Mailbox retention policy concerning former employees

[dcehling]

I am in need of real life experiences or links to articles concerning how long to keep a mailbox open after an employee leaves a company voluntarily. My preference is to shutdown the mailbox as soon as possible after the employee departs and after giving the employee's supervisor what I consider to be sufficient time (two weeks) to sort through the mail.

However, I am experiencing opposition to this policy from a supervisor who wants to keep an orphaned mailbox opened indefinitely. I cited security reasons and unnecessary administrative costs as arguments for closing orphaned mailboxes as soon as possible, but he is still unconvinced.

Any suggestions to support my stance, short of utilizing a blunt object, will be appreciated.

 

[MichiganRon]

However, I am experiencing opposition to this policy from a supervisor who wants to keep an orphaned mailbox opened indefinitely.

Is this YOUR supervisor? I certainly hope not. Develop a policy and get your boss to approve it. After that, just follow the policy.

You were right, it IS a security risk to have an unused mailbox open. Tell this "supervisor" that if he thinks that he can run the email system better, then you'll give him a call the next time you run into a problem or need to perform an upgrade. You don't tell him how to do your job, so don't let him tell you how to do yours.

Sorry about my rant. I just hate it when other people act like they know more about my job than I do (when in most cases, they don't).

Give the supervisor ample time to access the account and forward any messages to his account. After that period of time, since he will already have the messages he wants, there will be absolutely no reason why the account would need to remain open.

From a security standpoint, without daily monitoring by the original employee, the old account could be used maliciously to impersonate a company employee which no longer exists.

In addition, with the recent increase in junk email, it is conceivable that the user database could grow in size over time and cause performance problems with your server.

Politically speaking, get your boss on your side and delete the account. Let your boss handle the complaints from this know-it-all.

-Ron

We all play from the same deck of cards, it's how we play the hand we are dealt which makes us who we are. -Me

murof siht edisni kcuts m'I - PLEH

 

[rjs]

Aside from the policy, there are several ways to accomodate the supervisor. Have the sup create a shared folder (so the sup is the owner) and give the dearly departed rights to the shared folder. Move all the departed e-mail to the shared folder. Then you can delete the departed's account.

For new incoming mail addressed to the departed, create an alias with that name for the supervisor.

R.Sobelman

http://www.tracklogins.com