New printer prints upside down
Posted by roger_ramjett@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 92 comments
So have a long time user that was just issued a new printer.
This person is older and set in their ways. They know how to do their one job and refuses to adapt to changes in work process, new or updated applications, etc.
They have a printer setup on the right side of their desk that they print to all day long. They print out something, reach over and staple it to something else, then they drop it into a basket where it is collected several times per day.
So after I setup the printer and made sure that it was working correctly I got a call from this user that there was a problem with the new printer.
I went over to her desk and had her print out one of the forms and it printed perfectly. After talking for awhile I discovered that the new printer would outfeed the printed page top first, while the old printer did the outfeed bottom first.
Apparently she had a pattern where she took the page out of the outfeed tray and stapled it to some other page that she had stacked to the left of her computer.
Since the page printed out in a different orientation she would have to remember to flip the page over before stapling the pages together and the change was disrupting her work flow.
Perrydiculous@reddit
Try turning the paper the other way around 🤡
mixduptransistor@reddit
I don't think AI is going to take over every white collar job in the economy
But these people, they are absolutely going to get chewed up by what's coming
japanfrog@reddit
We have printers that can staple for you. Doesn’t even likely need AI to automate this persons job away.
willwork4pii@reddit
There won’t even be a need to print with A.I.
Kat-but-SFW@reddit
The AI will print it out for the LLM to read with computer vision, and you will support it and be happy.
willwork4pii@reddit
butterbot.gif
1d0m1n4t3@reddit
Sharp has a staple option, boxing option, and at one point an option to drop the box into a little wheeled cart that you got two of so you kept one in the machine and used the other to transport your prints.Â
Bright_Arm8782@reddit
That one would have been chewed up by a printer with an integrated stapler.
CharacterUse@reddit
You have no idea what the sheets she's stapling the printed sheet to are. They might not even be printed (for example hand filled in forms, yes, still a thing). They might be things which came in from outside (letters, order forms, invoices, whatever) and weren't printed locally. A lot of things are still done on physical paper.
usernamedottxt@reddit
We had a printer that could staple packages together 20 years ago. Didn’t need AI at all.Â
wrosecrans@reddit
Sure, but stapling without AI doesn't result in the economy being a stock pump and dump scam. What's the value in that?
If the stapler is AI, they can sell you a monthly subscription service that requires a rack of GPU's and a half terabyte of RAM per staple.
DeepWader@reddit
40 yeard ago at least
chameleonsEverywhere@reddit
I dunno man, I would've thought the rise of automation and computers and Google would also be the end for employees like this. Yet here we are.
scoldog@reddit
In this corner, we have Dave!
willwork4pii@reddit
I for one welcome our new computer overlords (for these and so many others)
Grrl_geek@reddit
We can hope!! As an IT person, I SMFH and walk away ... because, what else CAN you do?? Government job?
Recent_Perspective53@reddit
Was the ticket properly submitted
syntaxerror53@reddit
Submitted upside down, back to front, left to right, back flip, somersault, feel dizzy, having a lie down. /s
hosalabad@reddit
Make the output go to the destination electronically and get rid of them.
rankinrez@reddit
You monster
SiIverwolf@reddit
Sounds like a HR problem.
Alternatively; if it's actually a business grade printer, the driver should have some pretty deep printing defaults you can configure. Hopefully one of them will let you automatically flip the printout to how they want it.
Bonus points if you're actually deploying the print driver from a print server so user can't fubar the settings by getting clever.
poizone68@reddit
This is why you don't use Australian printers in the northern hemisphere
Apprehensive_Bat_980@reddit
Toilet flushes the other way around too
wazza_the_rockdog@reddit
The myth is that the water spins the other way around, but truth is when you press the flush button it shoots the water and everything in the toilet at the roof. Quite inconvenient, but we adapt.
SaltCusp@reddit
Best reply.
fnordhole@reddit
Damned straight. It's a violation of the standards of THE INTERNATIONAL PRINTING COMMISSION.
Stonewalled9999@reddit
Is it the Coriolis effect?
PAXICHEN@reddit
Damn it. I wanted to shitpost this!
listastih20@reddit
It sounds ridiculous until you remember that a lot of repetitive work becomes muscle memory. So since a tiny change that happened to break her process she is reacting in that way. One of the most annoying parts of productivity is that even small friction can suddenly make a task feel way harder. Sometimes the fix is finding a way to preserve the flow they already have.
