Imagine working in a building where you have to dispose of something that can be really messy, but different people in positions of authority give you different directions about how to dispose of it. Following one person’s orders results in another person telling you that you messed up. How would you handle this situation?

In this story, one person had to deal with this exact issue when trying to dispose of toner. Keep reading to see how he handled it.

Changing the building’s tone(r)

I work IT support for an engineering consulting company. As much as we like to believe we are heading towards a paperless world, this place proves that pretty incorrect.

With all the printers around here being used to print stuff just so people can mark it up manually I dont see this industry going paperless any time this century.

All these printers however leads to a lot of printer problems.

One printer is especially annoying.

One of these problems is waste toner.

Sadly even our fanciest plotter or printer doesnt use every bit of what we put into it and as such produces waste.

One of these printers waste collection is… dumb. Just plain dumb. Its a single, large reservoir that has four entrance holes, one for each colour of toner. When you take the collection container out, you need to carefully seal those holes by pulling back the foam around the seal and closing it up.

In theory, quite simple. In practice it can be annoying.

A well-meaning guy created a huge mess.

So the other day I have a user show up at my desk with a box. This well meaning guy brought the waste toner to my desk with a big smile expecting a thank you.

Except, I see what can only be described as a clown vomit gunpowder trail leading behind him from the box he’s carrying.

I practically jump out of seat to get him to hold it correctly for a moment while I scramble to get a box that wont leak and hold the toner.

Mission accomplished, further spills contained, and I grumble as I have to slowly vacuum up this huge mess.

Time to dispose of the box.

Of course, this presents a problem: what the heck to do with this box?

Thankfully, our building provides ‘e-waste bins’ in the loading bay that we can dump this stuff into. Perfect.

I load up a cart with this box and several other old toner containers (from better manufacturer printers) and head on down.

These bins were damn near full, so I set everything in them at the top, do a quick check to make sure its good, and head upstairs.

But the problem wasn’t actually solved.

Not good though.

We get an email 15mins after Im finished and it gets forwarded to me. It basically reads ‘Can’t put cardboard in the e-waste bins, and they’re quite full. Come fix this.’

So with a sigh I get out of my seat and head down.

Why this hasn’t been an issue before? I dont know.

He really doesn’t like the loading bay manager.

I get the dude who runs the place normally to talk me through what he wants.

Now, I’ve never liked this guy. He seems like the kind of guy who’d be hanging around outside of a club skeeving on girls well below his own age. He’s got a haircut and faded beard resembling Drake, and wears the same sort of attitude as well.

Only problem, he’s not a world superstar in his home city, hes a loading bay manager who just happens to be in Toronto.

He gives me the run down. ‘Ya bro’ gets said about 10 times in the first 2 minutes.

He tries to explain the importance of the box with the toner in it.

I explain to him ok, I can take the excess cardboard around some of the containers and toss it into the compactor, but under no circumstances am I putting the box practically soaked in waste toner in the air.

If you dont know, toner is a very, very fine powder that aggressively sticks to whatever it touches. Its so fine, the vacuum I had to use earlier has an air filter on it to keep that stuff from getting in the air so it doesnt enter your lungs.

Toner is nasty stuff.

The manager was a little bit easier to deal with.

He wanders off to get his manager, who I relay the same information to.

Thankfully his response doesn’t include the word bro every few words, but I get told ‘Ok, just empty the toner into the bin, and put whatever boxes you can into the compactor.’

Now, I do this. Im tired of dealing with what hasnt been an issue in the past and do as he says.

The two of them watch me carefully pour the toner out of the box into the larger e-waste bin, covering the stuff below it and mainly the other toner cartridges I put in there.

But the problem still isn’t over!

With the good cardboard tossed into the compactor I head back up.

For another 15min of peace before yet another email comes in.

This email effectively read ‘You made a mess with toner, we are charging you to clean it up. Toner also does not go in these bins, that is a separate toner, we are charging you.’

I’m mad.

This time, it’s OP’s turn to say “bro.”

I get this email through our HR who communicates with building management.

I did everything they asked, and they still want to annoy us?

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This guard has always given me annoying vibes, and Ive even had contractors coming up through the loading back to remodel the office comment on him.

And he wants to try and stick this on me? Nah, bro.

HR had OP’s back.

I fire an email back to HR, detailing the encounter. I tell them what I did to start, the previous email we got, and how under direction from the dock manager and direct supervision they watched me do this with no complaint. How I was never informed that this wasn’t correct, and there would be a charge for these things.

I sit and stew for 20mins. It’s hard to focus and do work in this time as Im real upset about this.

Thankfully, HR had been working in the meantime. I get a response from them, a forward from the building, issuing an apology and that they were dropping the charges, and included a copy of their policy on e-waste.

While minor in the grand scheme, being able to stick it to them and that one guard in particular felt great.

I don’t think Ill be heading down there any time soon.

How frustrating! Everyone in the building needs to be on the same page about how to handle disposing of toner. This hassle is such a waste of time!

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a grocery store employee who is fed up after months of going above and beyond for no monetary return.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person guesses about which printer this is.

Another person wants to know what printer it is.

This person can picture the loading dock guy.

Another person offers a suggestion and a warning.

Talk about an annoying day at work!