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Y'all, I have to share my husband's work drama.
So, 3 days ago Josh (hubs) gets a request for help with a scanner/printer/fax setup. The person is a supervisor who has to upload some paperwork for new employees, so they wanted to use the scanner to scan it in, but it's not working. Now this just happens to be one of those weird coincidences where to two people in this office who would usually take care of this are out of office, so Josh says, NO worries, here's an app everyone else uses, you download it on your phone, take pictures and then it automatically uploads. The supervisor refuses to download the app, insisting that they have a scanner and they want to use that. Josh goes on to spend about 6 hours over several days troubleshooting this and basically comes to the conclusion that either the company that sold them the printer/scanner combo has some sort of override code only they know, and you can only get if you have their very expensive maintenance plan or it's just simply out of date with the current technology, and will probably never work. He lets them know this, and suggests a couple work around. The next day his boss asks, What is this about the scanner, they are complaining you didn't fix the issue. He explains and the boss says, Okay, you're probably right, but I'll take a look. The boss spends several hours, and comes to the same conclusions as Josh. This morning they both end up in a Slack group with the equipment allocation person and another supervisor talking about this damn printer, asking why no one is fixing this problem. They explain, but now these other two people think they also need to take a crack at this problem. So, it's been 4 days, and 4 well paid professionals have spent probably 12 hours collectively on a non-problem, because someone doesn't want to download an app. I asked Josh how much money they've spent in work hours, and he said he was afraid to calculate it.
@RickiTarr Your husband and my wife work for the same boss in different jobs in different places.
@WarnerCrocker His boss is actually pretty nice, it's just one of those time waster things where no one wants to believe what the other people are saying. People just don't think of time as value, for some reason.
@RickiTarr All the time. 
@RickiTarr @WarnerCrocker Which is FUCKING WILD since time is the only thing that's essentially irreplaceable, thus the only thing that has any real value...
@RickiTarr
So who do I bill now for the time spent reading this thread.
@RickiTarr @WarnerCrocker
Sometimes a good boss shouldn't waste political capital managing up to protect his flock and just has to ask his peeps to endure the inanity. This too shall pass.
@virtuous_sloth @WarnerCrocker Josh just said his boss told everyone he wasn't going to spend anymore time on this, and that Josh was right the first time, so at least there's that lol
@RickiTarr @virtuous_sloth @WarnerCrocker I set these devices up at work - we have 3 which *look* identical but are subtly different.
One one of them you have to use a nowadays outdated method of connecting to a local network - it will *not* work any other way even if you have the admin codes and follow the instructions, the suppliers have never been able to fix it (probably needs site visit and firmware update). We are changing to another device later in the year anyway..
@vfrmedia @virtuous_sloth @WarnerCrocker That sounds suspiciously similar, thanks
@RickiTarr @virtuous_sloth @WarnerCrocker Thafs a nice boss. -Lily&
@RickiTarr@beige.party @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social I think it's more, some people just don't think of other people's time as value.
@RickiTarr Or they could've bought a new scanner, if they want to use a scanner.
@jillL Or a cheap cellphone connected wifi for like $50, but it's way better to spend like 1k in people's time.
@RickiTarr There's a type of manager who loves mucking people about and/or setting people up to fail so they can complain about them.
@RickiTarr @jillL The thing is, it's not just the cost of the time. It's also the impact of the delay of higher priority projects that they could be working on.
@RickiTarr Would people be using their personal phones to scan the documents? Does the phone app meet company security standards? Those would be my main security concerns with the app, but if the documents *have* to be scanned, and the scanner can't be fixed, then I guess that's the only option.
@Cassiopeia12727 Yeah, I think it's a personal phone issue which I do get, but he suggested several other options, and they were ignored.
why wouldn't they simply take a photo with their phone and send the pic to their work email? you don't need an app.
also, if they have an mfd and scan2email/fileshare has been paywalled, then drop them like a stone and go with a solution that meets your business needs
bizarre 
@RickiTarr This is exactly whyil I don't want to go back to work in an office again.
@RickiTarr 100% enough to buy a brand new scanner 
@etherdiver @RickiTarr Never mind a new scanner, they could have hired a scribe to make a copy by hand on an illuminated medieval manuscript
@satsuma @etherdiver Hubs said he is so tempted to put this in the slack now lol
@RickiTarr@beige.party I've been there.
