Clear Cutting

I hate paper. Unfortunately, in my line of work there is an awful lot of it. Although we’ve been able to cut down on just a fraction of it by the use of email, much of what we do centers around generating, copying and recording hard copies of documents relating to real estate transactions. You can’t email originals, sadly. A simple transaction in my office will generate a hard file filled with lengthy reports and title abstracts, policies, certified bank documents, tax reports and an endless stream of other nonsense. Sadly, this means there’s no avoiding the dreaded copy machine.

Now, I’m a usually pretty gadget-oriented person, but copiers and fax machines come straight from hell. The first time I saw Office Space, I had to stifle a very real cheer when they dealt that fax machine its death blow. But I need both the fax and the copier to do my job efficiently. It’s sort of a love/hate relationship. They piss me off all the time, but you’re just as likely to find me standing close to one of them, trying to sweet talk them into submission.

The amount of paper that is generated by these two machines in my office is staggering. If I generate a report (say on average about 80 pages in length), I generally have to produce at least 4 to 6 hard copies of the report to distribute to all parties. Then scan a copy (through the copier) to email to everyone, then fax a giant copy of everything to whatever f*ing moron on the list still doesn’t use email (it’s shocking). All this along with 50 pages of municipal violation searches attached to each report. You see where I’m going here….

And we keep these machines updated, new ones every year or two, but they are never fast enough. Inevitably, I spend a portion of my day (in smaller increments) standing in front of one or the other, waiting. waiting. waiting. 60 more pages. 30 more pages. 5 more pages. GOD KNOWS HOW MANY WEEKS OF LIFE I HAVE WASTED STANDING IN FRONT OF THAT DAMNED MACHINE when you add it all up over the years… I’m afraid to do the math. I kill a lot of trees every day.

It’s a travesty.

So maybe it’s just my ornery mood today, but I think this job is sucking the soul out of me.

~ by lisa on September 23, 2008.