Printer Out of Paper

Photo credit: online pic, garbage can shows how much paper we waste. 

The office printer is lonely these days because of e-mail attachments, and technology such as Cloud. There is nobody waiting in line to use it.

Well! It depends where you work. Some offices are still paper based. For example, courts and lawyers need copies of evidence and other kinds of documents.

Real estate contracts must be signed before houses can legally pass from sellers to buyers. Government wants you to sign on the dotted line before they give you money for being laid off.

The office printer might be lonely because it is not churning out documents but, what it misses the most is human drama. Workers used to huddle around it and gossip about the boss, his haircut, kids and wife. They also consoled each other about not getting the promotion or retrenchment.

What the printer doesn’t miss is the push pull about replacing paper. In some offices, secretaries have that special job of pulling the paper tray and refill it. In most offices, it’s workers themselves that do it.

Some individuals think that it is beneath their wonderful selves to replace printer paper. They believe it is not in their job description. Vanity rules certain workers who don’t want to break a nail while pulling the empty paper tray. Other workers simply pretend they don’t know how to do it.

The printer might be a machine, but it is devious like humans. It simply runs out of toner. Let’s see who can replace it. Workers don’t care. They send documents electronically.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.