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?

If you are in breach of such clauses they can reclaim the money.

"I didn't retain the information however I would be willing to come back on a consultancy basis with a view of helping retrieve the required files. My fee is £500 per hour, minimum of 40 hours."

This is IT’s problem, not yours. Ignore from now on.

Thank you for the advice. But I don't understand why signing a settlement agreement means you having ongoing obligations to the employer? The purpose of the agreement is to settle and formalise an end to your employment?

They probably won’t bother doing so if you are co-operative but if you were to follow some of the advice on here and charge them for your time to find documents you didn’t file properly then that will probably piss them off enough to do so. So be co-operative and don’t be antagonistic.

if however they only paid you statutory redundancy and you haven’t signed a Settlement Agreement then you don’t owe them anything save for risking a reference which may or may not matter to you

Your lawyer should have advised you on all of this if you did sign a Settlement Agreement

@northchesterforest a settlement agreement will set out things like, what reference you will get, continuing to maintain confidentiality, might put restrictions on moving to a competitor for a certain amount of time and not poaching their clients. It can also require you to provide reasonable assistance to them once you’ve left. It’s a contract, which if you accept it, usually means you get a better redundancy package, but does usually impose some ongoing obligations. You would have had to take legal advice before signing it if they offered you one.

Just ignore. No more headspace for them!

So IT can access it. Tell them you don’t work for them anymore and you left the files in a place they can access. Obviously you have to be polite if you need a reference. Are I’m guessing you can’t access the files anyway? Lazy sods.

I had this - well they tried. Gardening leave was 2 weeks and after that the line was in the sand.

I knew my old manager was totally disorganised but very entitled. So I just got written agreement with HR (all communication was through them) that this would stop. Then I blocked her.

Hi, I would probably give them a general link to where everything is saved. After that it’s up to tomorrow expect xxxx

Ignore them!!! What a bloody cheek - they want your knowledge but don’t want to pay you !
ignore and block

I manage/administrate Google workspace for several companies. If an employee leaves it’s easy enough to access their email, gdrive etc and allow another employee to access it or merge with a different account.

they are being plebeians. they just need to access your files via IT.

just stop responding. You owe them nothing now. Unless you wish to suggest they contract you at a consulting rate.

This is stuff they should have thought about before making you redundant and putting you on garden leave. If they had given you a week or two you could have done handover and tidied things up. They’ve had plenty of time to rectify this situation and it’s their problem now.

This is one of those "be careful what you wish for moments". They dont employ you anymore, dont pay you for your time so therefore they dont get your time.

I agree with emailing in no uncertain terms that you have given as much assistance as you can given you no longer have access to the drive they own. If they need further assistance you require £X amount per hour consultancy fee (at least 3 times per hour what you used to make) and full access to the drive in question. If acceptance of those terms are not forthcoming with 7 working days would will no longer be able to assist and will be blocking all further emails.

oh and minimum of half a days fee as these are your current terms with other clients (which I dont know if you have and neither do they!!).

Charge them per hour for any response.

Just block . Problem Solved.

Yes. Reply with this.

This, and make it a consultancy rate. Say 500/day to be modest.

They probably made the IT guys redundant as well..

Say that you are willing to help but will be charging xxx per hour consultant's fee. If you don't want to then block.

What matobe said

They are fecking changing it

Don't follow this advice OP. What does your agreement state?

OP totally get the g drive and not an issue where you saved stuff. Employee is taking the piss. I’m afraid I’m not able to help as I don’t work here anymore.

Either and ignore and block or send them back the message about what your hourly rate is for consulting work.