How should admin contact me after a work email password reset?

[SeaShellShore]

The company I work for provided me with a work email. I don't use it every day. My work doesn't usually require me to send emails. It's just a way of communicating between me and the office and for sending timesheets.

I never had a work phone. I usually just had the email set to my Microsoft on my tablet and stayed logged in and also tablet always at home.

Today I got a call that we will be getting company phones for the emails. I was to send the office my email and password.

I forgot my password. I did try signing in a few times with what I thought it could have been but I failed many times. I had to send a password reset request but I wasn't able to do that. I was told admin would do it and the request was sent to admin.

That was earlier in the day but I jot no follow up since then. Also how would admin contact me if I can't get into my email. Would they phone me or some other way.

Surely they have your personal mobile number as an emergency contact and will call or text you? Can you call them to ask? Do you have a private email?

Honestly are you sure it was legit? No company with an ounce of IT security sense should be asking you to send them your password. At my company everyone would be sent a guide on how to set it up on the phone themselves, with an option to meet up with someone to talk you through it if need be.
We have an online portal for password resets, or you can ring the helpdesk (not the other way round) and they'll do it and tell you over the phone.

I was to send the office my email and password.

Personally I wouldn't. Do you work for a clown school ?

Anyone asking you for a password is a no-no. I can't imagine IT asking for it. Can you contact them by phone and explain the situation.

I can't imagine IT asking for it

As my DM used to say "You haven't lived."

I've experienced it (along with 20 people sharing one login).

It's up there with the outfits who cold call you and then insist you identify yourself . Like what happened to me with a call from Virgin Media yesterday.

I would never give my password to anyone, including IT!

I got a call from the office. I was talking to my line manager with her voice

Is your manager running IT herself? No one in this day and age should be asking someone's email password

I sent them my email but locked myself out so I couldn't even send my password even if I wanted to. I msut admit I did think it was hairy asking for my password but there's nothing on it. It's just work stuff and nothing else.

It's still a way in to your company systems. The whole thing sounds highly suspicious, voices can be faked now, usually something like that would be communicated by email anyway. Admin should NEVER need your password.

20 people sharing a login? Was that this century? I remember stuff like that happening decades ago but definitely not since 9/11. I'm not sure if that was the turning point for the tightening of digital security but things have changed dramatically since then. I work in a very security orientated organisation so maybe I'm just more aware.

Cold callers are a blight on the landscape and noone should give them the time of day imo!

I can understand the voice of a celebrity being faked because they are in the public light but a manager in a city office? Completely random.

I would believe my manager because to date we were using personal phones and devices and that's not right. They now want to set us up with a company mobile for our admin email stuff. This is info that a scammers likely wouldnt.

This issue isn't someone asking me for my password any more because I didn't know it and I locked myself out from my own email anyways. The issue now is that this is supposed to be with admin and I don't have admin details because I can't get into my email any more.

By the same token, no one in this day and age should be giving them ?

(Parking the fact that there should also be some MFA in place anyway)

If I were you and I were worried about it I would email admin from my personal email and ask what was happening. I'd do it in the style of men at work though i.e. very slightly stroppy about the delay to deflect from the fact I had forgotten my log in details. I wouldn't be all apologetic.

Self service IT (i.e. password resets) has been "a thing" for at least 2 decades.

Certainly in all my time as a manager.

In fact someone calling me or my team up to reset a password would immediately be a red flag.

Aren't we all rocking passcodes now, anyway ?

I used to do IT for different companies and would occasionally visit an office where if someone left they just told the new guy to use the previous person's login and e-mail address (i.e. new guy Dave had an e-mail steve@). Sometimes it got passed to the next guy too! So the mind boggles.

To OP if someone asks for your password that's definitely a no. If they're from IT they can easily reset it.

If that was my bank calling me I would never volunteer any information over the phone and hang up and phone the number at the back of card. Same goes for other companies like phone or utilities.

I had no reason to suspect thay this could be a scam. It's a small regional office.

So considering they want to set me up with a phone and set the email up on it, would they be able to reset the password on that?

There used to be a little "hack" for people asking for your password, and that was to give the wrong one. That way you would know (a) if they had tried it, and (b) if they were accessing a legitimate system. Because only the true system knows you real password.

(You can still use that these days, if you want to check an ATM is genuine. Put a wrong PIN in first and see if the machine knows it's wrong.)

The email or the company that I have didn't let me do a password reset. The information on the screen said it was for admin to reset the email.

I'm pleased they can afford such inefficiencies 😀

Profits are a bit vulgar anyway. Who needs them ?

i’d phone IT or if i couldnt do that i would go into the office and see what this was all about.

it could be that your boss is up to something nefarious and wants to make it look like it was you.

i’d not give anyone my password wirhout ITs written approval.

Or it could be they just want it to log you in. So presumably if you go into work you can do that there.

Locking someone out of the system to require them to come in is a well worn tactic to aid in job rearrangement. Not as good as the old fire drill one though. Where people come back in to find themselves locked out and meeting HR ...

I'm looking for some advice about a work situation.

I do some hours for an organisation and normally access my work email on a personal device. Earlier this week, my line manager contacted me because the organisation is setting staff up with company phones. During the call, I was asked for my work email address and password so the phone could be set up.

The problem is that I genuinely couldn't remember my password. I wasn't able to reset it myself, so I password reset request to admin. I haven't heard anything back yet, and I don't have the admin person's direct contact details.

I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of giving my actual work password to someone else. I would have assumed that, if the phone needs to be linked to my work account, an administrator/IT person could set this up or reset the password without needing me to disclose my password.

I have now contacted my line manager again to ask for a call, but I haven't heard back yet.

The other issue is that I need access to the work email/system before the end of the month because I need to submit paperwork.
I'm not trying to cause an issue or make a big deal out of it — I genuinely just want to understand what the normal process should be and what I should do next.
Would you normally be expected to give your work password to your line manager to set up a company phone, or should this be handled by admin/IT? And what would you do in my situation? Should I phone the office today or wait til Monday