UPDATE: 'We couldn't stop laughing': Executives drown in 3,600+ pages of documents after ordering an entire department to work overtime to deliver physical copies of all of their records

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Mar 5, 2025 7:00 PM EST

Office work is tedious, but when you're juggling thousands of pages of printed paperwork, it feels like sifting through an avalanche of unfilled documents. This company's executives were reminded of this feeling after ignoring the warnings of their most hardworking (and literal) department. 

There's something satisfying about watching a C-level boss's plans implode. 

Typically, they look down on the workforce, feeling empowered by their golden offices and ivory floors, but way up in their corner offices, they truly have no idea what goes on in offices that actually get the work done every day. To flex their power and prowess over their lowly employees, however, executive bosses will often make unilateral decisions that—if you're lucky—will backfire, proving the point of the 60-hour week managers downstairs. Always heed the warnings of an experienced employee, no matter how small they seem. Because if you don't, you might find yourself buried in thousands of pages of printed documents... Per your own silly request, of course.

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  • Perhaps it's the centuries of hierarchy that have fed every employee's inner anarchist, but nothing could fight the satisfied grin of a department winning their argument the hard way against their office overlords. We relish in their win, dreaming of the day we can finally stick it to the man in our office!

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  • UPDATE: I guess you like paperwork!

    So, background. I work in US Customs Compliance, which...due to the current administration is annoyingly unstable. Tariffs are being changed left and right, as well as the definitions of what products count as what kind of products or materials being classified as specific exceptions... It's a mess.
    via DungeonsAndData
  • However, there's this thing called "duty drawback" that ended up being a big deal at my company. To REALLY water it down, if Company A imports products to the US but then immediately ships it to, say, Canada to their franchise stores
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  • (Company B), then technically Company A was simply a stop on route and not the ultimate receiver. Company B pays taxes (called "duty") on the product, but because Company A ALSO paid taxes, Company A is due a refund for the duty paid. Hence, Duty Drawback.
    via DungeonsAndData
  • So after MONTHS of chasing down this information, going back five years, learning we had holes in the info, trying to patch that up, trying to figure out the math, making it accurate, finding errors, etc etc... Up to 16 hour days because
    via DungeonsAndData
  • "someone" promised we could get this done in two months when we needed five, and weekends torpedoed by work calls, we finally submitted the application. And it worked! We got a great
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  • return, but because we missed the deadline by a day and it was a rocky process, my boss was "let go" over "poor performance" and "missed opportunities." Nevermind the fact that this project was his idea and he was the one who got it rolling in the first place!
    via DungeonsAndData
  • And then the higher ups decided that they wanted records of everything covered. Not digital, though! That's not official enough. Printed, in binders, with official letterhead. Sealed and signed, if you would. Well, my boss's
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  • superior, who is covering his desk, came to us livid at the extra work we had to do and said, "They want paperwork? They get paperwork! Find the biggest binders you can find and put everything on hold until they get what they want!"
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  • "And, just to make sure they see everything... print it single sided." So far, we have about 3,600 printed pages, hole punched by yours truly, stuffed into six binders, and that got us through June of YEAR ONE. Of five. The binder pile is three feet tall already and I get to do more of that when I get back to work.
    via DungeonsAndData
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  • Compared to what I've been through recently, this is practically a vacation! And today I finally got the response. When I came into work, all six binders were missing, and I came to
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  • find out my (new?) boss had taken them to the higher ups without us. She apparently marched right over to the executive's office and dropped all six binders on the desk without a word. This is paraphrasing, but this is what she relayed to us afterwords:
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  • Executive: "... What is this?" Boss: "The records you asked for." Executive: "Ah. Good. Now-" Boss: "The first six months." Executive: "... The what?" Boss: "Of the first year. Of five."
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  • My boss then described in absolute glee how the executive sat there sweating as she continued to explain how she was glad that we could get such important work done in the middle of the tariff changes and the policy updates, and she was so happy the executive was willing to store all of the records!
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  • Which prompted the executive to ask why they were being stored in his office. Well, that's when he was reminded that, due to digital supremacy, our off site storage for file retention had been DRASTICALLY reduced last year!
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  • He asked for the rest of the files in PDF. We couldn't stop laughing (quietly) on the way back to our desks. Vacation over I guess!
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  • Cantankerousbastard You're going to make me miserable? Oh we're all miserable down here.
    via Cantankerousbastard
  • CatlessBoyMom That's the level of "up yours" | aspire to. The storage space ace in the hole, was perfect!
    via CatlessBoyMom
  • Lylac_Krazy The PDF is the backup. Please continue printing the original, ya know, for the record...
    via Lylac_Krazy

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