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Original poster

They left and deleted all their emails

180 replies

Surreality22 · 08/12/2022 23:02

Colleague I was managing has left the company after working their notice. They have been quite problematic, lazy and making mistakes. They were supposed to send me some information I needed prior to them finishing and they didn't. I also wanted to know if there was anything outstanding which hadn't been dealt with. So IT gave me access to their emails to check for the missing info. Not only was it not there in sent/draft emails but they'd deleted everything out their inbox up until they left, along with nearly everything in the sent and deleted emails folder.

I'm just wondering why someone would do this? It wouldn't even occur to me to delete work emails when leaving a job, and these would have likely been info sent by colleagues/work requests that need dealing with. I imagine IT can retrieve them hopefully but wondering on the rationale behind doing this, is it just to be a dick and cause me more work?

OP posts:
TiAmoTiAmo · 09/12/2022 05:27

Butterflywing · 09/12/2022 02:27

I did this when I left an absolutely awful company and it felt absolutely wonderful!! But I went much further than that! I deleted all the work everyone else had done, as well as using other people's passcodes that I had overheard over the months of hell (from absolute dicks who made my life hell) to make long international calls to my sister in the last few months of my employment. I also left teethmarks on my desk to have a permanent record of my hatred of the place which did make me laugh at loud.

This was 20 years ago and my worklife has been so much better since as I was able to doctor a very good work reference for myself too. Revenge is very sweet ☺️ and I would definitely do it again with no hesitation.

This is shocking. I can't believe you're proud of yourself for doing this.

dolor · 09/12/2022 05:35

Hahahahaha

Good for them.

SantasFlaws · 09/12/2022 06:06

I've known a few people do this - for various reasons but mostly to prevent having to go through their 0000s emails and pick out the personal ones. Or the ones where colleagues who are left in the business slag off a boss etc.

I will say that anyone doing this is unlikely to just leave them in the Deleted folder. Mostly people take the extra steps to strip them out if Deleted Items and then out of the Recovery folder.

Making an account restore from Backups the only option - via IT.

Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious · 09/12/2022 06:09

I deleted everything when I left, emails, files etc. Why not?

Hollyhead · 09/12/2022 06:12

To clear up some misunderstandings…Company emails regardless of the name on the mailbox are always property of the employer, no one has a right to privacy in a work email. People should be using a genuine personal account for their own personal stuff. Never write anything in a work email you wouldn’t be happy with your boss reading.

Sounds like your shot of someone not great OP

Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious · 09/12/2022 06:13

no one has a right to privacy in a work email.

People do have a right to clear their inbox when they leave though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hollyhead · 09/12/2022 06:14

@Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious because it’s your employers property, not yours.

Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious · 09/12/2022 06:15

Hollyhead · 09/12/2022 06:14

@Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious because it’s your employers property, not yours.

But regardless they can still delete their emails..

Hollyhead · 09/12/2022 06:15

@Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious only of information that is not potentially useful or relevant to ongoing work.

MarshaBradyo · 09/12/2022 06:17

GiltEdges · 09/12/2022 04:53

Well realistically, if it’s their individual private work mailbox rather than a shared one, they had every right to clear it down upon leaving their role. I’m a DPO and would absolutely do this when leaving any role. It’s also good practice to regularly clear down emails, because mailboxes were never designed to be long term storage of important information and they’re nowhere near as secure as e.g. a shared network drive with appropriate role-based access provision.

I’m also surprised that IT gave you direct access to the mailbox rather than searching for what you’d asked for themselves. Whilst the mailbox is the property of the company and there may be a legitimate reason to search it (which doesn’t require the individual’s consent), it’s also incredibly privacy intrusive to give an immediate colleague access to someone’s private work emails. Totally different to an impartial HR/IT colleague doing the same.

yes to this

Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious · 09/12/2022 06:17

Hollyhead · 09/12/2022 06:15

@Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious only of information that is not potentially useful or relevant to ongoing work.

