Employee left the business but is still using her work email address

[FYLM]

And according to Microsoft, there is NOTHING they can do about it.

I set up a small business 2 years ago. One of my employees left last week. I called Microsoft as we are with Office 365 to reset her email account with a new password so that she could not access it and I could manage the account myself (I am a sole trader). The email address she was using was the generic one, "hello@....".

As she changed all the passwords, Microsoft have said there is nothing they can do. I can't get into Office 365, I can't reclaim the email address from her, there is literally NOTHING I can do.

All they keep saying is "contact your HR", "contact your IT dept", etc. I don't have these things - I am a sole trader!

Can anyone advise me please? Thanks.

Have you directly asked her to hand all passwords etc over and stop using it or not?

People can't advise properly unless you confirm this detail and you keep ignoring it?

OP I am sorry I can't answer your original question

But if using hello@ is going to redirect your business to her -
I presume that's why she is doing this - then as a temporary measure, I'd create a new email address for the general queries. It doesn't look great but at least it will stop potential clients going to her.

Next, her contract. Is there anything in there covering passwords and systems as company property?

But where does the payment for 365 go? This can be done through go daddy or Microsoft. Either way if it's all managed on the same package you should be able to make admin changes on the main account.

Hello everyone, I’m glad to report that it’s all sorted. Go Daddy were brilliant. The only way around it was to completely shut down the website, which meant that all the work emails connected to that domain were disabled. I now have to set up the website again and new emails through Go Daddy.

Thanks for your help - I appreciate it.

I thought she was my friend. I’m gutted 😞.

That's a crazy solution, go daddy should have just helped you changed the email records as I take it you lost admin control of 365 as never answered that, but it's done now 🤷‍♀️

I think what she’s done is illegal. At least in some places.

Glad you've managed to get it sorted. What you need to do now is tighten up your staff contracts and ensure you are the person with overall control of systems so this can't be repeated by someone else. Also a salutary lesson in keeping business and friendship separate or at least not being too trusting with your business.

I am glad you have a solution but you never answered about whether you spoke to the employee or what their contract said.

You need to be a bit more structured going forwards I think.

I know nothing about this admittedly, but I can't believe this is allowed to continue, from a business sense. Why should you need to use go daddy to shut it down and redo. From a business sense that's ridiculous. There got to be a better solution. And all those posters suggesting contacting her, you shouldn't need to! Ideally.

I've had similar at work. Sage accounts. And also phs who supply bins etc. They wouldn't change passwords on an account, re the account holder being an employee who had gone long term sick. In the end I was arguing with them telling them what happened if someone gets run over by a bus or dies, moves to Australia or gets Covid then this account would never be able to be accessed and I told them this was silly. I told them that this person never should've been made account holder and it should be the managing director.

So in all of this, maybe that's one small lesson for OP. Make sure it's you! Or there a back up plan.

But seriously in business this is silly isn't it to not be able to gain access to something that you actually own.

Go into the master account for Microsoft and delete her account

So glad you've sorted it. What a fucking bitch! How dare she!

That was a long night. After getting some sleep you need a post mortem and take measures for this never to happen again.

Ok. IT person here.

Go to office.com
Login
Click on 9 dots (top left)
Navigate to Admin
Click on Manage users
Follow steps to manage user accounts

As a business owner you need to be the global admin of your office 365 account. It is critical you have this control.

If you use a 3rd party to manage your office 365 environment, they can give you admin rights.

If you need help, Pm me.

Glad you've got it sorted. Why was she using the account still? For her own business? Did you talk to her about it?

Don’t continue to pay for the godaddy email.

going into godaddy was the right decision - from there you could’ve removed the dns settings pointing to Microsoft.

now, go and set up a google workplace account (about £5/month) and you can run a gazillion emails though it.

the google account will need to be linked with godaddy but google will either walk you through it - or I think these days their back end talks to godaddy and it’s done automatically.

She says ex-employee already logged in and changed all the passwords so OP can’t log in now.

This, login to the server at GoDaddy. In fact you should be able to reset the password there, but failing that just delete it and take the hit on lost emails. Then set it up again.

OP is the employee is still trying to use you business name you also need to see if you can register your business name as a trade name.

For the future, you need an admin account that oy you have the password for, so that we're this ever to happen again, you can immediately block the employee's email and other access, and they can't block you from your own accounts.

It's partly why our termination procedures have removal of all access as one of the earliest tasks. Most (ex) employee's behave reasonably,but it's ones like these who don't that most of the procedures exist for. You don't lock your front door because of all the people who just walk past, but because of that single one who will just try the door just to see.

Glad you've got it sorted OP and Go Daddy were so helpful.

Your ex employee/friend has quite a malicious streak...

There must be someone who is admin for the domain.
They need to go to office 365 and look at users.They can from there close an email address, or force all machines to log out and change email password.you can also by looking at the report see if she tried to get back in.

The only thing is if she set it up and is admin herself!

I'm admin and have been asked to do similar things when an employee has left, not because they're awkward, but because it makes sure data is not accessible if we had a data breach.

Where do they do that then? Not something I knew was possible unless you are limited company but op has said they are sole trader

My anxiety would be that she has stolen all your clients and will try and take their business with her. Are you on close enough terms with any of them to speak to them, explain what has happened, and ask if there was contact, supposedly from you, after she blocked the site? And ask them to forward any emails she may have sent. Maybe she has contacted all your clients and told them “you” are changing your website and the new contact details are xxx.

There may be a concern about GDPR breach?

I would contact all of my clients and explain that an ex employee has copied your database. Assure them you are still up and running with the original contact details, and will continue to provide the same service as before.

Why did you need her password?
Did you ask her to stop using the email once she left?

When I finished at my last place they said I can’t use the email address anymore and I said ok and didn’t use it.
I didn’t need to give my passwords.

You need legal advice, no one in here can help.