Users sabotage work PCs to force upgrades

Users sabotage work PCs to force upgrades

Ageing workplace machines force employees to take control

Want a new computer or phone at work? The best way to get an upgrade might be to sabotage the old one, according to research from online backup company Mozy.

The company claimed one in four employees were getting fed up with using old machines, and would consider sabotaging their hardware in a bid to force the IT department to upgrade them.

“There are plenty of people who would be happy to do that because they think the proper process might take too long or leave them with their old machine,” Claire Galbois-Alcaix, EMEA senior marketing manager at Mozy, told PC Pro.

“The average age of work computers in the UK is more than five years old, so a lot of people are still working on computers that are ten years old. Because they have better hardware at home, they might take action to damage their work computer to get an upgrade.”

The warning came after a survey involving 3,000 workers in Britain, France and Germany, which reported that 40% of users believed their old PC was hurting their efficiency at work.

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Source: Copyright © PC Pro, Dennis Publishing

See more about:  sabotage  |  work  |  pcs  |  force  |  upgrades
 
 

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Comments: 6
zengrey
13 April 2011
My first thought is that Mr, Mitchell must have sabotaged his own work PC, or at the very least its spell checking capacity. It is 'Aging', *not* 'Ageing'.


Comment made about the PC & Tech Authority article:
Users sabotage work PCs to force upgrades?
Ageing workplace machines force employees to take control

What do you think? Join the discussion.
petergaskin
14 April 2011
What is the point of sabotaging your work pc if it cant be replaced?
With all these firms stuck with XP, then it would be getting increasingly hard to replace the pcs with new XP machines!
911TS
15 April 2011
Peter,
These firms are not stuck with XP. They are just so tightfisted, lazy & moribund they can't be bothered updating their ancient, inefficient software to run on Windows 7.

Secondly, Windows 7 has an XP compatibility mode built-in, so there really is no excuse.

petergaskin
15 April 2011
Trust me - you dont wnat to run xp machines on server 2008. major server upgrades will finally kill off xp in businesses.
At work, I prefer windows 7 machines to work on - rather than the xp machines.
Win 7 like Vista has one major shortfall - the search engine. I prefer the speed of vista and win 7 searches, but hate the complexities orf narrowing down the search.
photohounds
28 April 2011
Easy - a Linux back end for file serving and exchange emulation - minus the bugs.
Run XP or any other Windos version until the cows come home.

Many people have an inflated idea of their "needs" (at least where I work).
It's more a prestige thing - have the newest machine in the office politics scenario - sigh.

The machines where I work run well if the Windos install is less than 2 years old and all patches are applied. Still the lemmings 'think' they need a new one All machines are < 4 y.o. here.

Of course Windos seems to deteriorate rapidly after about 18 months for most people I know ...
Slatts
28 April 2011
Gotta have a fast machine for the lunchtime LAN parties!

He who has the fastest machine wins.

:lol:
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