Cynical Technology

[Miss Demeanour]

We have just had new printers installed throughout the section. Had no input into this obviously a corporate decision and as ever they have just suddenly arrived and then an email sent around detailing how to use them.

The basic principles are that you have a n individual pin code . Which is used when you go to the copier / printer to retrieve your paperwork etc. No new concept there. However each time you enter your pin code it tells you the cost of the action and the source of the information  

I have just received a log of this weeks print actions for my team ( I had no idea this was part of the deal  ) .

I assume I am meant to assess if there is excessive use by any individuals ...FFS we are taking about a penny a printed piece of paper...or if they are using it for personal use etc.

I have simply glanced over it and then put into the confidential waste ....I have no intention of becoming  a printer monitor  

[Uncle Mort]

Get a job in the private sector - you don't seem to have the correct attitude for local government.

[tel]

The data will be assessed centrally and turned into wonderful charts that will be the catalyst for even more time -wasting meetings and probably the generation of more administration positions.

[Miss Demeanour]

What a crock of sh1te 

[tel]

Oh yes.

Generally no-one bothers to look at the situation/problem from the right starting position.

I did an exercise once, to check what users were doing with all the paper reports we produced. I found one guy who was carefully storing a 500 page (music paper) stock report every month - he only looked at the summary figures on the last page. The reports were kept for 2 years.
When I asked him why he was doing it, he replied that it was was the previous post-holder had done. I told him that I would modify the programme and job control to only print the last page - he seemed to think that I was doing him out of a job! He complained to his boss and I had to explain my actions - his boss agreed with me.
After that, some users were very wary when I went round asking questions.
2 years later I got rid of 90% of printed reports and replaced them with disk based copies that they could view over the net.
6 years later the company migrated to SAP and we producing more printed reports than ever before - progress? 

[Barman]

I used to work for a company that had a mahoosive Hewlett-Packard line printer to produce reports and listings from the software developers on fanfold paper...

It was so noisy it was situated out of the way in a store room... next to the shredder...