chewearn's blog

So, here I was in my final days of corporate employment. During the exit process, we were required to turn over all corporate files, data and emails. Emails? Ermmm…

After years in the company, I have tens of thousands of emails in the archives. Once you leave, the archive could be kept for a number of years as required by the law of some countries. Worst, your boss (or ex-boss actually) would now take possession of those emails.

So then, what do you do with all those personal mails you might have lying around? What about those NFSW emails you sent or received from friends? You did delete them every time, didn’t you? How would you know you have clean out and sanitize everything?

Balancing work and fun

Of course, as a responsible corporate citizen you shouldn’t have been engaged in these nefarious emails forwarding in the first place. But the workplace sure would be an extremely boring place, wouldn’t it? It’s all nice to hear the company lawyer and/or IT department warning you about being a party to these emails. But if we couldn’t have just a little bit of fun now and again while at work, then work became work, and personal life became personal life. The company would not then have the right to claim your personal time or commitment (i.e. loyalty to company, engagement, blah blah blah). Fair is fair.

Tedious recovery

Needless to say, I spent considerable amount of time during my last days in the office manually sifting through years of archives clearing out these emails. Well, good lesson learned. Here then are two options you could use to make sure you don’t have to go through the same thing I did.

Option 1: Cold and distance

Keep all communications to only work related. No personal banters, no giving out your corporate email address to friends. Every recorded document should be by the book, and impersonal. Immediately delete every joke emails, greetings, etc sent by co-workers. Tell them in no uncertain terms not to send such non-work related emails to you.

Why this is good:
There is no trail of incriminating evidence with your name on it. Just like the policy wanted.

Why this is bad:
You will miss out all the office fun. When you spent almost your entire day, everyday, in the office, it is hard not to put some personal touches. You would not be part of the team.

Option 2: Delete immediately

Accept some personal emails, but delete them immediately. Don’t keep it in archive, else it would soon got lost, only to be found later by someone who check your emails when you leave your company.

Why this is good:
It a middle ground. You are partly engaged with your fellow colleagues, but erase traces of unwholesome shenanigans.

Why this is bad:
You might have erase all traces from your email archives, but what about those people who received them from you? You have no control over how they keep your NSFW emails from being found by someone else.

So, what then?

Personally, having been lax with my emails in the past, I intend to adopt only the strictest rule in the future. My recent unemployment has taught me a hard lesson (again): work to live, not live to work. Most companies policies have always been tight, protect our asses at all cost variety. There is absolutely no reason why you and I should be tricked into making work part of our personal life. Ignore the engagement spiels of the HR department. When it comes down to it, your life is worth nothing to a company; only the bottom line and shareholders are counted.