The print room with an extra few zeros added
I don’t mind working in an open office at all. It’s only when someone has to print something. It sends my nerves into overdrive. That gentle “ping”, indicating a plethora of annoying sounds to follow. There aren’t too many people working in my office. The printer we have in central for everyone. That’s good. Don’t misunderstand me. But when the old inkjet goes “rattle rattle drum drum squeak ping brrrrrrrr wrap fzzzzz ding krakrakra bzzzzztac bzzzzztac bzzzzztac” and so on. It literally drives me up the wall.
It had to go.
The new printer is a laser one. Much nicer. It is still very audible. It sits on the same spot and does the same thing. That fells like a holiday. Just what I needed. And when someone needs to print something, which is quite often, you only hear the machine print silently in the middle of the room. A gently hum and a bit of clickedy clack when the paper gets loaded. That’s all.
Now you might think this is a good, roses and chocolates. You are a far cry from the truth. I noticed that the laser printer doesn’t shut up at all. The humming continues, all the time. At least it’s not too bad. I guess it’s something one can live with. But then it happened.
The toner was out of tones, I guess. I’m so glad I wasn’t the one who had to change it. The one who is using the last print has to change the ink, or in this case the toner. I’m not the most tech savvy person out there. It’s not hard to change a toner in a laser printer. However, this one was different. There was a lot of swearing and cursing happening at the time. Two girls were yanking at the cartridge to get it out and then all of a sudden; Wooops! The whole thing learns flying.
This is happening in slow motion. The toner over their heads and hits the ceiling. You know the sound it makes when you step on a walnut? That and then the blackness. The toner wasn’t empty. Now it is and we’re all wearing some black stuff in varying degrees. That was the exact moment when the print room was coming to be. Trust me, it didn’t take long.
Now the office is nice and quiet. no humming and rattling, no buzzing and cracking. And on top of it all, it has a health benefit. When you print a document, you have to get up and walk to the print room to get the paper. It is that sophisticated that the printer sorts out the individual prints in different trays for different persons. So you don’t have to get up after every print you do.
That system works really well. You can sense that there is a but coming. Yep, you’re right. Some goofball hit a few extra zeros at the end of a hundred odd page document. It was like WOW! The paper just kept coming. Eventually the supply ran out and we could start cleaning up the mess. Who would have known that a couple of lousy little zeros, otherwise useless for anything, could create such a mess. I wish the boss makes the same mistake in my payslip one day. That would be nice.he end
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