Ex employer keeps contacting me

[northchesterforest]

I was made redundant in January after 5 years in a role. They asked me to leave the same day. It wasn't personal as a lot of others in the company got the same treatment. The thing is, for the last two weeks I've been getting emails from my old boss asking where certain files are. Most of them were saved on my personal work g drive, which they are saying they can no longer access.

I must admit I wasn't great at organising my files for other people but I always knew where to access them, and honestly I was great at my job and a lot of what you would need to know was stored in my head, from working in the role for so long. I feel like they are accusing me of withholding information but do they even have a leg to stand on? Should I start ignoring them? I'm politely responding for now and trying to help them find things but I don't have access to anything anymore so there is only so much I can do?

No! You haven't removed or deleted anything. It's all still in their possession and you owe them nothing.
The only reason I would keep them onside is if you think they may hire you back at any point? Often if made redundant there are rules against that.

I'm afraid I'm not available to provide free support to the company as I am no longer your employee

No they don't have a leg to stand on but a bit strange that files were stored on your personal drive rather then a company access one.

I would respond back simply with as I am no longer an employee with IT access I cannot assist further then what I have already and leave it up to them to sort!

Just say you are sorry you cajt help. It was all left on the cimputer. You dont have access to it now. As you no longer work there. Sorry you can't be of more help

If they asked you to leave immediately does that mean you got put on gardening leave (and therefore still paid)?

If you are on gardening leave and still salaried then you should be helping. If your notice period has expired then there is no further requirement to help.

Why can’t IT access your personal drive?

I should explain, the 'personal drive' is a company drive. I can't access it now I'm not at the company.

It's just that we had a another shared drive where we were expected to save things as well

‘I no longer work for the company, if you need my support, my rate per hour is X, paid in advance. The hours that suit me are X’

I was on gardening leave. I am no longer on gardening leave and have received my payout

Yeah I completely agree with this. It’s bloody outrageous they keep contacting you. They needed to pay you an extra week and have a handover period. You owe them nothing.

I also think IT should be able to access it all, I'm not sure why they are chasing me

I was great at my job, I've just never been very good at organising work folders, it's not how my brain works!

I'd have to make some comment about the fact that if I'd had some notice of my impending redundancy I'd have been able to leave my files in an order that was easily accessible by others! But I'm menopausal and seem to have lost all filters

I'm surprised you kept important work files on a personal drive, and that you didn't transfer or copy them over before you left. They're contacting you because they think you've done it on purpose and I can see why they'd think that.

Again it was a personal work drive, like you would have if you saved your files in a documents folder on your laptop. It's still owned by the company and not me.

If they can't open a file in their own system that belonged to an employee who's left, well they need a new IT manager.
It's their system. Of course you no longer have access to any of it so you can't help.
Just stop responding after firmly saying you cannot and will not assist further. Make it plain you have never moved or deleted anything from their internal files.
They sound highly unprofessional.

Ignore those who don’t get that you have your “personal drive” and the shared drive - I remember always saying “can you make sure it’s all in the G drive” (never was).

id just say “look I no longer have access - if it’s not on the shared folder I suggest you check the x folder”.
tough luck if they don’t have access to that - you didn’t have time to move anything over.

Exactly this.

I would respond "if they aren't on the shared drive,then will be on the individual drive. You would be best contact IT support."

Then never respond again.

Yeah, as others have said, you now need to give them your consultancy hourly rate. Which should be excessively high!

What a cheek. Not your problem any more.

Thank you! I'm panicking that I'm out of order not transferring everything over and getting it orderly before EOD. I was a bit emotional tbh!

You don't work there..block and ignore...if you want to be nice...reply I don't work there and please see it for computer access...

'Hi. I am not sure if you are aware but you made me redundant and told me to leave the same day. I haven't access to any files. Should you need any, they are all on the system that you stopped me from being able to access, the day you made me redundant. I'm not sure why you keep contacting me, when you know all the above. Please stop contacting me.'

Ignore ignore ignore. You don’t work there anymore and they need to work it out for themselves. They didn’t want any handover time and this is what happens. They sound like cheeky fuckers

Well at least they can't sack you for not saving it to the shared drive 😀
Ignore them and do as everyone else is suggesting - I don't work for you any more.