And it's come down to this.....

[Dave1982]

Just finished week 1 of a 3 week stretch at [mom's hospital].

Thursday I had to go up and take a look at a particular copier because someone had reported that it was "stuck" on a print job, processing endlessly without actually printing anything and that this was tying the machine up.

Well, I took care of that issue (had to restart the copier) but before I left, I happened to notice that 3 of the 4 paper trays were showing empty, so I figured I'd fill them up.

Opened tray 1 and it's full of paper.....except it's on the WRONG SIDE.

Let me explain.....all the paper trays on this machine can accept paper up to 11 x 17 inches. Simply adjust the guides to fit. However, the paper feeds from the right side, so when using smaller sizes like 8.5x 11 it needs to be loaded on the right side of the drawer.

Some idiot had loaded it on the left.

There are several clues that this is wrong.

-2 of the 3 guides are on the right.

-The plate that lifts the paper up to the pick-up roller is on the right

-The fill line is on the right

-The machine will show that the tray is empty if you do this

-And last, but certainly not least, there's the fact that whoever did this had to move the left guide to do this, and then force the paper down.

I put the paper back where it belongs, then checked the other two drawers. Yep....all three had been moved.

I went back tot he copy center and lamented that the people in that department are fucking idiots, and it turns out that this has happened half a dozen times on the same machine in the past two weeks.

Friday it was slow so I pulled up a signage template and made some signs that said "STOP! Do not put paper here. Please load paper to the right -->"

The site manager gave his blessing on putting them in the trays on that machine, so I did.

And care to guess what I found when I put them in?

Yep....someone had moved the paper AGAIN!

[AmbrosiaWriter]

How can someone not realize, "Oh hey, these trays are full, but when I move it to the left, it displays at being empty!"

[TonyDonuts]

You know whoever's doing it is looking and saying, "For God's sake! Some idiot's loaded this thing on the RIGHT again! Why do they keep doing that?"

And then moving it back to the left.

And they're going to keep doing it until you catch them.

Good times.

[Jester]

Am I the only one thinking that there may be deliberate sabotage going on here? Perhaps a prankster or someone messing with their coworkers? Don't get me wrong, I am not discounting the possibility of full blown Idiocitosis. Just thinking there could be something else in play here.

[Dave1982]

That is certainly possible, but considering the general level of fucktardery I've seen displayed at this place, I'm more inclined to believe it's stupidity rather than someone pulling a prank. This is the same place that broke out the duplexing gate a brand-spanking-new copier TWICE (albeit that was an entirely different department).

[Steve_78]

I am a copier tech of 12 years and I can attest that it is common practice to load paper on the "left" side of the tray. Not with the intention of operating the machine on that paper, but to have a quick supply of refill paper for when the right side does go empty. This will allow a quick transfer of paper from the "storage" side to the "feed" side without having to open the packs (some offices have an administrator that will periodically fill the storage side so the worker bees don't have to locate/mess with packs of paper when it runs out in the middle of a job).

[fma_fanatic]

Oh Dave, haven't you learned by now? People do not read the signs. They'd much rather tell you it's broken after staring at the sign for a few seconds and realizing that their print job isn't coming out.

This is why I send out emails in the office with high importance so I can just say 'Oh, didn't you get my e-mail?' It's stopped the BS on that for a while.

[wolfie]

This is why I send out emails in the office with high importance so I can just say 'Oh, didn't you get my e-mail?' It's stopped the BS on that for a while.

If we worked in the same office, I wouldn't get your e-mail. From personal experience, the only e-mail I've encountered that was flagged as "high priority" instead of the default "normal priority" was completely irrelevant to my job (i.e. someone who was selling school fundraiser stuff on behalf of their kid, someone passing along a false internet warning that was old when Snopes first opened for business). To avoid wasting my time, I set my mail rules to auto-delete anything flagged as "high priority".

[emax4]

Maybe you need to stand by the device for a few hours and catch the idiot in the act, then bring them over to the manager and say, "THIS is the person that's screwing up with the paper and keeping productivity down.."

[EricKei]

but considering the general level of fucktardery I've seen displayed at this place, I'm more inclined to believe it's stupidity rather than someone pulling a prank. .

How does that expression go? Something like "Never ascribe to malice that which can more easily be explained by stupidity"...?

[MoonCat]

Most offices seem to have one person who knows how to handle all the machnes, and one person (or more)who is convinced they know all about the machines, but actually knows diddly. Maybe this place fired the one who actually knew how it worked (or they quit because they were tired of working with idiots).