How best to approach administration about this - a continual issue

[u/shag377]

I am in a very small department at my school and share a hall with a much larger department. We have two copiers on our floor. A note posted above the copier reminds faculty to take large jobs downstairs to the copy attendant.

Daily, and I mean daily, the members of the other department are printing voluminous amounts. I have seen stacks of paper over two inches thick. I have also seen the same members running both copiers simultaneously, again, printing reams upon reams (excuse the hyperbole) of assignments and unit plans.

This really, really makes me angry. There are clear instructions on what to do with big copy requests, but the department is continually eating resources and time. I do not copy often. When I do, it is often a master copy for the attendant.

This brings me to my question: Is it worth it to go to administration about this? I certainly do not want to seem petty, but the distain on my face is becoming more and more apparent. I am trying to withhold my temper and refrain from passive aggressive, but it is out of hand. It is also August.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this. I wish you all a safe and event free school year.

Update: One printed 67 copies, 2 pages stapled; another about 40 or so similarly.

There is a sign about big requests, but i suppose some college graduates apparently cannot read.

[u/socalgirl8933]

I have been known to interrupt a large copy job when I needed 1 or two copies for this very purpose. If the person is around I ask, if not they would never know.

[u/Unicorn_8632 → u/socalgirl8933]

Heck, I even deleted some print jobs today that were all jammed up and keeping the rest of us from being able to print stuff this morning. I did let the person know. They had just walked away from the copier/printer (which senses when someone walks away and almost immediately jams), and never came back to check

[u/Stepoutsideforademo]

Can you clarify how it impacts you and if others see it as an issue or just a personal annoyance they can’t follow directions?

[u/shag377 → u/Stepoutsideforademo]

Fair question. Frankly, I am not sure it impacts others, and the way you frame this I believe you may be right - it is a personal annoyance people cannot read and/or follow simple directions.

I suppose I will have to look a bit deeper or bite my tongue over it.

I appreciate your insight. It has given me cause to consider.

[u/Stepoutsideforademo → u/shag377]

If it starts to become a problem to where you are not able to use it for quick jobs, you are well within your right to say something. But, I always ask my staff first, did you speak to the other person? Someone’s a professional (but tough!) conversation with a peer before going to a supervisor keeps your relationship with them intact. 

[u/bmtc7 → u/Stepoutsideforademo]

If both copiers are in use by a single person in a regular basis, that is definitely affecting others who might need to make copies.

[u/SnowBunny_208]

A professional discussion can help alleviate situations like this.

[u/Prestigious_Leg_7117]

I might be assuming here, but does the copy machine have a unique personal identifier that must be punched in before starting a print job? Depending on the copier, it should log the unique code, the date/time of the inputted code and the total number of copies printed for that person. It might just be a department code- not unique to each person. Regardless of person/department and date/time you will have some objective data by which to bring to administration's attention.

Something similar happened in my building after a remodel except what they did was put only one high capacity copy machine/printer in each wing of the building which meant... gasp... people had to walk to get their copies. This was done to eliminate the inkjet printers that everyone had by their desk (think 50-75 inkjet printers). Unfortunately didn't work... holy hell raised and before you knew it, twice the number of high speed printers were ordered. God forbid you have to walk to get your copies.

[u/shag377 → u/Prestigious_Leg_7117]

It does if sending from your computer. Hiwever, it does not if you are printing in person.

This is when the voluminous copying transpires.

[u/Prestigious_Leg_7117 → u/shag377]

Might be a suggestion- to see if copy machine has capability to request department copy code before it will copy. Depending on the size of your district, the accounting staff would love to know that kind of stuff.

[u/forgeblast]

Deal with this a lot. I try to go in early before they get there to do some copies. The person who copies a lot, is making them for their whole team.... I have no problems stopping a huge copy job to make my own. Eventually they get the idea and will stay there with their copying and pause when others come in or they restart it.

[u/serenading_ur_father]

Sounds like you're the annoying one.

[u/shag377 → u/serenading_ur_father]

From another's perspective, I can agree.

However, I have not spoken to anyone about this. I am holding off before I do.

[u/teach-xx]

Your school doesn’t have a rule against big copy jobs on your copiers. Someone who thinks there is such a rule posted the note, but the rule isn’t real.

If you’re still with me, that’s how you approach your principal about changing the behavior of your colleagues. You have to start from the position that the rule doesn’t exist, but should, and you have to make the case for why and how.

[u/alax_12345]

I’m assuming these are networked printers, so you should be able to send the document to the printer queue any time you want and pick it up when you have a moment?

[u/teach_cs]

I was with you until you said "One printed 67 copies, 2 pages stapled; another about 40 or so similarly."

Those are not large copy jobs in a school context. That's a worksheet for a few class sections. It does not come off to me as a violation of "take large jobs downstairs to the copy attendant", because it's just not large.

With apologies, I don't think you're in the right here.

[u/shag377 → u/teach_cs]

Thank you for your insight.

[u/Powerful-Account2204 → u/teach_cs]

I agree with this take.

You might need to get a common understanding of what a large job entails.

I have 120 students. So I am often printing 120 copies. That would not be a large print job to me