Sysadmins: user leaves company but mailbox stays active with no OOO. What’s your standard approach?
Posted by MarchGeneral4309@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 30 comments
My former employer left my email active but removed my out-of-office reply. I want to make sure senders know I’ve left. What are safe and professional ways to handle this?
mixduptransistor@reddit
The most safe and professional way to handle it is to not do anything at all. It's not your problem unless they actively impersonate you
If there's anyone outside the company you want to maintain contact with, if it's consistent with any prior agreements you had with your former employer (such as non-competes, non-poaching, etc) you can just email them directly from your own email, but I wouldn't go around trying to contact every vendor or everyone you've ever interacted with to tell them you're no longer there. That is dangerous territory
MarchGeneral4309@reddit (OP)
how would I know if they actively impersonate me. employer is a spinoff of indian company, based in Dubai. There's no way I could know if they impersonating me.
Elensea@reddit
Ego!
UrgentSiesta@reddit
Offboarding SOP is a fwd to that individuals manager.
MarchGeneral4309@reddit (OP)
I wish there was any kind of process or off boarding SOP in place. company is completely inconsistent in the approach. sometimes emails from previous employees are forwarded to another employee for years, but sometimes just forgotten.
UrgentSiesta@reddit
Just make the fwd to the mgr YOUR sop. 🤙
Nobody’s going to argue about it because it’s literally the most sensible course of action to take.
Once the mgr is getting it, all further responsibility for changes or DLP falls on them.
UrgentSiesta@reddit
Yknow what, my bad - you’re already gone.
It should be easy enough for you to remember your contacts and send them an email.
Or, barring that, reach out to them on LinkedIn for a connection with a short note that you’ve departed and would like to stay in touch.
And there’s this thing called the phone that still works pretty well 😁
No matter what you do, keep your comms strictly to the “I’m doing something new and want to stay connected”. Doubly so if your employee agreement contains a non-solicit clause.
You can get around this by asking for referrals to companies that might need help. If your contact wants to talk about work, only do it over the phone, too.
j9wxmwsujrmtxk8vcyte@reddit
Since you have not stated anything that would help us determine where you or your employer are located there really isn't any qualified advice to give. If you are in the EU, you can likely force your employer to delete the e-mail address if it is made up of PII through GDPR mechanisms.
If you are in the US, India or some other shithole where companies have more rights than their employees, you likely have no course of action available to you.
MarchGeneral4309@reddit (OP)
employer is in the UAE.
j9wxmwsujrmtxk8vcyte@reddit
That makes it simple. You have no rights.
emmjaybeeyoukay@reddit
None. You're not an employee and you have (no access to the mail system. Its not your concern.
Even if you still had access you should NOT make or attempt to make changes as this would be within the scope of The Computer Misuse Act 1990 which sets criminal law penalties for unauthorised access to computers, unauthorised modification of computer material, and related cyber offences in the UK.
MarchGeneral4309@reddit (OP)
employer is based in UAE. it is a spinoff of an Indian company.
ISeeDeadPackets@reddit
Forget changes, you should make sure you're logged out if you still have it active on any devices and never try to access it again.
Dave_A480@reddit
Just disconnect any/all of your devices from their email system and let their IT figure out the account still active part....
There is no reason to hang on to an old account
alexisdelg@reddit
This used to be part of my off-boarding duties, either grant read access to the former employee's manager or create some auto-fowarding rule that goes to that person's manager
This of course should be spoken with HR/C-suite/manager before hand
Unable-Entrance3110@reddit
It's not your email and not your problem.
Update your LinkedIn profile, it's what anyone who cares is going to reference anyway.
sonicc_boom@reddit
This guy emails
larmik@reddit
Be like Elsa and let it go.
Commercial_Growth343@reddit
In my experience it is very routine to forward a terminated employees email to their manager for a period of some time, maybe 3 months. That is to make sure important messages from customers or vendors are still read by the business. Sometimes there is an OOO message, and sometimes not.
DrunkyMcStumbles@reddit
Why do you care? Anyone who emails that address is either going to be told or realize it isn't you. Update your LinkedIn in case they want to find you.
illicITparameters@reddit
Fuck 'em, that's my approach. Fuck do I care?
DistantFlea90909@reddit
It is no longer your email account. You do nothing
dogcmp6@reddit
You no longer work for them, so its not a "You problem"
CeC-P@reddit
It's their mail server so not much you can do.
jason9045@reddit
If you didn't keep a contact list that you can reach out to with a short courtesy note, you don't handle this.
Someone internal may be monitoring that mailbox, or your former employer doesn't care if emails sent there aren't being seen. Either way, they're not paying you to worry about it anymore.
slugshead@reddit
The answer to your title:
Convert to shared mailbox, turn on ooo and delegate access to line manager/nominated person.
The answer to your post: Ring your previous employee HR team, or email your old address daily until you see an ooo?
sryan2k1@reddit
It was turned off intentionally, why would calling them get them to change this? But yes, throw harassment on top for fun?
sryan2k1@reddit
Barring any kind of insider trading/NDA/etc you email anyone you want to know you are leaving before you leave. Once you're gone it's no longer your mailbox (it was never your mailbox) and they can do whatever they want.
JumpScared8902@reddit
Wait, why do you think you have the right to do anything to an email account that belongs to a previous employer? This is a no go all the way around. You might want people to know but they don't, you have no rights or course of action here.
Helpjuice@reddit
As soon as you leave the company you should no longer take any action for anything that is company owned except for notifying them that you have left the company as you are no longer employed there.
It is the companies responsibility to properly manage the mailbox of employees that have left.