'We printed everything in crisp, glorious grayscale': Supervisors print 200+ copies of colorless charts for a presentation for the C-level bosses after executives make a 'No Exceptions' rule about color printing

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 14, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

A group of supervisors didn't agree with the executives ordering around the IT department, so they got them paying attention to their demands in the only way a C-level boss could ever understand: With charts and graphs in glorious grayscale printing.

Visuals in a presentation are very important to get your point across. Especially when dealing with the 15-second attention spans of aging C-level executives who often struggle to attach a PDF to an email, a visual representation of how their stocks increase in value month-over-month is critical. Although when your entire department has been ordered to cease all color printing in the IT office, the only way to get policies changed is with muted, low-contrast, 1990s-esque printing. Umm… Ugly!

And in this case of malicious compliance, their point was made immediately after 200+ ugly, useless charts were printed.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10552333056
    via Andrea Picquadio

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    IT said "Black & White ONLY, no exceptions." So we followed the rule exactly.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 03
    A few years ago, IT rolled out a new "cost-saving" policy: all printing must be in black and white. No exceptions. They even locked down the printers so you literally couldn't choose color.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 04
    Fine. We grumbled, but went along with it. Then came the big quarterly presentation. Our exec team had spent weeks putting together slides full of colorful charts,
    via Olastun_bee
  • 05
    graphs, and visuals. On presentation day, our department was told to print out 200+ copies for distribution.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 06
    We did exactly what IT told us to do. We printed everything in crisp, glorious grayscale.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 07
    All those red vs. green charts? Now just gray vs. slightly darker gray. Pie charts? Identical-looking circles. Key highlights? Completely invisible.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 08
    The execs flipped. You could hear the frustration all the way down the hall. "Why does this look like a bad photocopy from 1993?!"
    via Olastun_bee
  • 09
    We shrugged and said: "IT'S policy. Black and white only, no exceptions."
    via Olastun_bee
  • 10
    By the next morning, color printing was magically restored. And IT never tried that "no exceptions" stunt again.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 11
    MightBeADesk Sounds like the ink is coming out of IT's budget instead of per department like it should. The cost of a color print is typically 10x that of black and white
    via MightBeADesk
  • 12
    goosebattle ⚫ I'm writing you up for failing to follow the clearly written IT policy. Printing is to be in black and white only. Grayscale is not permitted.
    via goosebattle
  • 13
    PunfullyObvious And PDFs would have been free ... Even better for the bottomline and environment and arguably as effective given most would end up in the trash|recycling|storage.
    via PunfullyObvious
  • 14
    hOzR⚫ I STILL live in this B&W world. We can't even buy color printers any longer yet finance wants to know why our external printing expenses are so high....
    via hOzR
  • 15
    r0b074p0c4lyp53 · I guarantee this was a cost saving measure from above IT. Nobody in IT gives a rats a what you do with the printer as long as you don't install a virus.
    via r0b074p0c4lyp53
  • 16
    IT was probably laughing along with you. "We told them it was a bad idea"
    via r0b074p0c4lyp53

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