Office managers, breathe a sigh of relief… It looks like Snapchat and Tinder have rung the death knell for naughty office antics with the office photocopier!
In recent years, rumours abounded of party revellers sneaking off from the bash to hop onboard the nearest copier, so they could plaster (thankfully) grainy black and white images of their nether regions around the building to spark a ‘whose is it’ who-dunnit.
Sobering reality must have dawned the next day. Facing unemployment for such juvenile defilement of company property must be the worst post-Christmas party hangover of all.
But in 2018, who needs a photocopier when there are apps at your disposal? SOME people send images of their intimates all the time on Tinder. It’s become old-hat.
Though copier specialists SoluTech are none too sure the whole thing wasn’t just an urban myth anyway……………….
“In all the nearly 18 years we have been in business we have never heard of a customer’s photocopier being misused by Christmas party pranksters for such antics,” says the team at SoluTech, who are suppliers of photocopiers, scanners and printers for offices and businesses in Hull, East Yorkshire and beyond. “They and their staff are far too respectable for such things.”
But the Hull-based company, which has been providing a full range of machines, plus print management, maintenance and support solutions to businesses across the UK since 2001, does want to issue some wise words of caution to companies about other common forms of ‘photocopier abuse’…
Don’t get physical
Copiers are often subjected to kicks and thumps. We must remind you of the obvious; taking out your frustration on an inanimate object – which has not run out of paper or toner from sheer spite – will not make anything any better. But it could very easily make your copying machine a whole lot worse.
We know what is beneath that nondescript grey casing; it’s complex, it’s technical and it’s not designed to withstand a booting from a Size Nine. On more occasions than we can count, our trained service people get called out to fix a problem caused by a human, not the machine’s design or error.
Don’t get too personal
From the MD to the admin apprentice, who hasn’t used the office copier for personal reasons from time to time?
At this time of year, the copier gets even more hammer. It’s so easy to forward to the printer that Nigella turkey recipe you’ve just found on the internet, the Christmas wish list you need to print out and leave casually lying around in your partner’s eye-line, and the 35 New Year’s Eve party invites you’ve designed in your lunchbreak. We’ve all done it.
We simply don’t see there’s anything wrong with that because copiers and printers are such amazingly handy devices, and we are all so used to them whirring away in the background,” says SoluTech MD Alex Burgess, who has decades of experience in the industry. “The thinking is; what harm is a few more sheets of paper going to do? “Bosses turn a blind eye because it seems churlish to do otherwise. But there are downsides.”
Extra costs
Personal use of office equipment by staff increases business costs. In a small firm, the additional use of paper and colour printing ink doesn’t cost much. But the bigger the company’s staff levels, the higher that additional cost is going to be.
Data risks
The bigger problem, though, is the potential for data security issues. Have you ever scanned your passport or driving licence, or even your CV?
The obvious risk that most people would identify here is of forgetting to remove that important identity document from the scanner, or inadvertently leaving a copy behind in the printing tray. They could so easily fall into the wrong hands and you could become a victim of identity fraud. But there’s another very important reason why you shouldn’t copy important or sensitive documents at work – even if you have permission to use the machine for personal reasons.
Did you know that many machines contain hard drives that record what the machine prints and scans? Your personal data will be captured there. Which means it can be accessed at some point in the future. Crucially, what happens when the company decides to get rid of a photocopier that either no longer fits their requirements, or is past its prime?
It could be sold on to another company or sent to the tip – with a capture of your passport, birth certificate (and your favourite Nigella recipe) still locked inside it. Not to mention reams of the company’s confidential data.
How SoluTech can help
Join the many SMEs and larger businesses across the UK who put their trust in SoluTech.
To avoid copier mis-use and potential data issues, SoluTech recommends the latest multi-functional devices which can authenticate users. The user is identified when they log onto the system, and they have certain rights attached to their profile.
SoluTech also specialise in approved-used machines – which, of course, are safely wiped of data by experts. If you want to get rid of an old copier, the SoluTech team will arrange for the safe wiping and disposal of your old machines and advise on the latest technology to suit your requirements taking important details such as GDPR compliance in to account.
We can offer a FREE office machine audit, to pinpoint your needs and suggest an end to end solution for you. Contact SoluTech today 01482 846746 or email sales@wearesolutech.co.uk
SoluTech – Photocopiers for business
