You can always install a private copy of a modern perl, one that isn't 12 decades old

I agree. If this is a business/corporate environment, you should probably start a push to upgrade perl. I'm sure there are numerous bug fixes, reliability increases, performance enhancements, not to mention the added functionality of being able to use CPAN modules. Plus, its free! (Managers usually like that!)

Of course before you go through that, make sure that any existing perl code will work in the new version, especially if its production-quality code. If you have a test/development environment, try it there first, etc.

Hope that helps.