Someone saw my reviews on my home page and asked me to review another office-related item...so I picked this one. I mean, some of these office things are really silly--but this one is somewhat relevant to places I've worked before...
RUNNING INTERFERENCE:
You don't need to put a chair facing the printer and sit there. Every office has a few characters...such as Psycho-Typer (in another post of mine--have a look)....and another of these office characters is the the person who runs document "interference." We all know who this is. I really can't pick out one gender over the other--both have done it.
The person "running interference" is the person who always has to print a document and walk all the way over to the printer and watch it come out or wait for it as it does. If the printer is ultra fast and spits out documents in lightning speed--the interference person knows exactly how to compensate--they'll just print out multiple documents one page at a time, and walk up to the printer for each one. That's a second level Waitre D--The consummate professional.
I myself am either too busy with real work, or slightly lazy. I print documents and let them just pile up on the printer...I just make a little tick mark on a piece of paper for each page I print... Then in about an hour or so, I see how many documents I printed and go get them... Someone just as lazy as myself will have left them right on the printer, put them in a loose pile next to the printer, or even done this neat trick:
They will go to the printer, see the hanging/rested documents that have been printed out by everyone...Then they fish out their documents only, paging through everyone's in the search...Then after getting theirs, they reassemble the mass pile and place it back hanging or resting in the printout area of the printer faking the virginity of freshly printed and ordered documents. What's with that technique? What raging psychopath goes through all this effort? If you know people that do this--watch them do it--it's fun. Right before they place the mass pile of documents back on the printer printout area/rack, they will quickly shift their eyes looking left and right as if to double check they "won't be caught."
Back to my printer nightmare:
So I will print out x amount of documents, and then make a tick mark on apiece of paper, and then get up and eventually get my x amount of pages I printed. However, the person running interference has a third level of stewardship... "Advanced Interference."
This is the mother of all office psychopaths when it comes to printers. They exhibit all of the behaviors and go above and beyond the call of duty to screw up your documents. Here's the scenario:
I print out several documents. I make a few tick marks. Some of those documents I will fax. The fax machine in most offices is usually near the printer if you don't have e-fax for documents. Some of my documents I may have to drop off in someone's mailbox physically for signing. Some of those documents I will drop off to the mail department, or place in another bin somewhere relatively closer to the mass printer itself. Point is, leaving my documents on or near the printer makes sense.
Here comes Interference. They print their documents out, one page at a time. They will go to the printer, stand there, watch each page print, and put each page in a pile and then do that little stack/tap thing with the paper pile so they are all in order for every page they add to the pile. (Shoot these idiots!). Then they will take alien documents (documents that aren't theirs!) off the printer as well, look at them, decide who they are for, and begin a --journey-- throughout the office playing "delivery person" and ensuring that, eventually, each person who printed something will get their documents hand delivered to them--in due time during the journey.
So what does a sap like myself (and some other people) do? We go to the printer for our documents...not knowing that the Interference person has appropriated our documents and is now on more tours than Madonna around our office passing them out... And, if you are at the printer getting your document, obviously, you are not at your desk to receive your hand delivered document by this office psycho. So eventually, he or she will take the 'undelivered" pile of printouts and put them back in a loose stack somewhere near the printer after you have already been there thinking your document (for some reason) didn't print.
But wait, there's more.
You print your documents all over again. The same thing happens. Your documents are on tour throughout the office. So you print them yet again. Because you get up over and over again, you keep missing the hand delivered documents by the person stealing them...who puts them back in a stack at the end of their tour.
Finally, at the end of the day, your boss prints something and unbelievably they always have the luck of the office psycho not being around...as they strut their way to the printer...they notice a huge pile of loose documents that have been unclaimed...several copies of each..with your name on them. The boss approaches you, hand delivers your documents, and asks you why you have printed out so many copies on the printer when you could use the copier instead. Then a comment is made on how much time you must waste with the printer in your given day.
Now it's clear.
You have to kill the person who is running interference with your documents.
Just remember when you eventually do, print out all the individual copies of their death certificate for the entire office staff on the printer.