employees leaving so we can reuse equipment.”source ↗

WantsToDieBadly · r/ITManagers · 50 upvotes

“The scavenging thing is such a crappy spot to be in. You end up looking like the bad guy handing out busted equipment while the decision makers never have to see the user's face when you pass them a machine with a cracked lid.”source ↗

offbeatfinale_4265 · r/ITManagers · 21 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised