We recently had a bit of a kerfuffle at work over a projector having technical difficulties. This reminded me of a past job where the comptroller got the word “dongle”
banned from the office. You couldn't say it. You couldn't email it. She said it “sounded dirty.”
This
caused a problem for the sales staff when she refused to process purchase
orders for anything with the word “dongle” on it. The sales
guys ended up purchasing dongles for their equipment on their own dime and then burying
the cost in expense reports for business trips.
The
network administrator we had at the time realized he could use this to push
through all sorts of purchases by claiming that “All the cheaper options use,
well, THOSE things.”
This went on for a few months until the owner found out that computer equipment he considered "excessive" was being approved by his drinking buddy comptroller. Once the details came to light, he ordered her to "Stop clutching your pearls and get used to the word." After that the ban on "dongle" was lifted.
Sadly, this also meant hardware purchases returned to being approved based on being the cheapest possible option that meets at least one of the criteria on the "Minimum System Requirements" instead of something that would actually work.
