yes, the photocopier. please bear in mind that this is my actual real life, and unfortunatley not made up :)
i started a new job. They were based in this little cabin on the same site as the job i had moved from. They were a charity and thus had no money. We were allowed to use the services of the main site.
To impress them and look keen i volunteered to do the monthly newsletter photocopying, i figured they would think i was lovely, and kind and helpful. The job took around 2 hours.
What they didnt know was that the photocopying room was right next to my old dept, so i was planning on setting it up and going off for a 2 hour jolly catching up with people.
it was a win/ win situation that couldnt fail.
So - off i go with the trundel trolly piled high with boxes of paper, get to the post room, set it all up, go off to see my friends, fully congratulating myself on being a genius.
i return 90 mins later to find the machine had done nothing. NOTHING. its beeping like motherfucker and the whole thing is jammed.totally.
The jams dont budge, papers getting shredded into tiny tiny bits. The whole copier is almost taken apart, you know, all drawers out, cogs out, levers pulled and i spot a tiny, inch long bit of paper caught right at the back. i reach right in to get it. I had chosen that day to wear a long, beaded necklace, looked lovely, it was sage greeny ceramic beads on a silver chain, really long, almost waist lenght. very pretty :) until it got stuck in this toothy wheely bit.
I was stuck fast. I was bent over, bum in air, hair over my face, tethered by my necklace, which was caught in a place so that i couldnt get my head out, there wasnt enough space. The more i pulled the tighter is seemed to get.
It was about 5 mins before the post boy came back to the room to find me, bent over, trapped in the photocopier, red faced. And i had to ask him to help me.
He cut me out with some sissors. and helped me do they work. I ran back to my new office, crying with laughter. When i told the story and explained why i had been late ( obviously obmitting the skiving part) they did not laugh. not one of them even smiled. I knew then that was not the job for me.
:)