The email arrives on a Tuesday morning. It appears to come from the CEO. The name is correct, the writing style fits, and even the signature looks convincing. “Hey, can you handle something for me quickly? I’m in back-to-back meetings. Need you to process a vendor payment. I'll explain later.” The new employee hesitates.

Imagine approaching a home and checking beneath the welcome mat, only to discover a spare key hidden there. It may feel practical and easy to remember, but it's also the first place anyone with the wrong intentions would check. Many companies handle their passwords in a very similar way.

It’s Monday morning. Coffee in hand, plans laid out, you’re ready to finally get ahead. You step into the office. Before your bag even hits the desk, someone announces: “The printer’s acting up again.”

Remember when fixing a video game meant pulling out the cartridge and blowing into it? Back then, that counted as technical support. Game won’t start? Blow on it. Still not working? Try again. Harder. If that didn’t solve it, the next troubleshooting step was a firm smack on the console.

When people think of spring cleaning, closets usually come to mind, but for most companies, the real clutter isn’t clothes. It could be old equipment gathering dust on a server shelf, forgotten in a storage room, stashed in a back office, or stacked in a corner with a note saying “we’ll deal with this later.”