I have a printer just down the hall from my office at work that I share with about two dozen other folks in my group. Although there is no written protocol for using this printer, there is most certainly a tacit understanding for picking up print-outs from this device. It is actually amazingly simple. You print your job out, you walk over and pick it up, and then you get the heck back to work. If there is someone's print-out already in the output tray, you sort through the stack to make sure that you get your print-out, and you put the rest neatly back in the tray. However, what I find is one of three things. 1). My print-out is nowhere to be seen, even though I clearly heard the printer warm-up and go through its motions just after I hit the "send" button. This typically means some chunky bar with raisins either carelessly took my print-out along with his and didn't bother to bring it back or they figured what I was working on was more interesting than their own drivel. Curiously, I have even found some of my missing print-outs sitting in the recycle bin just next to the printer. I guess that I really didn't need them after all. Thanks Bazooka Joe for doing the heavy thinkin' when I was clearly not capable. 2). When I arrive at the printer, the output pages of several jobs are spread all over the place almost like a cool, refreshing, category-5 tropical storm washed over the machine just before I arrived. 3). Sometimes I walk out to the printer to find a co-worker poring over my print-out like it is a copy of the National Enquirer with a riveting "news" story about a three-headed alien baby. When they see me approach, they then sheepishly hand me my print-out or pretend like they weren't doing what we all know they were doing. People who don't know the proper etiquette for usage of a public printer really grind my gears.
