OHW Rewind: Not Again... who jammed the copier?!!

“Boop, boop, boop,” goes the sound of the copier. I could hear its cries from 15 cubicle aisles away. I could also hear the culprit getting out of dodge before anyone noticed that they stuck a stapled packet of paper into the feed tray.

It has become a pet peeve of mine to see the copier left in the state of dysfunction. And out of 300 people on the floor, I always end up getting rid of the jam and walking away without a thank you. As a matter of fact, people would wait in line and ask me if I’m finished fixing it yet. Ungrateful S.O.B’s.

Well I decided to walk in the direction of the copier, once again. Once I got to the copier, I shifted into my Jack Bauer mode. It’s not enough that I fix the jam; I look for clues as to who may have jammed it as well. I took a look at the control panel and saw that every letter was lit. Damn, the mother load…

I opened up the front panel, pull down the side panels and got to twisting the knobs in the direction instructed. I found one piece of crinkled paper after another. There were six pieces of paper; four of them covered in inky evidence. I closed up the panels and the jam was still present. I checked the copier one more time. There weren’t any jams left, so I reset the copier and everything was cool.

It was a fairly easy procedure. Anybody could have fixed it. So whoever walked away didn’t want to get their hands dirty or be caught fixing a copier (thanks). I looked at the documents and saw the initials RM – Rebeka “Becky” McCormick, the office’s Angelina Jolie. Rebeka adopted three children abroad; she can’t seem to stop bragging about her children’s nanny or her pool boy Juan. She’s “happily married” and yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if Juan is cleaning out more than the pool-- everyday I might add.

With another mystery solved, I placed the crinkled paper in her inbox and walked back to my desk. And as soon as I sat down, “boop, boop, boop!” I’m not getting paid enough for this ****.

So what are some of your office pet peeves? Do you have any copier stories to tell?