# Your workplace - how difficult is it to get a copy made? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859 "2024-09-06T14:36:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2024, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/41 "2024-09-08T12:32:53Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Some years ago my location installed badge readers on all of the printers. Unclaimed print jobs was part of the reason. The other problem? Confidentiality. People would print out confidential, or even secret, information, and leave it lying in the printer. If you want your printout, you have to go to the printer and scan your badge. Yes, my large corporation not only wanted to know which department to bill, but also, the bagging in was a convenient way to keep private documents private. For a small corporation it’s probably not worth tracking printing/copying costs. But for a large one like the one i worked at, it’s probably cheaper to install software that does it in a way everyone agrees is fair than have all the departments bicker over how much they are being billed. (Or even to have a few departments bicker. Manager time is expensive.) Swiping you badge against the machine is not very onerous for the employee. And it doesn’t prevent employees from copying the occasional d&d map, but it probably does dissuade employees from making 500 copies of the flyer for their boy scout troop’s sale, or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/42 "2024-09-08T12:37:27Z")
Engineer in a midsize (~ 140 people) German engineering firm here. I am lucky in that respect - can copy and print to my heart’s content. For the occasional confidential material I send the print job as a password protected job, i.e. I send it off, Windows-L for security reasons, walk to the printer, select print job, select my queue, input password, collect printed output. That is very rarely necessary but of course HR people do that all the time For other jobs I send the print jobs non-password protected, but for delayed printing (i.e. walk to copier and press print). That practice cuts down on uncollected printouts. Of course nowadays actual copying is on the way out. I mostly print out documents, circuit diagrams, P&I diagrams for the purpose of checking things off, than when finished with the project put everything in the one way flap of the shredder bin. As a back of the envelope estimate I print out one A4 page per ~2k € project turnover going over my desk, so the expense is moderate. All our ancillary departments (IT, housekeeping, administration, HR, accounting, front desk etc.) are very helpful and prompt not least because the owner is an engineer, the developer of the first product, and takes care that everything is done to keep engineering and production running. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/43 "2024-09-08T17:30:13Z")
It depends on how I went about it. A copy of a work document (paper to paper) I might be willing to do on my home printer, so that’s fairly easy. I refuse to connect that printer to my work computer, though, so I wouldn’t be able to _print_ from it. Just a general policy I have to avoid using personal devices for business use. There’s a printer provided for me in my company’s courtesy office at our client’s building. I could go there and copy/print to my heart’s content, only I’ve never bothered to connect it and probably would need IT and some drivers and nonsense to get it working. I don’t know, the issue hasn’t come up, but it’s fairly easy other than the 25 minute drive each way. I probably could bring that printer home to use if I really needed to. I think I can send a print job to a printer in our corporate office pretty easily. I haven’t tried, so I don’t know if a password is required. The printers do show up as available on my computer. Collecting that print job, or making a copy, however, would be extremely difficult, as that office is a 24-hour drive away from me…one way. The need also hasn’t come up. My job is paperless, in the sense that we never print anything anymore, but we still fill out forms as if the internet and databases and technology hasn’t improved since 1982. We email fax cover sheets to each other to get “permission” to email things to other people. It’s incredibly dumb, but it’s saving trees? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2024, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/44 "2024-09-08T19:58:07Z")
Back in the days before laser printers, my school got in a tizzy over our monthly copy bill. At the urging of one particular teacher (Carl), they assigned everybody pass codes so they could track the biggest users. At the end of the first month, the largest user by far was…Carl. We had, of course, acquired his pass code and were all using it for our own stuff. That was the end of that little experiment. The principal was smart enough to realize that there was no way they could keep the codes secret, so they just asked us all to keep it under control. If they’d done that the first time we wouldn’t have had to nuke Carl! ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2024, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/45 "2024-09-08T20:03:51Z")
I have a little printer/copier gizmo right there on my desk, within arm’s reach. I can print copies all day long, although I have to be diligent about keeping anything with confidential client info on it in shred pile rather than in the trash. The only real complication in this system is that, until a few weeks ago, the administrator’s secretary treated copy paper like it was made of gold and would hand you a few dozen pages on written request. So everybody just started buying their own until suddenly the admin’s secretary ordered several boxes and now we’re good to go. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2024, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/46 "2024-09-08T23:35:13Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Wow, bizarre. College professor here, and not only can I go make copies to my heart’s content on the department copier whenever I want (though I do have to “log in” with my institutional ID card, so the system does know which “account” the copies are for)… Same here, but it’s a long code (two 10-digit numbers) that needs to be input immediately. I made so many copies on the day before I started teaching that I committed it to memory. Partially just to be a dork, but it turned out I’ve used that code hundreds of times. I’ve been retired for years, and still remember it. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/47 "2024-09-09T22:16:14Z")
The control of printers, and charging to what/whom, is a bit over the top but it gives somebody a job. Making how much? Unless you have somebody printing flyers for their second business, or secret documents. It’s a total waste IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/48 "2024-09-14T09:11:10Z")
In my workplace, it depends. If you want a copy for personal use, or as backup material for a report, you just head for the nearest copier. If the copy needs to be given to purchasing, production, or quality, you have to fill out a Print Request form, which goes to the document control department. This form lists who the document is from, who it’s going to, the document number(s) and title(s), document revision numbers, and whether the issued document is replacing one already issued. Document control handles the actual copying in those cases, and also stamps the documents before handing them to the recipient. > [@filmore](#): > > I’m not suggesting this as a perfect solution, but there are apps you can get on your phone which do a pretty good job of making a copy. The Acrobat app works surprisingly well; I use it when I need to copy a page in a fragile or very large book. The app is linked to my Adobe account, so the scans show up quickly on my computer. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859/49 "2024-09-14T11:42:12Z")
Current job is a small private school and the copiers just work by pushing the button. Same as the previous school, except they had a log book that was supposed to be filled out. I never did. That school had an expensive laminator we teachers weren’t permitted to touch, and required divine intervention to have something done. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-workplace-how-difficult-is-it-to-get-a-copy-made/1006859.md?page=2)