Juveniles with admin privileges

Our IS department is often frustrating, which is the case at many companies I'm sure. But here's an example of a really extreme case of IS stupidity.
We're an engineering company, and many of our engineers use their personal laptops in tandem with lab computers and their desktop computers. As such, there is oftentimes a need to transfer files from one computer to another.
While they could transfer the file to a network share and then browse to that share on the other computer to retrieve it, it is much easier to use a flash drive, especially for large files on our crappy network.

Oh, and by the way, if you think I'm just kidding about our crappy network, come visit me sometime and I will show you what I'm talking about. I thought the MSLC at SPU was bad with its CAT 3 network, but it doesn't hold a candle to this.

Anyway, a 1 GB flashdrive is about $10 now. So, several engineers requested that our Admin Assistant procure some flashdrives from the IS department. Seems like a simple request. Oh how I envy your ignorant bliss.

She was told that the engineers needed to provide a justification for such a piece of equipment, they wanted to know exactly what it would be used for, etc.

For a $10 flashdrive.

At an average rate of around $45-50 per hour for a salaried exempt staff engineer, if the engineer spends more than 12 minutes writing a justification email to get his flashdrive, the company has already invested the cost of the drive in his wasted salary. And that's not taking into account the time wasted by the Admin Assistant.

So, we decided to take things into our own hands, we just submitted a purchase req, bypassing IS completely. I also generated this letter of justification that we signed and stamped. Enjoy.

Why I need a thumbdrive

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one person to remove a file from one computer and to transfer it to an additional computer, a process to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the needs of mankind requires that the IS department should supply them with thumbdrives which impel them to the file transfer.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all data is created equal, they they are endowed by the program which created them with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are checksums, proper permissions, and the pursuit of bandwidth. – That to secure these rights, departments are instituted among companies, deriving their just powers from the consent of the company executives, that whenever any department becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Employees to alter or abolish it, and to acquire their thumbdrives through material requisition forms, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form delivered to Kim Sop, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the Component Engineers of the Engineering Services department of Aviation Technologies Corporation, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Vice President of Engineering of the company for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this engineering department, solemnly publish and declare, that these united cubicles are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Cubicles, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the IS department, and that all Flash, Random Access, Synchronous, and Hard Disk memory connections between them and the building on the other side of the street, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Cubicles, they have full Power to buy thumbdrives, SD cards and memory sticks, and to purchase all other forms of temporary and permanent file storage which Independent Cubicles may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our network shares, our wireless mice, and our sacred flat panel monitors.

Specific grievances nailed to door upon request

-The Krunchy Krab