Vastant@reddit
To be fair, if she has been doing that for years then that's just pure muscle memory, which I can appreciate. Depending on printer and software, I would have just flipped the orientation for her.
Natural-Educator8314@reddit
100%. Just sort this out for them. Will take minutes and then it's resolved and workflow is back to normal. The role is making sure IT allows the least amount of friction for the ones actually making the money
GameTheory27@reddit
Shh, they don’t want to actually help
SlapcoFudd@reddit
or hear about soft skills
mikeblas@reddit
Yeah. The OP doesn't have much empathy
machacker89@reddit
You just can't fix stupid. I'm so sorry you have to put up with dumb users
vermyx@reddit
Edit the printer preferences and rotate the page 180? I don't see an issue here...
Sintobus@reddit
Lazy worker who places blame for disrupted habit on others. Flipping the page to the correct orientation or even having the pages she staples to in the other orientation would solve the issue.
It's a lazy user and not a tech problem.
VolansLP@reddit
I get what you're saying but I disagree. Yes, flipping a page is minor on its own but these small frustrations add up.
If there's a fix that takes a minute and eliminates a recurring annoyance forever, why wouldn't you do it?
Making someone manually compensate for a solvable problem every single time they print is just unnecessary friction. Good IT is about removing those small speed bumps for users.
nycola@reddit
Why would they have to set that every time they print when it's saved to preferences or defaults?
nuker1110@reddit
“Manually compensating” in this case is rotating the page so it’s stapled correctly, vs. muscle memory.
Sintobus@reddit
Im not saying don't attempt a fix. However if between the printer that was bought (possibly not approved of by IT) cannot accomplish that change. It's on the user and the department that bought the printer after verifying that. It is a minior annoyance but only because it was an ingrained habit, habits can be changed
IdiosyncraticBond@reddit
Printer was issued to her and installed by IT, so clearly there must be a ticket and change order /s
Valuable_Leopard_799@reddit
Honestly, keybinds exist exactly because people have uncanny levels of muscle memory and scream whenever a single key is moved because their workflow is disrupted.
If somebody came over and said "I've been used to the paper coming out this way and been stapling automatically without thinking about it, could you please flip it in the settings", it would sound like a reasonable request.
FireLucid@reddit
I just got a new laptop and the FN and Ctrl keys are switched :'(
CatProgrammer@reddit
Fuck the Copilot key for replacing Right Ctrl too. I actually use it, dammit!
pdp10@reddit
XKCD 1172.
CatProgrammer@reddit
Except the reenable option does in fact exist in this scenario.
Sintobus@reddit
If its possible sure, I am bot saying be lazy IT in turn. That would be the pot calling the kettle black for sure.
I'm saying if for example the department or company got their own new printer and it lacked functionality to meet the user needs even with configuration. Then it's on the user and the company and a very much wash your hands of the problem at that point.
dubya98@reddit
Not really. If it's an easy and possible to fix their issue then it's 100% part of ITs job to help people with these kinds of things. She doesn't even know it CAN be flipped around, these people need help.
xixi2@reddit
Ok so what was the fix?
CountGeoffrey@reddit
instruct them to use their left hand instead of right hand, to grab the printout. the crossover will naturally encourage flipping the output.
FarmboyJustice@reddit
This is not an IT issue or a technology issue and it's not a problem with intelligence. It's a problem with a worker who developed procedural memory for performing a task, and someone broke that procedure by changing the printer.
People who develop fast habits for getting their work done rely extensively on procedural memory. Any change which causes the procedural memory to have to be re-learned in a different configuration is absolutely going to reduce the worker's efficiency until they develop new memories. This is ancient stuff, it existed long before computers, and it's well documented.
If you have ever sat in a chair, you've used procedural memory. This is why the whole "pulling the chair out from under you" prank works.
countsachot@reddit
How the hell is this a humans job in 2026. Just fucking put me out of my misery. I'm done.
countsachot@reddit
Can't she rotate the other thing?
countsachot@reddit
Some drivers let you flip or rotate.
