Do You Ever See Other People Using Fountain Pens At Work?

[Reggie The Great]

Nope, no one. Some of our managers use Parkers and Montblanc ballpoints, but that's it. No FPs ever.

 

But I gave a Pilot 78G to my kid brother for him to use at work, and he likes it. My girlfriend also got herself a nice Waterman #52V to use at work, because she liked my #92. So that's two people I know.

[prf5]

I haven't seen a fountain pen in a common or public area for several years. Sometimes inadvertently, I have a fountain pen in my shirt pocket, but I don't use it. People normally carry a ballpoint or two and there are plenty lying around. Some people may be using fountain pens in their offices, as I do.

[Just I]

Not in my workplace, most of my co-workers are the typical "that is a weird pen, why not just use this blue bic?".

 

I did see some scanned drawings from an architect with hand written notes on them that I am pretty sure was made with a fountain pen. I was going to ask on the conference call but didn't want to get weird. :-)

[NotRosie]

Three of my friends at school were the ones who inspired me to buy a fountain pen, and we dragged another mutual friend into the hobby. And instead of doing classwork, occasionally we would just mess around with and talk about each other's pens.

[OldGreyBeard]

I think I've seen more people using a tablet or similar than FPs. On Monday I had a meeting with a chap and I was writing with a FP (Waterman Forum, 24 years old) and he was writing on his smartphone screen with a stylus. Now I wouldn't want to be without my smartphone, laptop and so on but I doubt I'll ever stop handwriting and I really like using a FP. It doesn't work for all jobs. Sometimes I need a ballpoint/roller ball such as when making notes on laser printed material or a retractable pen when making notes outdoors but generally a FP does the job well and is a very resilient and mature technology.

 

It seems to me that often the baby is thrown out with the bathwater when something new comes along but after a time people realise that was a hasty decision. Thankfully FPs are small and are easily forgotten about at the backs of drawers or in old pencil cases.

[Ste_S]

Quite often - I work in a hospital. Consultants tend to carry Fountain Pens, although perhaps not as frequently as they did in the past.

[Six Dollar Dave]

Never. Most in my office don't know what a fountain pen is. I've had a comment or two about my work pen (Lamy Safari). They will say something like, "Neat pen".

[Beechwood]

Many people, I am in a business where people sign off on acceptances and most do so with a pen and also want to have an individual ink colour - other than red.

[OldGreyBeard]

Many people, I am in a business where people sign off on acceptances and most do so with a pen and also want to have an individual ink colour - other than red.

I have to do that as well and a cheap pen ballpoint doesn't seem suitable

[annettefhorn]

Nope, and probably never will, work in IT as a software developer, I rarely see a ballpoint pen... My boss kind of "did a great job" to disuse the last one, whom used a ballpoint and notebook to take notes.... So, I'm the soul one, whom using fountain pens.

 

This is starting to stray off-topic, but a lot of the technical folk I work with (including myself) bring either nothing, or pen/pencil and paper, to meetings. There are two main theories: 1. devices help you take searchable notes, look things up so you can answer questions, etc; 2. devices are distracting and add to the length of meetings.

 

I'm the only one at work I've seen using a FP, but others are curious. The engineering involved in making a Lamy 2000 is pretty impressive!

[Mezzie]

None of my colleagues use them, but a few are fascinated by mine. I do have some students who use them because I've given a few away in the past year. I was just talking to a recipient about his pen yesterday, and he's going to swing by my classroom for an ink fill soon. I expect the others will follow.

 

I now have a pretty decent-sized fp collection for my classroom (thanks to generous members of FPN), and starting Monday, students will be able to use fps for any extended writing projects.

[Arkanabar]

I have a few coworkers who have a taste for fountain pens. One has a very nice Cross that her husband bought her; she oohs and aahs appreciatively over my Mandarin Yellow Ahab (filled with Waterman Purple!) and my Dad's "51" (and the story that goes with it). Another remembers using them in college and liking them, so I referred her to Goulet Pens. And my boss has a MontBlanc of some sort, and he also is happy to let me show mine off if he's not too busy.

There's one guy whose true scrivening love is wooden pencils. He enjoys sharpening them, and has an old-fashioned Boston crank sharpener like I used to use in school attached to his desk. I had to get kind of stern with him about using those in the medical record. And of course there are those who boggle that I would also spend $8 on a Fisher Cap-O-Matic Space Pen, let alone carry and use a Pelikan M400 that could cost hundreds to replace.

[Scootz]

Two of my colleagues use fountain pens in the office, one of them on a regular basis. I occasionally get a question about my pens, typically from someone who remembers using one at school. For the most part, no one seems to notice what others use to write with.

[lisadan]

I am in the process of converting my supervisor to FPs. He bought two Sheaffers and a Parker Frontier that I donated for a charity auction at work, and told me he has used the Frontier in managers' meetings (because "it looks more impressive" than the cheap looking Sheaffer Scripcerts). I keep cultivating his interest, and have just refilled his pen (that was part of the auction deal) and gave him a bottle of ink and a converter, as a gift for his recent promotion. He told me that our division manager has a MB, but I haven't seen that one yet. Other than these, I haven't seen any other person at my work (or anywhere else in the past 20 years, for that matter), who uses FPs. In fact, most people at my work don't even know what they are.

[Charmian]

Never. In all the meetings I've attended, internal or external parties, or even just casually noticing what colleagues use to write with, I've never seen a fountain pen in use. Most people just use whatever pens the company provides. Mostly, they're Staedtler or Bic ballpoint pens. Occasionally, there's the odd Mitsubishi Uniball. That's it.

 

I think fountain pen use is rarer here in Australia compared to the US or Europe.

 

Once I get my first pen, it'll be used at work.

[I like mango cheesecake]

None whatsoever.

I'm the only one.

[a m a r g o]

At least half of the architects in the firm I worked for, owned fountain pens, but rarely used them... It was more like a custom they carry along from college, which is strange since at least two of them were writing instruments maniacs like me, but where focused on ballpoints and pencils.

[Newjelan]

I have a small consulting business and all 4 employees use fountain pens exclusively. When attending client meetings, I'd say that besides me, at least 1 other person is using a fountain pen about 10% of the time. So although FP use is relatively uncommon in Australia, the proportion of senior executives who use them is much higher than the general population IMO.

[william2001]

My English tutor uses a fountain pen daily.

She is the one who actually brought me to the world of fountain pens.

-William S. Park

[prf5]

There's one guy whose true scrivening love is wooden pencils. He enjoys sharpening them, and has an old-fashioned Boston crank sharpener like I used to use in school attached to his desk. I had to get kind of stern with him about using those in the medical record.

 

 

A medical record written in pencil. That's breathtaking. I would like to know how you got this guy to recognize that medical records are permanent.