If it's relevant they would have asked for it. Most people who would delete would do a mass delete.

greenacrylicpaint · 09/12/2022 06:18

yes, I was advised (yonk ago) that it is best practice to delete any emails unless there is a company policy about that.

what is your company policy?

anything worth saving should be able to be stored in the case files/case system.

tbh i would expect IT to have back ups.

SideshowAuntSallly · 09/12/2022 06:20

In my old company you had to go through HR to get access to someone's email or OneDrive account after they left and they were really strict about it so very rarely granted permission. IT also wipe our laptops and reimage them after we leave.

I deleted all my emails when I left and a lot of files on my one drive but everything that was needed was with the relevant people so I didn't see the need to keep them. Still didn't stop my old manager hassling me, then when I blocked her she tried to contact me through someone else.

It was an extremely toxic place to work,it was slowly killing me and I didn't care how 'inconvenienced' me leaving and taking all my knowledge made her. But once I was gone she had no right to contact me.

pilates · 09/12/2022 06:22

In answer to your question op I believe it was to be difficult.

My2pence2day · 09/12/2022 06:25

Sounds like a total nightmare, be glad you are rid (although if they did a decent handover, there should be no need for emails)

mummyh2016 · 09/12/2022 06:25

Butterflywing · 09/12/2022 02:27

I did this when I left an absolutely awful company and it felt absolutely wonderful!! But I went much further than that! I deleted all the work everyone else had done, as well as using other people's passcodes that I had overheard over the months of hell (from absolute dicks who made my life hell) to make long international calls to my sister in the last few months of my employment. I also left teethmarks on my desk to have a permanent record of my hatred of the place which did make me laugh at loud.

This was 20 years ago and my worklife has been so much better since as I was able to doctor a very good work reference for myself too. Revenge is very sweet ☺️ and I would definitely do it again with no hesitation.

I love a petty win as much as the next person but leaving teeth marks on a desk screams MH issues to me.

alasangne · 09/12/2022 06:27

Probably been sending a load of personal email?

alasangne · 09/12/2022 06:29

Or they might be like oh these emails should all be deleted to save the storage

Adviceneeded200 · 09/12/2022 06:33

Blimey, I'm leaving soon and wouldn't dream of deleting emails. Surely they aren't "mine" they are threads of work, which my employer has asked me to do.

There may be the odd personal one (where I've entered a competition twice or something and Ive ended up on a email list) but I've worked hard and don't see that the boss will worry about those. He needs my threads to enable a transition as not everything is printed nowadays.

dancingqueen123 · 09/12/2022 06:36

biedrona · 08/12/2022 23:06

Have they given consent to have their inbox accessed?

They've left. It's not their inbox anymore!

dancingqueen123 · 09/12/2022 06:37

goldfishthecracker · 08/12/2022 23:08

Must have been a very toxic job to do that on leaving

Or a very toxic employee.

LondonWolf · 09/12/2022 06:40

I wouldn't leave a thing behind to potentially be used against me.

MayThe4th · 09/12/2022 06:42

cool story…

You lost credibility at the point where you said yo doctored your own reference, given that employers would contact a previous employer for a reference not rely on one which you happened to provide.

And if you went as far as to give employers wrong details then what you did was gross misconduct and a sackable offence if your new employer found out.

Not surprised the employers you speak of were glad to be rid of you. You sound unhinged.

BarrelOfOtters · 09/12/2022 06:44

We aren’t supposed to use email as a storage system, in theory everything should be stored on the network and emails kept clear. For foi and data protection purposes. In reality that doesn’t work….

a colleague who left under a bit of a cloud deleted all of his, but didn’t delete delete…..when restored there was a lot in there it was handy to know he’d been sending.

MayThe4th · 09/12/2022 06:45

For some reason I am unable to quote. Was referencing PP who claimed they’d left teeth marks on their desk and doctored their own reference.

As for it being a toxic employer, maybe they were just shit at their job. Plenty of people are.