I reported to a procrastinator, who had to sign off on all of my purchases.
So when I went to him with a critical problem that required a replacement part, he would often hesitate to sign off on it.
Critical error messages turned into corrupted databases that took days to rebuild, when it would’ve taken an hour to fix if I could have ordered the part right away.
I knew this reflected badly on me, because it was my job to keep the network running smoothly. So I started keeping a CYA (cover your ‘self’) binder.
I logged every issue and included a copy of e-mails I sent my boss telling him we had to take immediate action.
Illustrating the problem
Soon after that, a light started to blink on our mail server. I e-mailed my boss repeatedly that we needed to replace the hard drive.
When he ignore my e-mails, and the mail server crashed, the CEO was in my office asking what happened.
I showed him my binder, careful not to blame my boss directly.  It proved I knew what I was doing and just needed the power to do it.
Once I got the server up and running, the CEO gave me my own purchasing rights. Now I can take immediate action and avoid serious downtime.

Tags: crash, document, network, procrastination, purchasing, server