When our company started using Outlook for email back in 1996, everybody thought it would be the biggest timesaver there was. Even though the company was quite archaic, we were taking our first steps in crossing the Digital Divide. People were hesitant to use it at first, IT people played up the advantages of becoming a Paperless Society. Email was supposed to make paper go away; there would be not mre stacks of correspondance to shuffle through and clutter up our desks - just emails to send, read and delete. In a perfect world, that's how it would/should be. Not at our company. People here do read and respond to their emails, but they also print them out. But not only do thy print them out, they leave the printed copies at the printer and never pick them up.
You can go to the printer that I use any time of the day and find a stack of printed emails a quarter inch thick in the tray beside the printer. Scattered among the printed emails are countless recipes, Mapquest directions and online coupons that someone just HAD to print out, and yet never picked them up. You're probably thinking "Dang, Puddin. Don't be so hardcore - maybe they picked them up after you were at the printer." Au contraire. The majority of the printed emails et al are usually a week old. I thought this was an isolated incident that only occurred on the printer that I use, but after consulting with a few co-workers here, the problem is wide-spread.
There is a bright side to all of this waste, however. Whenever you go to the printer and look in the tray for your printout, on occasion you will stumble across some top secret information that [once again] someone printed out but forgot to pick up. You can find some very interesting inside information this way. Before you condemn me once again, for the record let me say that it's not like I go to the printer with the intent of just looking through the tray for confidential information; usually, my printouts somehow get put on the bottom of the stack. I could print something, immediately get up from my desk and walk down the hall to get my printout, and in the 60 seconds that has lapsed, someone else has already taken my printout and stuck in the tray with a dozen other printouts on top of it. I should feel lucky, though. At least we have a trayby the printer I use; the other printers down here don't have that luxury. On one of the printers in our engineering department, some one takes the printouts and lays them all out on an empty desk.
4 comments:
It's the same way at my company. That's why I go in there every once in a while and just toss the pile. Sure it will make a few people mad, but if it was really important, they would have either picked up the printout already or else they would still have it on their computer. The excercise might do them some good too. So in a way, I'm doing them a favor.
I find it ironic that e-mail was intended to reduce the amount of paper we print out. However, with the liberal use of the "reply to all" feature on Outlook, I end up getting even more messages that require a printed copy just in case my work PC crashes which has frequently happened in the past. Unless one archives on a daily basis, the precious folders that housed voluminous amounts of mail and attached documentation is lost forever. I miss the days when manually typing up the traditional memo with the To/From/Date/Subject header was the protocol and hanging files were meticulously maintained. Replies meant serious business that required a return copy or at least a telephone call in order to render a legitimate response. And don't get me going with the animated e-mail holiday/birthday/prayer cards that are sent that require one to log in to the vendor to view it. I am traditional in the sense that I still physically handwrite thank you, birthday and Christmas cards in attempt to save what little cursive handwriting I have left since I pretty much stayed glued to the PC. I was amazed a few weeks ago when taking a mid term exam at how laborious it was to write the essay answers. But obviously, as we progress to faster and more efficient ways of computing, the mountains of paper will continue to grow. I feel sorry for our distribution center clerk that has to haul a pallet (where's my spell check) every three days to accomodate our printing demands.
Come on Puddin...tell us some of the top secret stuff!!!!
And thank you Michael, for still hand writing thank you notes and letters. What a lost art! I so appreciate getting a heartfelt handwritten note!
I apologize - I've had quite a few social engagements this week and I was remiss in commenting on your comments. Here goes:
To answer SGordon's question, let me just say two words: corporate acquisitions. We do come across a few "sensitive" documents, but the most interesting confidential things left on the printer are people's resumes. Yes, current employees' resumes.
To comment on Michael's comment, let me give you props and say that I've kept every card and picture you've sent me in the 20+ years we've known each other. There's alot to be said for keeping things like that - when I'm bummed out about something, I know I can always go to the Comedy File and get a laugh. Especially when I look at the picture of the politician's wife with no teeth. BTW, do they still use the old-school "blue books" for essay questions on exams?
To comment on Biotat's comment - I wish you worked here with us so you could clean up some of the printer clutter.
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