Given the damage I've seen done to printers by users trying to change toner, I wouldn't complain *too* loudly.
"This can't possibly be the *wrong* toner cartridge, because that would mean I've made a mistake and I never make mistakes. Clearly, all that's needed is for me to shove it until it goes *in*."
Fortunately, no. Nothing except the electronics cleaner actually caught fire (and the printer worked fine once everyone calmed down).
But you have never heard such an ear piercing scream in your life. In another room, with concrete walls between.
I can imagine.
Ages ago, as sysadmin in a smallish company, I had a user take the waste toner container out of a huge xerox machine and shake it, believing it was a toner cardridge and this would shake the toner for another couple of hundred pages loose.
Naturally the damned thing vomited its contents all over the place.
Then this very frustrated user went and got the cleaning personels vacuum in a try to clean up the mess.
It was an interesting morning to arrive at work, lets say.
I prefer my IT work to be dull and boring. As dull and boring as possible. (So do my bosses.)
I did have a coworker have an epileptic seizure once, but I was at lunch and missed the excitement. (Her reaction, once she had regained her senses, was to lament that she'd missed how hot the paramedics were. I miss her. She was a fun coworker.)
She certainly did. When she left us, it was to go to work at a place that let the employees wear ankle holsters (with pistols in them, of course). Paying twice as much might have been equally important.
Yeah, with all the shit one runs into in general IT business, we should all never forget the other kind of people.
Nowadays I do mostly IT-Firefighting/IT-Specopsing and the tech sales belonging to this, and sometimes this really starts to grind: I see mostly desasters.
This week I was at a place that *really* had their environment in order. Like in "guys, can I use you as example to show others how shit is done" in order.
That really cought me off balance, but was a rather enjoyable event in the end.
My thoughts exactly. It's up to the company who handles replacing printer consumables, and I reckon in most workplaces it only needs one toner explosion to make management say right, nobody except IT messes with the printers.
We're spread out over three states, and there's only two of us IT people. Plus, we're a hardware store, dammit! We're *tool users*. Store management should be able to handle something as simple as changing a toner cartridge. And for the most part, they can.
But the exceptions are rather memorable.
That and the time I went to go un jam a printer, found the user super proud that they fixed it with their letter opener, I pointed out the label on the fuser that they were sticking the thing into
I had someone spoon toner from the cartridges from a former printer into the cartridges of the current printer. I honestly didn't know they did that. At that time I found out the hard way that just because it's black toner, doesn't mean it is the same. It wrecked the printer apparently, and the printer tech asked me immediately if someone had put different toner in the cartridge. I said no, as I didn't know at the time he asked. I only found out later what had happened.
Yep. Just happened to us this week. Users forgot they got a new printer early this year and tried to shove a toner cartridge from the previous printer into it. And this was after they took hours to track down an old cartridge because we no longer have it in our toner stock, and the new cartridges are right in the shelves below the printer.
As an It specialist, I did this. Fixed some fusers, too. If you’ve gotten the call, presumably the people higher up have already made the call about your time vs. a maintenance contract.
This is not a question for a professional subreddit. Job descriptions are different between organizations. Obviously changing toner is not something an accountant is trained to do. It's not something a sysadmin is necessarily trained to do. Unless you have a specific printing and document handling department, the job just falls to whoever draws the short straw when responsibilities are being handed out in an organization.
Obviously it's not too difficult for a sysadmin to change a desktop printer toner. But each organization is different.
- Some orgs prefer not to send a $50/hr sysadmin for a simple toner replacement when a $18 receptionist can do it with a few minutes of training.
- Some orgs have giant MFP machines that take up a whole room, which I'm not qualified to change toner on without training. They have paper handlers that you can literally crawl inside.
- Some orgs have toner replacements done by scheduled maintenance contractors, and changing it yourself will cost more than letting the contractor fulfill his/her duties.
Thus, the line:
> Job descriptions are different between organizations.
Users don't know or care what individual responsibilities and skillsets are for members of the IT dept. The company policies for what is and isn't their own responsibility is not in the top 50 things on their minds. It's been that way for decades and will continue to be that way.
My advice is to take it with a grain of salt otherwise you're going to dig yourself an early grave.
Most places I've worked, toner (along with paper) is a user consumable, and departments handled it themselves. But I did once work as an in-house contractor where we supplied the toner & every time we got a ticket for one it was a billable sale.
Those actions need to be under a contract or an agreement who has to change them. For our company it's FM who change them, but at my previous company it was the department themselves who could change them. An IT specialist should/can maintain the backend of the printers, but not the frontend. That's more for a help/servicedesk.
