Posted on 05/19/2018 8:13:46 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
Do you still print stuff out? If so, you're undoubtedly like most of us who, at least periodically, still need to print out a hard copy of some digital document – whether for archiving, legality, to put into a cookbook, or whatever.
Yet we've been promised for years that all of us using computers would mean that all those beautiful trees could be saved, presumably so we can hug them and live in them in the green paradise envisioned by some.
What happened?
Reality happened. And because of that, at least in part, our forest workers can still feed their families, logging truck drivers can send their kids to school, newspapers can still pump out their fake crap (though they do seem to be putting themselves out of business slowly anyway…).
Not only is the paperless office not here yet, it doesn't look as if it's coming any closer either. According to a survey by Fedex, which I discovered thanks to a press release from an organization that calls itself Two Sides (www.twosidesna.com), consumers and small business owners still prefer print, a result Two Sides says mirrors a consumer survey they and Toluna mounted last year.
"In April 2018, FedEx Office released the results of a survey of consumers and small business owners about their preferences and purchasing habits regarding professional printing services," Two Sides said in their release. "The survey, conducted by polling firm PSB, shows that consumers and small business owners prefer to use printed materials over digital."
"Well, duh," I imagine hearing many of you say. This is why you can still buy print books in the age of Kindles and you still see newspaper boxes on street corners (at least for now!).
And it isn't just that people still prefer print for consuming news and...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
I run a law practice and a couple of businesses. I am paperless. I can work from anywhere. Granted, the fact that I have no employees makes this easier.
More and more I have gone paperless at home.
It is much easier to file and find files, rather than documents.
Most of my bills — cable, utilities, etc. — are paperless. Payments register almost instantaneously. [My local Post Office has a history of losing mail.]
User manuals are easy to find and read in PDF format.
Just remember to back things up! If it is worth keeping, it is worth backing up.
I actually print out, maybe, 2 to 3 pages a month.
The paperless office was going to be done with telecommuting.
Like I said at the beginning. The only way you’re going to have a Paperless Office, is to have a Printerless Office, and not until.
Back in the day some bright soul whose name I forget now said, “We will have the paperless office the day after we have the paperless bathroom.”
Things disappear on the Internet. I print documentation when I write.
Heh. Telecommuting. Still waiting for that one to arrive. The idea that middle managers would support their employees doing something that makes middle managers irrelevant is ... about like expecting Congress to vote for term limits.
And then there’s the Edifice Complex. CEOs just *love* to have big shiny buildings with the corporate name in lights on the front, and once you’ve got that building, well, fat chance you’re going to let your serfs *not* work in it. Let’s fill those cubes, people! Look busy!
Which is why they guy behind “The Cloud” is laughing all the way to the bank. That and “mold remediation”. A sucker born every minute? This is the US of A! Another bumper crop.
Most of my co-irkers would cease to exist if there was a printerless office.
They live for some piece of paper. We’re doing away with small standalone printers as they die. It’s a start.
I despise printers to no end. My spouse has to have printed copies of darned near everything that sit forever.
I print something, it’s for someone else needing a signature.
What you have sounds so pleasant.
People call me up and whine about anything regarding a printer.
“Decades into the digital age, the paperless office still eludes humanity”
i knew the minute that B&W xerographic copy machines morphed into inexpensive office/personal printers, that office paper would explode instead of being eliminated ...
‘Cause lawyers...
Back in the mid 1990’s, United Parcel Service made the decision to go paperless. Deliveries, records, employee info, etc., because technology, go green. Today the use of paper there has exceeded 20 fold that of the 90’s. Go figure.
I confess, I like paper copies of some things. A former boss of mine printed out relevant emails so that they couldn’t be lost or denied at a future date. CYA is Job One.
I work in a law office, the printer I use is never cooled down. Every document I create must be hard copied. In accounting, it’s almost all paper, and a lot of that is handwritten (checks, receipts, etc.) Several decades of paperwork are in the storage rooms.
And I can’t fault the system. I have more backup files than a squirrel has nuts, for each personal computer I’ve ever owned — but I still make hard copies of anything I wouldn’t want to lose.
A bunch of trees gave their lives so we could buy a house.
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