The Great Copier Makeover: When Office Aesthetics Trump Sanity
Let’s be honest: office technology rarely inspires passion. But every so often, a story emerges from the fluorescent-lit trenches of tech support that is so absurd, so gloriously petty, it deserves to be framed above the water cooler. Today, we’re talking about a copier—not just any copier, but one whose color offended the sensibilities of the highest office in the land. Yes, this is the saga of the Great Copier Makeover, brought to you (with a wink) from the wilds of r/TalesFromTechSupport.
Our story begins in a medium-sized company with a single, ancient-but-loyal photocopier, maintained by the legendary “Printer Whisperer.” (You know the type: the kind of contractor who can diagnose a failing gear over the phone and be onsite within the hour with a replacement. These folks are unicorns in the IT wilds.) After nearly two decades of faithful service, the Printer Whisperer breaks the news: the old beast has reached the end of its life. Parts are discontinued. The next jam is its last.
A new copier is sourced—same manufacturer, all the right specs, familiar UI, and a loyal-customer discount. It arrives, is assembled, and hums to life under the Printer Whisperer’s approving gaze. End of story? Not quite.
The next day, the CTO sends a cryptic (and urgent) email: “The new copier has to be sent back immediately and before the next order, the CEO must be consulted.”
Cue a collective IT eye-roll so strong it leaves a dent in the server rack.
As the original poster (u/LenryNmQ) recounts, this is not the kind of return you just process. The copier was custom-ordered, and returning it would not only upend a 20-year vendor relationship, it would leave the Printer Whisperer—essentially a one-man show—on the hook for a multi-thousand-dollar device. In a small city, good tech support is harder to find than a working stapler.
So, what was the CEO’s beef? Was the copier too slow? Too loud? Did it print TPS reports in Comic Sans?
Nope. “It’s ugly.”
That’s right. The CEO couldn’t abide the copier’s dark grey panels. The old copier was beige—office equipment’s answer to “default mode,” a color so bland it’s practically invisible. But the new one? Too… dark. Too modern. Too, well, ugly. “If you buy a car, you also choose a nicer one over an uglier,” the CEO reasoned. (One commenter, u/Z4-Driver, dryly pointed out that a quick glance at any parking lot disproves this theory. The Fiat Multipla exists, after all.)
Thus began perhaps the first instance in copier history of a repaint job for purely aesthetic reasons.
The tale only gets better from here. After confirming with the Printer Whisperer that no, lighter colors are not available, and yes, repainting is technically possible (so long as you don’t “mess with its insides”—sage advice), our protagonist removes the copier’s front panels, deposits them at a decorative company, and returns days later to reassemble the world’s most bespoke photocopier.
The punchline? It looked better. But from that moment on, coworkers gleefully teased the OP about what office equipment might get a makeover next. (Printer, but make it fashion!)
The community’s reaction to this story was, predictably, a mix of disbelief, gallows humor, and weary recognition. “Yes, that's exactly the kind of leadership we desire from our CEOs,” snarked u/9a, capturing the collective eye-roll. Others, like u/Throwaway_Old_Guy, marveled at how one could ascend to the C-suite with such priorities: “They will ignore the Fire just so they can focus on what is not burning.”
This, dear reader, is bikeshedding in action—the Law of Triviality at work. As u/handlebartender noted, “A lovely day for bikeshedding.” For the uninitiated, bikeshedding refers to the phenomenon where people devote disproportionate time to trivial details (like the color of a copier) while ignoring bigger issues (like, say, data security or profit margins). Several commenters referenced this, with u/way22 theorizing it’s a kind of procrastination: when the big stuff is overwhelming, obsess over the copier’s shade of grey.
There was also a consensus that this is exactly the kind of corporate nonsense that makes people fantasize about “CEO-as-a-Service.” As u/LogicBalm quipped, “On one hand I firmly believe that CEO is one of the best positions we could replace with AI. And on the other, this is the kind of decision it would probably be trained on.” Others proposed even more minimalist solutions: “Some CEOs could be replaced with an inanimate carbon rod, and their performance would improve.” (Thanks, u/NotYourNanny. Simpsons wisdom is eternal.)
But perhaps the best commentary came from those who have walked this road before. Former printer whisperers and office veterans chimed in with similar stories—like repainting all-in-one units to improve office “feng shui,” or the university that wanted copiers in school colors. Sometimes you just lean in, bill for customization, and let the boss enjoy their lilac printer.
And what of the CEO? As u/Cthell insightfully suggested, perhaps this obsession with the trivial is rooted in a desire for control. The big stuff—markets, competitors, the economy—is out of their hands. But the copier? That, at least, can be made beige.
So, next time you’re stuck in an endless meeting about the color of the breakroom chairs, remember: you’re not alone. Somewhere out there, a fellow tech worker is driving a stack of copier panels to a paint shop, muttering, “It’s just a copier. It doesn’t matter how it looks…”
Or does it?
What’s the most absurd office “aesthetic” demand you’ve encountered? Share your story below—bonus points if it involves repainting hardware!
After all, in corporate life, sometimes the only thing you can control is the color of your copier.
Original Reddit Post: That time I had a photocopier repainted