No longer with company

Secuirty concerns should override all. So changing the password, then moving the files to a secure area, deleting the ID, then asking the person's manager what they want done with the files. With email, archive it immediately and again store the archive in a secure, not readil;y accessable area.

In many companies I worked at this was during during the meeting between the employee and HR - so that there was no oppornity for modification or deletion of files. Consider that if there is a lawsuit over wrongfull dismissal that the files are potential evidence, and you want to do all you can to prevent tampering. Its always possible that the person fired still has friends on the inside who they might give the ID and password to, so promptness and thoroughness is very important.

James

When an employee leaves the company, I do the following:

Burn any user data (local PC and fileserver) to CDs and hand them to the person's supervisor (or put them on a shelf if the supervisor isn't interested). Data is then deleted from the server, and the computer the employee used is locked away until it needs to be issued to another person (always wiping it just before it gets reissued).

All passwords are changed and accounts are disabled (email, dialup, domain, voice mail, VPN, intranet).

Occasionally files are needed by other employeees, so I will copy the files into their storage folders and delete the old employee's folder.

I work in a slightly smaller company (30 computers) but we have the following policy for employees who leave their employment (voluntarily or otherwise):

Each user has a network space, all files and folders in these areas are burned to CD and then deleted so they aren't taking up space. If the files are needed I pull the CD off my shelf and access them that way. Also by putting them on a non-rewriteable CD, you have reasonable proof that the files were in the same state as when they were burned, usually the employee's last day.

The users network and email accounts are deactivated and assigned new passwords. If I need to access their email for any reason, I temporarily reactivate their account, log in, get what I need and then deactivate the account again. Our email policy deletes all emails older than 6 months, so once the 6 months have expired I just delete the account.

I also make it a habit to browse through the email of the employee for any client related emails. I forward these to the partner who has the client so that they have all the emails that haven't been saved to the network (like they are supposed to be, but alas...) I generally ignore internal emails figuring I can always go back in and get them and they should be in someone's sent items.

I also make sure that any workstation level passwords have been changed so the employee can't get into their workstation via remote access anymore. All of the data on an existing workstation is wiped either when the workstation is assigned to a new employee or reassigned toa current employee.

Well, I am in a little bigger company, and the problem I always ran into what that the former employee was developing some code, and hadn't checked it into our Change Management Software, so those modified files were still sitting on that computer.

Another problem was that they were getting email from customers, and no one was checking the email.

Thanks! I didn't realize it. Too bad it doesn't support HTML Tags.

I just realized that you are #9 of the top 100 posters, and you only have 4 bars. Is that because you haven't posted much recently?

I back up the users mail to a PST file and delete the account to prevent mail from being delivered there. The PST is stored in a folder accessable only to Domain Admins. If their former supervisor wants the mail and their supervisor agrees then I copy, not move, the pst to their network drive and let them open it in Outlook. Their files remain on their network drive and the data there is treated just like the email backup. I always have an original copy.