Maternity contract and access to email

[iamthenewgirl]

I started a new job this week which is a maternity contract.

It's a busy job and the woman I am covering won't give me access to her email. She seems to think she has given me everything I need and I can ring her if there is anything I don't have as she will have her laptop at home and will email me anything. I'm not exactly sure how she is going to do this when she is in labour/has a screaming baby in tow!

It's a really busy PA role and I know i will need to refer to things to double check email trails/contexts and how she has approached things previously. She is quite adamant that I don't need access.

Any suggestions as to how I approach this? I am sweating the small stuff a bit at the moment...

I don't think you are being unreasonable at all OP. I worked part time in my last job, and it was in a very fast moving industry. The first thing I did was give reviewer access to the two junior engineers I was supervising so that they can access my email to read when I'm not in the office. And then when I went off unexpectedly on sick leave and subsequently didn't return, if would have been invaluable. I have a personal email address that I am allowed to access from work to deal with personal stuff. I also can't understand why people use a work email for anything personal as it simply isn't your address. It is provided by work as a tool to do you job. Although they may allow you to use it for personal stuff, there should be zero expectation of privacy.

I think some of the differing opinions reflect the different use of email in different work places. In some sectors (eg health). email addresses remain with an individual even on changing role and employing organisation. Also access to personal email is not permitted through work IT and whether forwarding is allowed is ambiguous. However it seems in other sectors email is role related and personal email accounts are expected/ facilitated. I would agree with op and avoid non-work personal email on work account. However there is plenty of work related emails in my account which aren't for general consumption. (Eg my boss could read but not my peers)

Yes, I do have my own email and pretty much everything is done on that. The email traffic is very high (three of the bosses travel so all their email is also copied to me). It's also a very fast paced role so I very much doubt that I have been given all the information I need. Time will tell.

Socks, I didn't think I was being unreasonable either but it seems to be a bit of a can of worms. I will do my job without requesting access and see how it goes. If it becomes too much of a problem then I will have to have a rethink.

Ahh OK, I made the assumption you didn't have your own email, sorry! :)