Intelligent or not so much?

I work for a relatively small company with just over 50 employees.  Most of us work in a nice office in a “fancy schmancy” downtown building.  Many of us have college degrees and several people have a master’s degree.  I, along with many of my co-workers, have hard to get but required licenses in our field.

Why is it that many of the well educated, intelligent men in this firm can’t put paper in a printer?

I’ve been here for almost 20 years and I’ve witnessed this often:

Smarty Pants Man (standing in front of printer with a quizzical look on his face):  “I think this printer might be out of paper.” 

Female Employee:  “The paper is right under the printer in the cabinet it’s sitting on.”

SPM:  “What?  Where?”

FE:  “Right there, right under the printer.”

SPM (not really looking for the paper):  “If I can even find it, where does it go?”

FE:  “In the paper drawer.  That’s right underneath where your printed documents come out.”

SPM:  “I still don’t see the paper.  There’s a drawer on a printer?”

FE:  “You’ll see a ‘handle’ that you can pull on to open the drawer and put the paper in.  The paper’s right there in that cabinet”

SPM:  “I don’t see it.”

FE:  “The drawer or the paper?”

SPM stands there looking around as if things will magically get done.

At this point, the Female Employee jumps out of her chair or office, gets the paper out and puts it in the printer with Smarty Pants Man looking on.  She usually always shakes her head as she walks away.

Putting paper in a printer is not rocket science brain surgery difficult.  I used to think about how dumb these men are.  After all these years, I’ve come to a different conclusion.  They know exactly what they are doing and want someone else to do what they consider to be the “crummy” work. 

Maybe a lot more intelligent than I first thought?  I’d bet.