MS 365 word communication issue with printers

Small office with about 20 people, maybe 5 of them intermittently but daily, have issues communicating with printer from Word only. outlook is good, everything else sees printers fine. 

When the issue happens, the printers (all but the default) become unresponsive and unselectable in the print menu of Word. Strangely enough some of the ribbon buttons and options in Word also become greyed out and unselectable as well. Closing Word and reopening it works, or waiting a while. When either workaround is implemented, the printers go from "not ready" to found and able to be selected again, as do the buttons in the ribbons at the top