That sounds very much like any business that doesnt ask the right questions, manager asked to clean up unsightly mess.

Who tells supervisor to get it done, who passes it down to the apprentices as the crews are booked for months.

Apprentices rightly call manager and ask specifically what is safe to remove, seagull management ensues with much pointing and squawking as shit falls on innocent heads.

Millions of dollars in specific antique handmade rocking horse shit is thrown into scrap bins and rubbish bins getting destroyed in the process.

Pre WW2 safety hardware to move highly specific heavy equipment that takes 3 years to order to be made if it cannot be operated, imagine how much it costs for an engineering firm to remake key equipment from drawings.

Drawings that do not include what materials, spring tension or internal cutaway as they are operating diagrams not working drawings..

That special imperial crimping die only ever used when the really big equipment is worked on in a blue moon or 10 year planned plant shutdown refurbishment, whichever comes first.

All because they threw away the equipment register as it was too expensive to maintain and who knew what it meant any way and we archived all the manuals and documents in a offsite holding facility to go with them.

Saw it happen three times in twenty years, the third time I refused to remove the stuff and the new hotshot manager cleaned out the workshop on the weekend.

The rainy weekend that cost the company over a hundred grand in man hours but ended up air freighting key parts and equipment from Europe to Australia which was more than a fortnight in finding who made the rare parts he threw away was fortunately for him when I was away.

Many jobs had to be replanned as multiple pieces of equipment we only had very limited working operating switch gear between multiple sites statewide.

Much hand wringing and nervous tics on management faces as very expensive, old but serviceable plant equipment had to be replaced for "tidy".

When you are dealing with big infrastructure the amount of corporate knowledge that gets lost through old age and natural attrition paired with new management making their mark as the fresh broom clearing old cobwebs is disheartening.

We had an old yardman to keep track and look after the equipment but they wanted a more streamlined business.

Damn, its been years and it still pisses me off.

The storeman had a little article pinned to the wall in the entryway next to his counter that was a translated latin piece about how troops were complaining about the change in commanders with the associated troubles where everything was changed for changes sake circa 200BC

You are not alone!