I handle the inbox for blind queries that come in to our web address. Like if you emailed bob@bob’sbusiness.com someone would answer and I would be that someone. Except that my boss likes to go through them and send replies without discussing it first. So I get an email saying Hi Bob’s, I want to buy a laser cake! And I reply Thank you for your interest in bob’s. Here at bob’s we make and sell bobs. Unfortunately we don’t make laser cakes, but here’s a link to lasercakes.com and if you ever need a bob please stop by any time. And then my boss sends them another reply that says Oh I love laser cakes, let us call around for you and find a good place that makes them, we’ll get back to you soon! And doesn’t copy me, so a week later I take a call from some pissed off non-customer wanting to know whatever happened to the laser cake research I promised to do? Assume in this example that laser cakes are as far removed from what bob’s does as, I don’t know, a shoe store and NASA.
So…I took everyone’s advice and emailed my ex-boss and told her that I would now only be available on a consultant basis…unless there is some really juicy gossip.
It didn’t work like I expected, she said that would be fine and that she had been waiting for me to ask to get paid. I made $50 today by telling the IT people how to find the drivers to make the very old, unsupported Zebra printer work with Windows 7 and TRIM.
It was a 5 minute phone call: Go to the label printer and open the case. Good, now see that plastic sleeve holding some folded papers? Great! Pull them out and find the paper that says “ZEBRA DRIVERS”. You found it? Awesome. Now, if you read that paper, you will see that its a printed out email response from Zebra tech support as to where to find a working driver. I hi-lited the webpage. (yes, I did enjoy being snarky because IT claimed to be working for 11 months to figure the problem out and I did it with one email)
OK, now go back to the comp you are working on, go online and go to that webpage. Are you there? Awesome, now just scroll down to the correct model and click on it. Do you need me to walk you through installing the drivers? No? Cool, let me talk to boss, then, and do remember to put instructions back in the printer.
That was soooooo much fun 
OK…honestly though, the call took 20 minutes, but mostly because boss has heard that SG is applying for a SG sort of job with the city and their HR called the county’s HR and they called boss to discuss what should be disclosed.
Now you’ve done it. Now you’re going to have to file 1099 paperwork with your taxes next year.
AND? You can’t just leave us hanging like that. Are they going to say more than “he worked for us between x and y dates, and he earned $n?”
Not related to my workplace, but relevant to the thread:
Now I want a laser cake.
I see that moejoe answered this question, but your remark reminded me of an incident that happened with Bad Boss when I was still at my old job.
(Note: Bad Boss was a lying, manipulative, petty and vindictive, whiny bully-boy who’d been harassing me for over a year by this point.)
Bad Boss actually WAS monitoring my email inbox (which is fine and to be expected). One day I got an email from our staff accountant that was a Reply All, and as I was reading it it was obvious that I had not seen the original email to the group, even though I was the one the original email was addressed to.
IOW, Bad Boss had permanently deleted it before I even got a chance to see it. (NOT OK, especially when it’s in regard to an issue I was responsible for.) Oops.
To cover up his mistake, and because he also just made it obvious that he was monitoring my email, he began to claim that we were having email problems and that email I’d sent to HIM had never shown up. He also claimed to have sent me email that he never sent (to bolster the lie that we were having system problems).
He even went so far as to involve his BOSS, asking HIM if he was having problems getting emails from us!
Lies, all lies, just to cover the fact that he fucked up and deleted an email out of my inbox.
So, fine. We’re having technical problems, you say? Then let’s call the third party provider together, Bad Boss, because we certainly wouldn’t want important emails to get lost in the ether.
He puts me off and puts me off, and finally I corner him and make him be on this call with me to the email provider wherein it is made clear (by the very confused tech) that emails could NOT be disappearing the way he said they were.
We were on that call, Bad Boss and I, for almost thirty-five minutes, running through every possible scenario with the tech. By the end of it Bad Boss was slunk down in his chair with his hand over his eyes in shame.
well, I’ve been doing some research lately, and…it’s turns out the best ones come from a place called bob’s.
Okay, now I get it. My boss doesn’t have access to my email, but I have a very different job from yours, so I didn’t think of that scenario. I’m sorry your boss is an idiot.
Laser cake sounds really cool. Bobs are usually nice, but I don’t think I want to buy one right now.
I heard that in the voice of my coworker Christy, who said “AAWEsome!” a lot. It’s probably a completely wrong accent, but I’m sure it’s the completely right awesome 
I’m picturing a cake that shoots laser beams out of it!
How about sharks with laser cakes on their heads!!
A cake shark with a laser cupcake balanced on its head!
Or a laser beam that shoots out cakes, that way you get more cake.
Oh, yeah! Can we get some bakers on that?
Yeah!
Reported
…for Laser Cake shilling?
Thank heavens someone did, before Cat Whisperer started promoting her “Laser Cats Wearing Cakes That Shoot Laser Beams of More Cakes” business.
Huh?
Nametag reported a spam post, and then made a note that it had been reported. If you ever see a “reported” without an obvious spam post, you can usually just assume that this is what happened.
There was a new member (Join Date Jan 2013) by the name of “metalimpactss” who SPAMMED several topics with an ad and link to their website:
“Metal Impacts is a leading Manufacturers & Suppliers of Mobile Compactor, Mobile Compactors Racks, Heavy Duty Pallet Racks, Heavy Duty Rack and Compactors Racks in Bangalore, India.”
I reported the one he posted under “Stupid Republican Idea…” and it looks like “nametag” did the same here. Since “metalimpactss” has been banned and all of their SPAM posts deleted, it only looks like “nametag” reported the preceding post.
Wait, does this mean I have to go all the way to Bangalore to get a laser cake?
Fuck it. I don’t want one that badly.