The Printer Access Pilgrimage Exception
Once printer access pilgrimage establishes a reliable route to the shared device, it becomes the only route worth trusting.
The document requires printing. The nearest printer is on the same floor. The nearest printer has a known problem that cannot be articulated but has been confirmed by personal experience on at least three occasions. The problem does not appear on every attempt. It appears unpredictably, which is worse than appearing consistently.
The person walks to the printer on a different floor. This is printer access pilgrimage.
The Origin of the Route
The alternate printer was discovered during a period when the same-floor printer was out of service for a reason that was explained in an email. The email was read. The alternate printer was located by asking someone. The alternate printer worked on the first attempt. This is an unusually clean success record for a shared network device, and the mind notes it.
The same-floor printer was repaired. The pilgrimage route was not retired. The cleaned-up success record of the alternate printer is now three attempts versus an unclear record of partial successes and intermittent failures at the nearby device. The math is not complicated.
Three Observations from the Field
First: the additional time required for the pilgrimage is estimated at four minutes. Four minutes is not a meaningful cost per document. Four minutes multiplied by the number of documents printed per quarter begins to approach a meaningful cost, but no one has performed this calculation and no one is expected to.
Second: the pilgrimage route passes a common area. Documents retrieved from the printer on the same trip are sometimes accompanied by a brief social interaction that would not have occurred on the direct route. This is a benefit that is difficult to quantify and has never been listed as a reason for taking the longer route, but it has been noted.
Third: the nearby printer was replaced last year. The replacement printer has no documented failure history. The pilgrimage continues regardless. The documented failure history belongs to the old printer, but the printer's location is the same, and location is a stronger trigger than hardware version.
What the Field Notes Confirm
The document prints. The route is not questioned. A working alternate path, once established under conditions of necessity, does not require ongoing necessity to remain in force. It requires only the continued existence of the path.
The printer on the same floor has a green status light. The field notes do not find this information relevant to the routing decision.