If the holidays (or the end of a calendar-based fiscal year) may bring a new computer to your office, you will face the question of what to do with the old one. That question includes many subquestions, ranging from recycling (it's probably illegal to just throw it in the trash) to repurposing or donating.
But if it's leaving the office, you'll want to be reasonably sure that no one else can pull any data from its hard drive that might include client secrets or privileged information or that might allow identity theft. One option is physical destruction of the hard drive: melting, shooting, acid baths, and so on. But short of that, you could use a liveCD with a copy of "shred." Even a few passes should provide a reasonable comfort level. There are other ways to do essentially the same thing. But do use one of them (or have your tech support do it).
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