Paperwork is piling up on your desk and in your draws; it’s old and unneeded but you haven’t gotten around to throwing it out yet. The recycling bin is overflowing with complete pages containing information – sensitive and otherwise. But no one seems to be shredding anything, at all. And from your desk, you realise that you don’t think you’ve ever seen a shredder.
So why is shredding your documents so important?
Picture The Wolf of Wall Street. Jordan, wearing a wire, talks to Donnie while they share a meal together. Jordan slips Donnie a note that says: “Don’t incriminate yourself, I’m wearing a wire.” Donnie falters but manages to not say anything that would cause an issue later on or get him arrested. But what happens to the note?
Well, if you’ve seen the film, you’ll know that Jordan is addressed the next morning, and the agents that pick him up have the note in-hand. Obviously, this implies that Donnie threw Jordan under the bus and snitched. This situation could have been avoided if Jordan had remembered to take the note away from Donnie and shred or burn it.
1997, The Devil’s Advocate. “You got a problem with documents? Put together one of your late-night shredding sessions.” We see a lot of Hollywood films and popular, modern TV shows that take place in the business industry – many of the more dramatic ones include scenes where someone is shredding something late at night. They do it quickly and quietly but are almost always caught.
If we move away from Hollywood movies for a moment and look at a couple of TV series that include shredding scenes, the first that may come to mind is Better Call Saul, which included a shredding scene in the second teaser trailer of a few fake licenses and a Police Report being shredded. Suits is another great example of why shredding your documents is important – given that there are entire episodes dedicated to why having a paper trail can be bad for business.
Of course, this is a little dramatized, because otherwise it wouldn’t make good TV! But on the other side of the TV screen, real businesses have paper trails. They have documents for their employees, invoices for clients, personal information tucked into draws, and company records stored on-site. When an employee can’t find a particular file, do they not panic when they realise it’s gone missing? Some documents can be replaced, but the ones that go missing are concerning, to say the least.
No matter the type of document, one thing is clear: Shred it. Not shredding your documents can lead to the downfall of you and/or your business. Documents always contain sensitive information; everything from photocopies of licenses to signed contracts. If one is lost or thrown away without being properly disposed of, it can lead to a lot of issues. The best thing to do is shred every document that you or your company are finished with. Keep a record of what is shredded, and how it is disposed of afterwards.
At Hungry Shredder, we work with business owners just like yours, helping them avoid these shredding scandals and possible problems. Businesses big and small have been caught out by forgetting to shred sensitive information – some have lost their customer’s data and had to close, and others have revealed criminal activity. Whatever your reasons, the message is clear – shred it, don’t store it. For more information, just get in touch with us today.
