Blog by Marco Technologies:
Stairs to nowhere.
A door that’s 2’ above the ground.
A stair railing that makes it impossible to use the fire extinguisher.
A driveway with a telephone pole in the middle of it.
On paper, it probably made sense. In reality, it’s an obvious, and often hilarious, fail.
You see this kind of thing more often than you’d expect, not just in architecture, by the way, but inside offices. Especially when it comes to printers.
So in this newsletter, we’re going to walk you through how to think smarter about printing devices, starting with the biggest printer fail we see.
Placing Printers at Random
Most businesses don’t think much about printer placement. It ends up wherever there’s space — shoved in a corner, under a sunny or drafty window, at the opposite end of the building from the teams that need to print most often.
But printers aren’t just “plug-and-play” devices. They’re precision machines that are often part of key workflows. And when they’re placed in the wrong environment, the impact shows up fast:
- More service calls
- Lower print quality
- Shorter equipment lifespan
- Constant frustration and “workarounds” for users
It’s not always the printer. It’s where — and how — it’s being used.
Putting Printers on the Floor
Oof.
Would you put your laptop on the ground, even for one day? Well, there you go.
Printers are also sophisticated, expensive bits of machinery, but in a lot of offices, there’s not much thought about putting them right in the path of the vacuum cleaner.
You’ll get better performance and longer life when printers are placed on a stable surface at a comfortable working height. When they’re on the floor, they’re exposed to more dust, debris, and foot traffic — all of which increase the likelihood of jams, wear and tear, and breakdowns.
If you truly don’t have another option, here’s what we’d recommend:
- Raised platforms
- More frequent cleaning
- Keeping distance from walkways
Okay, Smarty, So Where Should a Printer Go?
It’s less about finding an empty corner and more about designing for how people actually work.
Here’s what an ideal printer environment looks like:
- It’s free of dust and debris
- The climate is electronics-friendly (65–75°F with 40–60% humidity)
- Food, sticky hands, and loose materials aren’t likely to be in the same space
- It’s accessible, but it doesn’t create unwelcome noise or clutter
- Each device has enough space around it for ventilation, operation, and maintenance
- Power and network needs are met without creative workarounds
Placement is part art, part science. When we partner with organizations that have complex print environments, we really get in there. We’ve even been known to sit down with a blueprint and plot them out that way.
Doing that, you can start saving teams quite a bit of time throughout their day, and you can also help organizations cut down on unnecessary devices.
Having Way, Way Too Many Printers
There’s a general benchmark we use — about 1 printer for every 4.4 employees.
But most offices we walk into exceed that by a wide margin.
Why?
Because printers don’t get planned. They get added.
- One team needs quicker access → add a printer
- One device is too slow → add another
- Someone wants convenience → add a personal printer
Each decision makes sense in the moment. But over time, you end up with:
- More devices to maintain
- More supplies to manage
- Higher energy and service costs
- More strain on IT
- More potential security entry points
Every printer solves a problem. It also adds complexity.
Having “Emotional Support” Printers
Okay, breathe. No really, take a moment.
People can get really … uh … passionate about personal printers. They are THE status symbols of a whole lot of offices, and we’ve definitely seen some stuff.
But. They’re expensive to buy, stock, and maintain, they take up a lot of desk space, and they drain a lot of power. They also encourage wasteful printing habits.
Bottom line, if the reason you want a personal printer is that you’re printing out sensitive data, there’s a better way to secure your printing.
And if you really want a personal printer because you want the status, a reserved parking spot beats a personal printer everytime.
Thinking Every Department Prints the Same
HR, finance, legal, marketing, and engineering — each may have different print volumes, speeds, or finishing needs.
Fleet standardization can help you simplify supplies and maintenance.
But fleet standardization needs to be thoughtful.
Sometimes, one faster, better-placed device can outperform multiple slower ones. Sometimes redundancy is necessary.
Some departments may need color and fancy finishing options, and some departments will work much better with a printer that specializes in producing a huge volume of black and white documents, really, really fast.
Forgetting People Are People
Your staff might understand that one printer is better (and cheaper) for producing black and white documents, and another one should be reserved for documents where the quality matters more.
But guess what? When left to their own devices (literally), people will gravitate to the machines that are the easiest to use and the closest.
Unfortunately, the easiest and closest machines will sometimes use the most expensive toner.
That’s why ease of use should always be part of a printer conversation, thorough training should be provided, and why print policies are sometimes necessary.
Skipping a Print Assessment
If you’re not sure where your environment stands, a print assessment is a simple place to start.
It helps you understand:
- How many devices you actually need
- Where they should be placed
- What’s driving your current costs
- Where small changes can make a big impact
Sometimes the fix isn’t replacing a printer or two.
It’s rethinking the entire system around them.
If you have just a few printers, this is a task that can absolutely be done in-house. If you have a LOT, that’s different. In that case, reach out to us to request an assessment, and we’ll come out and take a look.
We all have that one thing in the office that makes you stop and think, “Who designed this?” Let us know — we’re always looking for the next office “tech fail” to have some fun with. Also, keep in mind that our tech-sperts regularly contribute fresh blog content on all sorts of topics — from cybersecurity to business printing. Subscribe to the Tech Insights weekly blog to stay current.
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