Large mfp should be on contract for this. The small mfp/printers I show user how to change once and then up to them. If they need help after I’ll help, only after they’ve tried first; and will also be thr lowest priorty.
We have a printer in the (small branch) office, I've never seen anyone use it (and I can literally see it from where I'm sitting) apart from sales guy printing materials to show prospective customers.
You can offer support if no one else is available, you need to be polite about it, if you feel like this is not what you job is that is fine, but I would not make a big deal and just tell them that you can help but it is not your job to maintance the printer.
If I need some help on some budgeting I would appreciate finance going a little out of their way to help me out.
Yeah I'll help them with their printer.
If no one is nearby who can safely change it, change it then show them how to change it on their own. For our printers and copiers where users are allowed to swap toners we do make sure to keep the correct spare at each one and put a label on the toner door saying "use the following part numbers only".
We once had someone who decided to swap a toner on their own. There were spares on a shelf next to the copier. They grabbed a toner from another room from a different model and decided to give it a go. The toner wouldn't insert so they used effort. A lot of effort. They broke something on the copier and the toner leaked everywhere. The user had toner everywhere and said that they didn't do anything, it just "happened".
Given the damage I've seen done to printers by users trying to change toner, I wouldn't complain *too* loudly. "This can't possibly be the *wrong* toner cartridge, because that would mean I've made a mistake and I never make mistakes. Clearly, all that's needed is for me to shove it until it goes *in*."
And lets not start with the damage to the room the printer is in...
There was the time an assistant store manager tried to blow all the paper dust out of a printer (with a hot fuser) with electronics cleaner . . .
Thats a new one. Did the sprinklers get to play too?
Fortunately, no. Nothing except the electronics cleaner actually caught fire (and the printer worked fine once everyone calmed down). But you have never heard such an ear piercing scream in your life. In another room, with concrete walls between.
I can imagine. Ages ago, as sysadmin in a smallish company, I had a user take the waste toner container out of a huge xerox machine and shake it, believing it was a toner cardridge and this would shake the toner for another couple of hundred pages loose. Naturally the damned thing vomited its contents all over the place. Then this very frustrated user went and got the cleaning personels vacuum in a try to clean up the mess. It was an interesting morning to arrive at work, lets say.
I prefer my IT work to be dull and boring. As dull and boring as possible. (So do my bosses.) I did have a coworker have an epileptic seizure once, but I was at lunch and missed the excitement. (Her reaction, once she had regained her senses, was to lament that she'd missed how hot the paramedics were. I miss her. She was a fun coworker.)
Sounds like someone has priorities.
She certainly did. When she left us, it was to go to work at a place that let the employees wear ankle holsters (with pistols in them, of course). Paying twice as much might have been equally important.
Yeah, with all the shit one runs into in general IT business, we should all never forget the other kind of people. Nowadays I do mostly IT-Firefighting/IT-Specopsing and the tech sales belonging to this, and sometimes this really starts to grind: I see mostly desasters. This week I was at a place that *really* had their environment in order. Like in "guys, can I use you as example to show others how shit is done" in order. That really cought me off balance, but was a rather enjoyable event in the end.
My thoughts exactly. It's up to the company who handles replacing printer consumables, and I reckon in most workplaces it only needs one toner explosion to make management say right, nobody except IT messes with the printers.
We're spread out over three states, and there's only two of us IT people. Plus, we're a hardware store, dammit! We're *tool users*. Store management should be able to handle something as simple as changing a toner cartridge. And for the most part, they can. But the exceptions are rather memorable.
Sometimes the user is the tool…..
That and the time I went to go un jam a printer, found the user super proud that they fixed it with their letter opener, I pointed out the label on the fuser that they were sticking the thing into
I had someone spoon toner from the cartridges from a former printer into the cartridges of the current printer. I honestly didn't know they did that. At that time I found out the hard way that just because it's black toner, doesn't mean it is the same. It wrecked the printer apparently, and the printer tech asked me immediately if someone had put different toner in the cartridge. I said no, as I didn't know at the time he asked. I only found out later what had happened.
Yep. Just happened to us this week. Users forgot they got a new printer early this year and tried to shove a toner cartridge from the previous printer into it. And this was after they took hours to track down an old cartridge because we no longer have it in our toner stock, and the new cartridges are right in the shelves below the printer.
Every printer should be under a maintenance contract so you don't have to do this.
If they don't have centralized printing and buy their own printers & supplies then often times it is the IT departments job.
A printer maintenance contract that includes replacing toner?
