Haha I have a similar story but I was even earlier in my career just doing support and training things for a big call center and they just changed the policies to send an email to your boss every time you came in and left.
At the time I was working a lot of unpaid overtime, and this rule was just spitting in my face - they were making sure I showed up and they were definitely not caring if you worked more.
So I wrote a script to send an email at the time of my entrance and departure - whatever, I set it up to run and left for the day.
Weellll, it turns out I didn't understand the configuration for the OSX version of cron (and my shitty bash script) that well and when I walked into work the next day, my boss was waiting for me.
"Did you automate sending me your in and out email?"
"Yes... why?"
"I have a hundred thousand emails in my inbox and every time I delete as many as I can I just get... more. You have to stop it, you dont have to send me emails anymore, but you have to stop it."
So I went in and disabled my script and helped him delete the several hundred thousand emails I had sent him.
> The manager of the circuit realized that the night operators might be tempted to shirk their work, and so he required them to telegraph a signal to him every half hour in order that he might be sure they were awake and at their posts. Edison's signal was six.
> This was a wise regulation, but Edison did not appreciate the necessity for it. He found it a great bother to keep his eye on the clock and leave his reading or some experiment that he was working out in the quiet hours of night, to report that stupid "six" every thirty minutes.
> He wondered if he couldn't make a machine attached to the clock that would save him the trouble. After a good deal of thinking and experimenting, he fitted up an instrument that could telegraph "six" as well as he could.
> This was a great relief to him, and he felt free to do what he liked with his time without much fear of discovery. He even left the office and made expeditions about town.
> One night while he was away, the manager tried to call him up but could get no response. He thought this odd as Edison was more punctual with his signals than any other operator on the line.
> He waited, and tried again and again, with no better success, though the signals came with their accustomed regularity. He made an investigation, and the young inventor received a severe reprimand for his cleaver contrivance.
At the time I was working a lot of unpaid overtime, and this rule was just spitting in my face - they were making sure I showed up and they were definitely not caring if you worked more.
So I wrote a script to send an email at the time of my entrance and departure - whatever, I set it up to run and left for the day.
Weellll, it turns out I didn't understand the configuration for the OSX version of cron (and my shitty bash script) that well and when I walked into work the next day, my boss was waiting for me.
"Did you automate sending me your in and out email?" "Yes... why?" "I have a hundred thousand emails in my inbox and every time I delete as many as I can I just get... more. You have to stop it, you dont have to send me emails anymore, but you have to stop it."
So I went in and disabled my script and helped him delete the several hundred thousand emails I had sent him.