Printing: Naming and shaming

[Little-Miss]

Who does it? Is there any comeback from it?

 

Since i orignally alerted staff to their printing, a lot of them have calmed down and put a bit more thought into it.

 

Except one, she just seems to have ignored everything ive said and she's actually my main culprit. This member of staff printed 66 pages of colour on Friday (when i wasn't here). I've given them all £3 worth of credit (but they don't know and it's not limited) because i was trying to gauge how much the need and how much they go through in a week, and after a week the majority of staff still have credit available, the member of staff in question used her entire £3 in one sitting.

 

I've removed the names from my original print out and plan to stick that on the board just to open their eyes a bit.

 

Is it my job to go around lecturing staff on their printing, or is it the role of the Phase leader perhaps?

 

Thanks

[Smee]

This is a problem I have in my school and it has been made worse since the HT decided that it was too expensive for staff to colour photocopy so they now print everything multiple times! I use printworks free edition to monitor whos printing what to where and then at the beginning of each month print out a graph showing whos printed most (how many copies, how many pages.) I also have printer credits running on the network but thats just so I can see at a glance whos taking the mickey. When I asked the most prolific printer why she didn't use the mono photocopier rather than printing out a 30 copies of the same document I was told it was too far for her to walk to the photocopier (two flights of stairs) The staff think it's me thats being tight on printing but I've been told by the HT that there will not be any more money for toner! When we do run out of toner and that will be before christmas I will be pointing them (the teachers) in his direction. he gets paid the big buckets to face the wraith of teachers who can't print! Send your teaches to the SMT/phase leaders , why should you put up with the fall out of their decisions!

[featured_spectre]

Name and shame

 

46 colour pages is mental in my opinion, and should be done on either a colour photocopier or a reprographics printer where the toner doesn't cost as much per unit of ink.

 

In my last job, I named and shamed, and it also included the MD who printer black and white pages on his colour printer, when he had access to a laser printer which worked out much cheaper. Naming and shaming brought the attention to the finance director who said he was wasting money on the printer and since rectified the issue. It does work provided your team are willing to help.

[fiza]

This is a problem I have in my school and it has been made worse since the HT decided that it was too expensive for staff to colour photocopy so they now print everything multiple times! I use printworks free edition to monitor whos printing what to where and then at the beginning of each month print out a graph showing whos printed most (how many copies, how many pages.) I also have printer credits running on the network but thats just so I can see at a glance whos taking the mickey. When I asked the most prolific printer why she didn't use the mono photocopier rather than printing out a 30 copies of the same document I was told it was too far for her to walk to the photocopier (two flights of stairs) The staff think it's me thats being tight on printing but I've been told by the HT that there will not be any more money for toner! When we do run out of toner and that will be before christmas I will be pointing them (the teachers) in his direction. he gets paid the big buckets to face the wraith of teachers who can't print! Send your teaches to the SMT/phase leaders , why should you put up with the fall out of their decisions!

 

Link to printworks? My Googlefu cant find it.

[witch]

Surely even a colour photocopier is cheaper than a colour printer?

@Little-Miss

This really ISN'T your problem. You just provide the stats to SLT or whoever wants them. Personally I would leave the names on the list you put on the board - just for information purposes.

 

Not in your remit to lecture staff about printing so you can lay that burden down straight away.

 

I know you care, we all do- I had something similar when we paid for Print Manager and I sorted out all the restrictions etc and then was told to take it all off because the staff didn't like it. I managed to rescue "not printing websites" and the children cannot print again for 2 mins to stop multi button pressing but that was all. There is now a full scale war going on between staff and the office who have been forced into buying expensive originals due to our carp printers and cannot believe how long they (dont) last.

I have set the printers to override, have a script to print in black and white as default, and there is someone in every yeargroup detailed to take the toners out and shake them once the printing gets faded. That's the best I can do so now I DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT ANY MORE. And nor should you

[elsiegee40]

I agree that this a problem for SLT.

 

After getting earache about the spend on toner, I presented the stats to our Bursar and HT.

 

One third done by one individual, a teacher

One third done by one department

One third by everyone else... Including the office

 

SLT took ownership at last and things changed. I could not have done it myself. I don't have the clout

[sparkeh]

SMT to deal with.

I print out the reports from PaperCut and the Deputy rants at staff meetings. Works for me.

[Little-Miss]

Using papercut at the moment, wondering if there's a way to email reports to certain staff of certain staff. I shall try the phase leader again, last time he just laughed. But will try SLT overall.

 

We don't have a colour photocopier....I wont go there, it's not under my control....

[Edu-IT]

Using papercut at the moment, wondering if there's a way to email reports to certain staff of certain staff. I shall try the phase leader again, last time he just laughed. But will try SLT overall.

 

We don't have a colour photocopier....I wont go there, it's not under my control....

There is indeed. It's under scheduled reporting.

[CamelMan]

In papercut you can also do a "Green" report on how many trees they have used in their printing.

 

Can sometimes help if the cost argument isnt getting through!

 

There is a built in top 10 printers report in the report sections that some schools stick up in the staff room. I just autoemail the HoD the report and let them fight it out internally.

[X-13]

I shall try the phase leader again, last time he just laughed.

 

...[censored] this guy.

 

I can see why you want to leave.

 

And to stay on-topic: We only dictate how many pages people can print per week.

 

I want to get papercut to name and shame the ones printing 30-60 pages of stuff in colour for their class [and then just leaving it by the printer for months] but nobody wants to pay for it.

[clockend25]

We're about to implement termly quotas per faculty, in the hope of getting people to take a bit of ownership and allow us to stay on budget with copy costs. Of course, the true test is the stance taken when faculties run out of budget before the end of term.

