A lot of employers only want to put only one foot in the digital world and keep their other foot in the paper world and I don’t get it.

Maybe it’s a generational thing?

This story about a boss who wants paper despite having digital resonated with me partly because I have a passive aggressive sense of humor, but also because it’s a creative way to keep your employer happy while still keeping up with technology.

Here’s what happened.

Boss Wants Paper Reports? Sure Thing

My boss had a peculiar insistence on having all reports printed out and physically filed in a cabinet.

Despite our office having a well-established digital filing system that made accessing and storing documents a breeze, he was adamant that physical copies were the way to go.

I can imagine the eye rolling and hear the chuckles while OP does this…

I spent countless hours printing out reports, hole-punching them, and meticulously organizing them in the filing cabinet.

The cabinet quickly filled up with stacks of paper, taking up valuable office space and making it difficult to locate specific documents.

Being nice to Mother Earth has even more benefits.

Months passed, and my boss finally realized the absurdity and inefficiency of his mandate.

He sheepishly admitted that he had not considered the environmental impact or the wasted time and resources involved in his paper-pushing obsession.

Cue the victory dance! A fairy tale happy ending.

From then on, we embraced the digital filing system wholeheartedly, and I never had to hole-punch a report again.

My malicious compliance had finally paid off.

Let’s see what people had to say in the comments.

Over 40 years later! I wish I could say, “Mom, what’s paper?” But, alas…

No wonder boomers are cranky. Just kidding, although this type of thing definitely makes me irritable.

This commenter found a loophole! Not sure I’d have the nerve to do this.

Pretty much! Maybe a visual of this or a calculator of trees killed would deter this kind of thing.

Probably! This is partly why I like working with for-profit clients. They can be swayed away from doing things like this.

Moral of the story: go digital and your staff will sing to you.

Now that you’ve read that story, check out this one about a delivery driver who took a $400 grocery order back because she wasn’t given a tip.