Stapling 101
Working with rare materials, I spend more time worrying about the art of removing staples and other troublesome fasteners than the art of adding them. Yesterday, however, I read a post titled “The Perfect Angle to Staple Paper” (via things), and I started thinking about stapling and how vexing the mechanics of staples and staplers are for many people.
Anyone who works in a library or office where unsupervised stapling is allowed can probably attest to this. At a library where I worked previously, jammed and broken staplers were a daily sight for me. The regular staplers for public use had to be unjammed two or three times a day, and the (very expensive) heavy-duty staplers had to be stored behind the circulation desk after three were broken in less than a month.
For a long time, I assumed that this was a public services problem, since people are often careless with “free” equipment and materials, but a recently overheard customer service interaction changed my perspective. I was in a local stationery/office supply shop when a customer came in to return a “defective” stapler. The clerk explained that the stapler was not defective; it was not working because the man had put heavy-duty staples in a standard stapler. “Well, how am I supposed to know that heavy-duty staples can’t go in a regular stapler? No one ever explained that to me, and it doesn’t say that on the stapler,” complained the customer. With much grace and aplomb, the clerk sympathized, claiming that he also had trouble with staplers and staples before he started working in an office supply store. Then, he helped the man select a new stapler and a supply of standard staples.
The moral of the story: everyday things are not always as simple (or self-explanatory) as they may seem.
3 comments July 6th, 2004