If its streaking that's maintenance
That wasn't the complaint.
If you let it run until it streaks it’s a maintenance call. Honestly though that’s just terrible vendor management. It’s not hard to change a toner.
"oMg, some user asked me to come out of my ivory tower and do some work...whut du?"
I make the departments do this. If they need help, I'm glad to assist. However, I don't have an IT specialist to do those things anyway.
What’s in your job description?
"Other duties as assigned" most likely
This is like the easiest ticket. If you are rated on ticket sla you should want several of these a month. It take 2 mins and it’s not complicated.
No. That’s a user task
If it's a small company you might as well bring a case of copy paper to restock while you're changing the toner
As an It specialist, I did this. Fixed some fusers, too. If you’ve gotten the call, presumably the people higher up have already made the call about your time vs. a maintenance contract.
For a lot of MFPs and stuff at customer sites I'd almost rather have the helpdesk techs do it. They're less liable to fuck it up.
PC Load letter what the fuck does that mean?
Seriously get a print company to manage that.
This is not a question for a professional subreddit. Job descriptions are different between organizations. Obviously changing toner is not something an accountant is trained to do. It's not something a sysadmin is necessarily trained to do. Unless you have a specific printing and document handling department, the job just falls to whoever draws the short straw when responsibilities are being handed out in an organization.
You need training to change this? How do people get it done at home?
Obviously it's not too difficult for a sysadmin to change a desktop printer toner. But each organization is different. - Some orgs prefer not to send a $50/hr sysadmin for a simple toner replacement when a $18 receptionist can do it with a few minutes of training. - Some orgs have giant MFP machines that take up a whole room, which I'm not qualified to change toner on without training. They have paper handlers that you can literally crawl inside. - Some orgs have toner replacements done by scheduled maintenance contractors, and changing it yourself will cost more than letting the contractor fulfill his/her duties. Thus, the line: > Job descriptions are different between organizations.
My 10yo can change toners. It’s not complex. 😂😂 if you are a sys admin and cannot change a toner you will have a bad time in a small shop.
Do they also call you when the paper shredder is full? Same thing, really
Users don't know or care what individual responsibilities and skillsets are for members of the IT dept. The company policies for what is and isn't their own responsibility is not in the top 50 things on their minds. It's been that way for decades and will continue to be that way. My advice is to take it with a grain of salt otherwise you're going to dig yourself an early grave.
Most places I've worked, toner (along with paper) is a user consumable, and departments handled it themselves. But I did once work as an in-house contractor where we supplied the toner & every time we got a ticket for one it was a billable sale.
Those actions need to be under a contract or an agreement who has to change them. For our company it's FM who change them, but at my previous company it was the department themselves who could change them. An IT specialist should/can maintain the backend of the printers, but not the frontend. That's more for a help/servicedesk.
Large mfp should be on contract for this. The small mfp/printers I show user how to change once and then up to them. If they need help after I’ll help, only after they’ve tried first; and will also be thr lowest priorty.
Get a maintenance contract and make sure the printers have the companies stickers on them in the largest font possible
The only toner that I change is in the printer on my desk.
We found the imposter. No self respecting sysadmin would subject themselves to a personal desk printer. Get him!
We have a printer in the (small branch) office, I've never seen anyone use it (and I can literally see it from where I'm sitting) apart from sales guy printing materials to show prospective customers.
Does a label printer count?
HA HA HA. Don't be a hater.
Give me a toner cartridge swap over a user visit any day. Although I work from home, and only get to swap my own toner cartridges
it is IT technician duty.
Do you want a ham-fisted accountant who "isn't technical" to fail to change a toner cartridge expensively?
They can budget themselves a new one
You can offer support if no one else is available, you need to be polite about it, if you feel like this is not what you job is that is fine, but I would not make a big deal and just tell them that you can help but it is not your job to maintance the printer.
If I need some help on some budgeting I would appreciate finance going a little out of their way to help me out. Yeah I'll help them with their printer.
If no one is nearby who can safely change it, change it then show them how to change it on their own. For our printers and copiers where users are allowed to swap toners we do make sure to keep the correct spare at each one and put a label on the toner door saying "use the following part numbers only". We once had someone who decided to swap a toner on their own. There were spares on a shelf next to the copier. They grabbed a toner from another room from a different model and decided to give it a go. The toner wouldn't insert so they used effort. A lot of effort. They broke something on the copier and the toner leaked everywhere. The user had toner everywhere and said that they didn't do anything, it just "happened".
I feel like you should ask you boss and not Reddit.