BoltActionRifleman@reddit
I get the part where it might be hard to change muscle memory, but doesn’t the fact that it prints top first actually save her from having to rotate the paper, which would save time?
ad3ncrash@reddit
Might be double sided printing in the printer settings, that can change the direction single sided prints come out.
Firestorm83@reddit
Forward to manager for wasting company resources: paper and IT time
cptNarnia@reddit
Just turn the printer around
bk2947@reddit
I really dislike IT tickets that take hours and are to resolve a single extra button click per day.
mnvoronin@reddit
Depends.
https://xkcd.com/1205/
Grrl_geek@reddit
Fabulous!! ❤️❤️
DeadStockWalking@reddit
"They print out something, reach over and staple it to something else, then they drop it into a basket where it is collected several times per day."
I would automate her job out of existence for telling me her printer was printing upside down.
cloverdung@reddit
Did they put the paper in the printer upside down?
Frothyleet@reddit
Solution: present management with opex costs of printer with integrated stapling module vs user's compensation
mnvoronin@reddit
They're stapling it to something else that is not coming out of the printer.
Frothyleet@reddit
Solution: print that thing at the same time ;)
mnvoronin@reddit
It can come from another department, or bear an approval signature, or really hundred other reasons where it can't be.
Frothyleet@reddit
Look, I can keep coming up with outlandish solutions, or we can just sit back and enjoy the thought of automating away an obtuse co-worker.
The choice is yours
Niq22@reddit
Yea. Totally read the title as "the new printer is flipped on its head and prints upside down." My interest was piqued when I began reading the context and I just HAD to keep reading to discover why a tenured employee had been printing upside-down for years!
kagato87@reddit
Before I saw what sub this was my first thought was "yea, cool, huh?"
Many 3D printers work fine upside down.
nayhem_jr@reddit
Can’t say I’ve heard of any printers that work that way.
kagato87@reddit
I've seen it. It's a design decision and is sometimes related to how the duplexer is set up.
Very unusual though. People expect their prints to come out "head first." That printer must have been really old...
On the up shot, there should be a setting somewhere for that. I know there used to be.
IZEN_R@reddit
Turn the printer 180°
Bagel-luigi@reddit
Flip the printer
LiberContrarion@reddit
Do we mount it to the ceiling, a drop from the ceiling, or just put it toes up on the desk?
sneakattaxk@reddit
need to swap out the USB cable for a parallel cable those had some good holding power to hand the machine by the cord from the ceiling
LiberContrarion@reddit
Do I need Facilities to contribute the muscle needed to jam it in there?
Gnump@reddit
I know the face up/face down issue (ink jet vs. laser) but what printer does put out the paper bottom first?
yahuei@reddit
Leave the printer in place and flip all her stuff 180 degrees.
RansomStark78@reddit
Why staple by hand?
Pin this post to the top pls
Shittysys ad man
mtnfreek@reddit
Awesome
PURRING_SILENCER@reddit
Resolution to problem.
Adam_Kearn@reddit
You should be able to change this on the printers WEB UI interface or if it’s just a basic USB printer then the preferences option within windows
CharcoalGreyWolf@reddit
Set her printer to print double sided with documents that only say “Please Turn Over”on each side
ProfessionalSea6268@reddit
My first reaction was to say, just rotate the paper 180 degrees when it comes out
The_referred_to@reddit
Or before it goes in /s
YellowOnline@reddit
I thought this was r/shittysysadmin for a sec
Randalldeflagg@reddit
This post caused me some PTSD from my MSP days. Similar issue as OPs user. New enterprise printer, yet, only the office manager was having issues. Same issue really. So I created a unique printer profile just for them and it would assign by GPO so no one else had to try and figure out the problem later. I do not miss that job
dracotrapnet@reddit
Confusing, checking your lingo.
Header, footer, face, back.
You're talking the old printer printed footer first face down page 1 through 6, 6 ends up on top? New printer header first face down page 1 through 6, 6 ends up on top?
There is likely a 180 orientation option around or in orientation settings (landscape/portrait) in the printer driver that can be set in driver preferences.
Nick85er@reddit
You likely purchased the wrong region's model with or without the Australian printhead. Common mistake.
FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit
I do read that you say "she", but I'm afraid my mental image is entirely an older man with a moustache and a large red stapler.