@RickiTarr The problem here is everyone who hears about this trouble can't believe that it's as difficult as it is. They think the last person who worked on it must be dense rather than the truth that companies sell hardware that doesn't work.
@kyleha Amd it's why so many people are on constant tech debt
@RickiTarr
use patented DOGE approach to pb solving: fire all the new employees.
No documents needed, ergo no scanner.
go and brag about all the savings u made
@Monsieur_Lepetit Perfect plan lol
@RickiTarr sadly I don't think this is uncommon. Where I work, we needed to buy a drill. Cost about $250. By the time the request was done with reviews and questions and a few levels of management, that drill cost at least 3 grand. Probably more.
You... Uh... You don't work for the Air Force do you? That all sounds familiar.
@joninalbany Yes exactly this! I get the supervisor not wanting to put an app on a personal phone, I really do, but somehow it snowballed a $50 problem into probably 1k of working hours.
@RickiTarr last time i ran into an issue like that the stupid thing wouldn't scan because it was out of INK.
just dumb
@RickiTarr Well, I won't download work apps to my personal phone either, but I see your point. ;)
@mfennvt I do get that part, it just has snowballed into a thing it doesn't need to be.
@RickiTarr Most definitely. The refusing to download the app part is just one tiny bit of this mess. Ignorant people not believing the non-ignorant. Kind of a present-day metaphor.
I am sooooo happy to be retired! I can deal just fine with the consequences of my own actions and decisions. 
@Uair I think that I’d be miffed if my whiskers were disheveled like rootcat’s
@Uair @RickiTarr what's a baby if not a "deliverable"?
OMG you just gave me terror flashbacks to 2010-2016. Needy spoiled executives refusing to listen to experts is exactly what you see. I almost had to fire a seasoned sr network engineer, because he told the CEOs wife he couldn’t fix her personal laptop. He was at the house installing a firewall.
This type of stuff happens _all_ the _time_.
So, so, so, so much times wasted.
The person didn't want a solution they wanted their way.
No way you'll convince me the faxee isn't a feckless human being.
@401matthall Hubs has been trying to move people away from outdated and less secure technology, but it's an uphill battle sometimes.
See... I get into trouble in these situations because I get autisticly honest.
I will and have said to full meetings of people, "Do we want our way or do we want to _solve_ a problem? I have solutions, you're rejecting them. I'm not inclined to work _hard_ to solve the problem the way you want when we have alternatives."
You'd think I'd get fired more often but I don't and I don't know why.
@401matthall I can identify with this, big time.
@RickiTarr hopefully there isn’t a problem when the client gets billed those hours! Brother (printer manufacturer) recently released a software update that detects 3rd party ink/toner cartridges and refuses to print if detected. It’s the first time they’ve done that and it’s sad.
@algae_disco Nah this is inner company drama lol
@RickiTarr * IN MY BONES * I feel this.
Or.
Just go buy a printer with a scanner. About $100 or so.
(OH. I see I'm late to this party 
!)
@Ultraverified BUT THEY HAVE ONE LOL
@RickiTarr Hmm … I don’t suppose the stuff that needed scanning was entirely printed out from an email, except for a signature?
@RickiTarr
As an oldie, Ricki, I am continually impressed by how effectively IT bottlenecks -- like printers -- can claw back the time savings promised by the digital world.
Is it the result of enshittification, or simply flawed systems that over-promise and under-deliver -- like Ai?
Or is the combination of complexity and greed-without-limit a recipe for societal collapse.
I'm pretty sure all the vanished civilizations of the past went through a time like ours, in which the forces that destroyed them were active but overlooked or ignored by those in power.
@RickiTarr See also "work refuses to pay for both scanner software and warehouse management software so ya boy turns back his system clock which causes massive problems with the sales ledger being used in place of the latter to provide a workaround for the former, wasting hours of two accountants' time in the process".
@RickiTarr Sounds like every IT job I’ve ever done LOL. BLESS YOU JOSH, I would never do that job ever again.
@RickiTarr
To be fair to the person that doesn't want to download the app:
If my employer does not provide me with a phone to use exclusively for work, I am highly unlikely to download an app on my PERSONAL PHONE to accomplish something that my employer needs done. It opens up too many cans of privacy worms.
If the supervisor's employer has supplied the phone, then the supervisor is a doofus. Otherwise, I am going to take the supervisor's side here.
@shansterable Yeah I do get that, other options were given, but for some reason this person really wants to use the scanner no one has needed to use in 3 years.