We’re jamming: tunes & practical tips to ‘unjam’ your photocopier

by Maria Bashi · Nov 18, 2016

You’ve been preparing all week for the most important meeting of your career. You’ve prepared your speech, created an amazing slide show, you just need your handouts. You lean against the photocopier and let out a deep sigh as you congratulate yourself on your mammoth achievement. You’ve arrived. You’ve pulled it out of the bag. You’re enjoying the sweet sound of the photocopier paper as it slides from the tray, and journeys through to the exit tray with your hard work shining all over it. It gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.

Just as you’re anticipating how your mega sales pitch will go, the photocopier dies. There’s a paper jam. The warm fuzzy feeling is replaced by a feeling of rising panic. While you are telling yourself to keep calm, all practical skills escape you. You try switching the photocopier off at the wall (it’s the done deal for any office equipment, and it seems to solve a whole multitude of computer related issues, so why not the photocopier), but there’s no joy. While trying to talk yourself out of a panicked state, your alter ego starts humming Bob Marley’s Jamming. Oh, the irony.

Here, Lloyd Wells – working together with PBS Group has put together a fool’s guide for resolving those pesky paper jams, as well as an eclectic selection of songs to keep you amused.

How to fix a paper jam in your photocopier

Don’t resend your print job, and definitely don’t walk away and leave it – that’s bad office etiquette. It’s the same as leaving no toilet paper in the loo.

Check the screen on your photocopier for the location of the jam, and where to open and access it. If your photocopier doesn’t tell you that information, open the cover of the machine, as well as the paper tray to ascertain where the paper has jammed.

Turn off the copier before trying to remove the paper.

Gently pull the paper in the opposite direction it has been fed into the photocopier. It’s important to do this bit gently and slowly to avoid tearing the paper. Tugging will almost certainly rip the paper.