# Today's Little Irony

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 9, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271 "2012-03-09T14:55:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271/1 "2012-03-09T14:55:23Z")

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Someone printed a large, fancy presentation on the color printer in my office yesterday. But over the course of yesterday and this morning, I’ve asked every single person with access to the printer if it was theirs, and no one claimed it. No one knows who printed it or why.

The irony: the topic of the presentation is “Situational Awareness in the Workplace,” exhorting people to know what their co-workers are doing at all times.

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271/2 "2012-03-09T16:58:50Z")

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Please tell me this is all an elaborate prank pulled by a bored co-worker … 🙂

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271/3 "2012-03-09T17:27:28Z")

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> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> … No one knows who printed it or why.
> 
> The irony: the topic of the presentation is “Situational Awareness in the Workplace,” exhorting people to know what their co-workers are doing at all times.

I have a hunch you’ve answered your own question here, though Dopers would need more, well, situational awareness to fully connect the dots. 🆒

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**Author:** ![PacifistPorcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PacifistPorcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PacifistPorcupine)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271/4 "2012-03-09T17:32:27Z")

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Why would you want to know what your coworkers are doing at all times? Do you work with backstabbing assassins?

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**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271/5 "2012-03-09T18:54:46Z")

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> [@PacifistPorcupine](#):
>
> Why would you want to know what your coworkers are doing at all times? Do you work with backstabbing assassins?

Does it matter which direction someone is facing if stabbed by an assassin?

To the OP: Is this a networked printer? Some models keep track of who submitted each job, usually in some kind of status menu.

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/todays-little-irony/615271/6 "2012-03-10T20:34:28Z")

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> [@PacifistPorcupine](#):
>
> Why would you want to know what your coworkers are doing at all times? Do you work with backstabbing assassins?

Government nuclear safety agency. We don’t do anything hazardous in the office, but presumably this was written for workers at the sites, where your co-workers’ lack of attention can pose a very real danger. People walking into improperly marked radioactive areas, people using forklifts to move _occupied_ portable toilets (that one was pretty funny), people occasionally [etting fire to nuclear warheads](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14199790&highlight=nuclear+weapon#post14199790%22s).

> [@Lare](#):
>
> To the OP: Is this a networked printer? Some models keep track of who submitted each job, usually in some kind of status menu.

Yeah it’s networked. Not sure it’s worth tracking down the originator, though, since it’s likely to be a VIP who’s already forgotten about it (and it’s not sound strategy to try and “pin something” on a VIP).