[TechSupp]

Who does it? Is there any comeback from it?

 

Since i orignally alerted staff to their printing, a lot of them have calmed down and put a bit more thought into it.

 

Except one, she just seems to have ignored everything ive said and she's actually my main culprit. This member of staff printed 66 pages of colour on Friday (when i wasn't here). I've given them all £3 worth of credit (but they don't know and it's not limited) because i was trying to gauge how much the need and how much they go through in a week, and after a week the majority of staff still have credit available, the member of staff in question used her entire £3 in one sitting.

 

I've removed the names from my original print out and plan to stick that on the board just to open their eyes a bit.

 

Is it my job to go around lecturing staff on their printing, or is it the role of the Phase leader perhaps?

 

Thanks

 

That sounds as if you are talking about my school! We dont have limits but they know I collate all the printing and name and shame on the staff notice board....of course its never them even though they have their own codes! and yes I do have one of the senior management, the worst culpit, who just shrugs her shoulders and says she doesnt care! This term with printing my budget is fast running out. I'm dreading the next bill!

[sparkeh]

the true test is the stance taken when faculties run out of budget before the end of term.

Indeed!

Currently, SMT are saying when the budget has gone, its gone.

Staff are able to check their remaining quotas any time they want and are given projections of when their quota will run out based on current usage. Couple of year groups are already falling short, but they know about it.

So yeah we'll see what happens when the quota ends

[Chris_Cook]

All our staff printing is charged to departments. Its up to them how they spend it. They get the bill at the end of each month.

 

We have moved some areas over to networked photocopiers. These can also be used to scan to a pdf that gets emailed to them.

 

As everyone else has said, its not our job to police the schools finances, thats up to SLT and the finance dept.

[Bev]

I've facing the same problem here. We print to a colour photocopier, we are charged 5p / colour sheet, 1/2p per black and white. There is currently a pile of unclaimed copying on the staffroom table that must have cost over £50 to print. Approx 2 reams of paper all in colour.

[unixman_again]

We use pcounter. Students get an initial £3 and once that is gone, they have to buy more. Staff can print what they like, although colour printers are few and far between and the most convenient way for them to print is in reprographics, where the nice ladies do it for you.

 

At my last school we used pcounter and students got £5. When that £5 was gone, they got another £5 without handing over any money. I never did the the point of having it in place, but the IT manager insisted and who was I to argue.

[Little-Miss]

Problem is we're a primary, so no real departments to bill etc. I'm doing it as a way of making staff stop and think before printing.

 

Notice how i haven't mentioned the kids? That's cus they print hardly anything!

[sted]

Problem is we're a primary, so no real departments to bill etc. I'm doing it as a way of making staff stop and think before printing.

 

Notice how i haven't mentioned the kids? That's cus they print hardly anything!

 

thats what my print stats tend so show as well. Ive done pie charts in the past when ive noticed someone is taking the michael but generally dont bother (iirc caretaker did hundreds of pages during the holidays)

[BKGarry]

We have a full safecom Pull-Print solution here, and it works great, all staff get £25 on their cards at the beginning of the academic year, which we charge 5p for A4 colour and 2p for black and white, when they run out they have to ask their budget holder for more, this gets signed on an order form to me and the budget holder can ask for a report of the member of staff usage (we had someone use £25 in the first week of term, that was swiftly rectified by the budget hold and they now send work to our lovely repo dept)

 

Safecom does stop them printing over so many copies as well, students get reset to £5 each month and only the GCSE photography students go over that and they just have to get their teacher to email for more.

 

The pull-printing stops the print that ends up at one printer and gets left there because they meant to send it to the other printer 5 meters closer to them :-)

 

Also I have just signed a contract with Ricoh to have all new devices which cost us 4p per colour side and 0.04p per mono, this with the lease (3 years operating so they take the MFDs back) and safecom has come up half the cost of what I am spending on consumables for our current 3 year old MFDs that we own.

[elsiegee40]

Problem is we're a primary, so no real departments to bill etc. I'm doing it as a way of making staff stop and think before printing.

 

Notice how i haven't mentioned the kids? That's cus they print hardly anything!

We divide our school into PreSchool, Pre-Prep (KS1 and Reception), Lower KS2 and Upper KS2 as departments. You will find that Reception print most probably, but it's nice to prove it!

 

In our school it's PreSchool now that the rogue teacher has been stopped in her tracks.

[Little-Miss]

Oh yes, foundation i'm giving a break as i know they print photos for profiles etc.

 

I was going to do it by Phases (Foundation, Yr1&Yr2, Yr3&Yr4, Yr5&Yr6). Then at least staff can either be pulled up in Phase meetings or personally if needs be, by their head of phase (also SLT).

[DSapseid]

Staff get £8 a week, KS3 get £1 a week and KS4 get £1.50 a week. 5p per a4 B/w, 10p a4 colour, 15p a3. We dont charge students who run out and in fairness hardly any do, i set it up to just to restrict the reams of cr@p they printed off. I print of a termly list off who printed most and put up in staff room with names to name and shame, i do remove the admin staff who have reason to print lots though.

[TechSupp]

There is currently a pile of unclaimed copying on the staffroom table that must have cost over £50 to print. Approx 2 reams of paper all in colour.

I know that situation very well! Looking at now changing to a state where they must walk to copier to release prints otherwise 24hrs later its auto deleted :-D

Surely for whats been printed they know tbey need to pick it up. It gots to a state now where if the printer is down for whatever reason they think I have done it intentionally to cut down on printing....as if I woukd do such a thing ;-)

[BKGarry]

I think it always important users can always delete their unwanted documents and always shown how to do it. That does make a difference, also showing them how to cancel on the printer :-)