The Tool Desk
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Start by confirming the offboarding rules
Ask your manager or HR what must happen before your last day. Find out when equipment is due, who will take over your work, where business records belong, and how you may retrieve personal files from a work account or company-owned device. Ask whether IT needs to supervise a transfer or cleanup, and whether any records are subject to a retention hold.
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If you need personal employment information—such as pay or benefits records—ask HR or the employer’s privacy contact how to request it. Rules about access, what you may take, and how long a response may take vary by jurisdiction and employer.
Inventory files before moving anything
Review likely storage locations while you still have authorized access. The Government of Canada’s departure and transfer guidance covers digital storage, email, devices, removable media and physical records.
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- Work email, including archive folders and attachments
- Local computer folders and network or shared drives
- OneDrive or another work cloud account
- Removable drives and other storage media
- Work and personal phones used for work
- Paper files, notebooks and other physical records
Classify what you find as business-value, transitory, personal or uncertain. Make the inventory without first copying files elsewhere. A file’s location or creator does not by itself establish that it is yours to keep.
Hand over business records inside approved systems
Move business-value documents, email, messages, datasets, photographs and notes to the employer’s approved repository. Make sure the designated manager or successor can find them and has the access needed to continue the work. Add context where it is needed to explain what a record is or how it is used.
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Do not send company or client information to personal email, cloud storage or removable media just because you created or used it. The Government of Canada’s employee-departure checklist tells departing staff to transfer business-value information, assign an appropriate trustee, explain what they leave, and obtain approval for anything they want to take. For files whose status is uncertain, ask your manager or records-management or IT contact before acting.
Retrieve personal files through the employer’s process
If you saved personal items—such as family photos, a personal résumé or personal contact information—in a work location, ask how to retrieve them. This is especially important for a managed work account or company-owned device. Avoid bulk exports or attempts to bypass controls; request an approved transfer instead.
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Some messages and files combine personal and business information. Do not assume the whole item can be taken because it contains information about you. Ask the employer to review it or provide an appropriate copy or redaction. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office explains that a subject-access request concerns the requester’s personal information and that context, including other people’s information in an email, can affect disclosure: its employer Q&A is UK guidance and is marked as under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act.
Request employment records before access ends
For records you may need later, make a request to HR or the employer’s privacy contact before your account is closed. UK government guidance says an employee may ask for a copy of information an employer holds about them and describes a 30-day response period: Personal data an employer can keep about an employee. That period is a UK-specific example, not a worldwide deadline. The applicable process and response period depend on where you work and the relevant rules.
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Plan for work-account access to end
Do not rely on being able to sign in after departure. In Microsoft 365, an administrator can preserve a former employee’s OneDrive and Outlook data and choose whether to grant another employee access. Microsoft describes a default 30-day access period for a deleted user’s OneDrive in its former-employee access guidance; tenant settings and retention policies can change what happens. This is not a promise that a departing employee will retain access for 30 days.
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Retention can also affect what remains in a work system. Microsoft explains how policies apply to SharePoint and OneDrive in its retention guidance. Ask your employer about its configuration rather than assuming that account deletion means immediate removal—or that retained material remains available to you.
Clean up a personally owned device without risking personal data
If you used your own phone or computer for work, coordinate with IT to remove company data and work access while preserving personal files. Ask what management tools will do, who will perform the removal and what data is affected. Do not initiate a full wipe unless you understand the consequences and, where applicable, have consented to it.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security recommends selectively wiping company data where possible and says a full wipe should not be performed without the device owner’s consent. Its BYOD guidance is Canadian cybersecurity guidance; device-management options and legal expectations can differ elsewhere.
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Use a final-day checklist
- Confirm the schedule: ask your manager or HR for the return date, access cutoff and approved retrieval process.
- Review storage: check email, local and shared folders, work cloud storage, devices, removable media and paper records.
- Transfer business records: place them in approved systems, identify the next custodian and confirm the person can access them.
- Resolve personal and uncertain items: request an approved retrieval or review; do not move mixed or unclear material on your own.
- Request personal employment records: contact HR or the privacy contact before account access ends.
- Coordinate device and account cleanup: confirm with IT what will be preserved, transferred, removed or retained.
- Confirm completion: check with your manager or IT that the handover and cleanup are finished before your final day.
The right to access personnel information, the response period, what work product an employee may take, and what an employer may retain depend on local law, employment terms, company policy and the type of record. Treat the UK and Microsoft examples above as specific to their stated contexts, not as universal deadlines or guarantees.
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