Kicked off company email address because manager of the same name has joined the comp

10000maniacs · 12-10-2019 2:50pm #1

A collegue of mine in an American multinational company has been kicked off his email address he has used for years because a new senior manager has joined the company with the same name. My collegue has been working there for over 10 years and has numerous accounts associated with the email address. Any legal suggestions with this case?

Fann Linn · 12-10-2019 2:53pm

Would it not be the company's property?

10000maniacs · 12-10-2019 2:53pm

I suppose it would.

BDI · 12-10-2019 2:53pm

Choose your battles would be my advice.

banie01 · 12-10-2019 2:58pm

Don't use work email or indeed any email that you don't have full control over as a recovery email or option for any online service.
The email address is company property, its allocation, revocation and content are all at the whim of your friends employer IMO.

Granted, reallocating it is bad form. Its theirs to do what they want though.
That said, its fairly poor practice on your friends part to have any online services and accounts that are not explicitly work related associated to a work email address.

punisher5112 · 12-10-2019 3:00pm

I do hope he wasn't using it for personal as others may well reply to him thinking it is actually him but it ain't...

Sam Quentin · 12-10-2019 3:07pm

banie01 wrote: »

Don't use work email or indeed any email that you don't have full control over as a recovery email or option for any online service.
The email address is company property, its allocation, revocation and content are all at the whim of your friends employer IMO.

Granted, reallocating it is bad form. Its theirs to do what they want though.
That said, its fairly poor practice on your friends part to have any online services and accounts that are not explicitly work related associated to a work email address.

Ahhhhh c'mon,.it becomes part of you deliberately or not,.I think fierce bad form of the company to do such a non empathetic nasty thing. Wether the email is the company's property or not.
Nasty Nasty.

Earleybird · 12-10-2019 3:10pm

Strange move by the company. Email address in use for over 10 years, there will be plenty of mails that will come through to the wrong person for a while

10000maniacs · 12-10-2019 3:12pm

banie01 wrote: »

Don't use work email or indeed any email that you don't have full control over as a recovery email or option for any online service.
The email address is company property, its allocation, revocation and content are all at the whim of your friends employer IMO.

Granted, reallocating it is bad form. Its theirs to do what they want though.
That said, its fairly poor practice on your friends part to have any online services and accounts that are not explicitly work related associated to a work email address.

He is a SW developer And has numerous company Microsoft accounts and software subscriptions based on the email. And probably some external accounts like everyone has.

10000maniacs · 12-10-2019 3:15pm

Earleybird wrote: »

Strange move by the company. Email address in use for over 10 years, there will be plenty of mails that will come through to the wrong person for a while

Two US companies merged recently (banking) and this is one of the fallouts.

Steve · 12-10-2019 3:30pm

So, he notifies the good clients of the change and the new guy has to deal with all the shyte? win win.

banie01 · 12-10-2019 4:37pm

10000maniacs wrote: »

He is a SW developer And has numerous company Microsoft accounts and software subscriptions based on the email. And probably some external accounts like everyone has.

Hopefully his company's IT management and merger team can sort something out for notifying other people and migrating his accounts.

Claw Hammer · 12-10-2019 5:37pm

10000maniacs wrote: »

A collegue of mine in an American multinational company has been kicked off his email address he has used for years because a new senior manager has joined the company with the same name. My collegue has been working there for over 10 years and has numerous accounts associated with the email address. Any legal suggestions with this case?

There could potentially be a breach of the data protection act. he could complain to the data protection commission.

BDI · 12-10-2019 5:43pm

Claw Hammer wrote: »

There could potentially be a breach of the data protection act. he could complain to the data protection commission.

It’s the companies data. I’d say it’s fairly similar to a work phone number. They took a lads phone off him in my job before with absolutely no notice. Just turned up asked him for it and gave it to somebody else.

Carawaystick · 12-10-2019 8:09pm

BDI wrote: »

It’s the companies data. I’d say it’s fairly similar to a work phone number. They took a lads phone off him in my job before with absolutely no notice. Just turned up asked him for it and gave it to somebody else.

Its the workers data.

gdpr wrote:

Personal data are any information which are related to an identified or identifiable natural person

un5byh7sqpd2x0 · 12-10-2019 8:11pm

BDI wrote: »

It’s the companies data. I’d say it’s fairly similar to a work phone number. They took a lads phone off him in my job before with absolutely no notice. Just turned up asked him for it and gave it to somebody else.

It's not though, there's an expectation to privacy even at work

Weltsmertz · 12-10-2019 9:20pm

Bad form. There is an expectation of privacy even if technically it belongs to the company. I have conducted several relationships via my work e-mail.

El Tarangu · 12-10-2019 10:36pm

Weltsmertz wrote: »

I have conducted several relationships via my work e-mail.

Social/romantic relationships?

Hammer of the Clods · 12-10-2019 10:49pm

Enrique Rapping Pelvis wrote: »

It's not though, there's an expectation to privacy even at work

Is there though?

There is probably a policy in place explaining how the email should be used. I've had to sign several over the years and they usually specify that emails are for work product only.

Work emails are generally administered by other employees, stored and controlled on company servers/resources. In my mind using work email would be the same as writing to someone on a companies stationary (headed paper), sending it through the company's postal system so they pay for the postage (or franking), and then filing a copy of the letter and any replies in a company filing cabinet.

It's crappy that the company have given the address to someone else, but it's theirs to do with as they please.

L1011 · 12-10-2019 11:02pm

I don't know what IT department would ever consent to this as it is effectively guaranteed to result in data disclosure that shouldn't happen

There's nothing about being able to stop your employer changing your email address - but immediately reissuing it to someone else is insanity.

Vetch · 13-10-2019 7:46am

Hammer of the Clods wrote: »

Is there though?

There is probably a policy in place explaining how the email should be used. I've had to sign several over the years and they usually specify that emails are for work product only.

Work emails are generally administered by other employees, stored and controlled on company servers/resources. In my mind using work email would be the same as writing to someone on a companies stationary (headed paper), sending it through the company's postal system so they pay for the postage (or franking), and then filing a copy of the letter and any replies in a company filing cabinet.

It's crappy that the company have given the address to someone else, but it's theirs to do with as they please.

The email address itself is the employee's personal data though as it contains the person's name. Odd decision by the company and one that might have been sorted out differently by adding a middle initial or putting the name in a different format.

whomitconcerns · 13-10-2019 7:53am

I've never heard of this happen in any company multinational or otherwise, and speaking to some it colleagues, they never have done this either..

Sounds very weird and possibly a mistake on the it departments side. Your friend should speak with their it department straight away

Lumen · 13-10-2019 8:15am

whomitconcerns wrote: »

I've never heard of this happen in any company multinational or otherwise, and speaking to some it colleagues, they never have done this either..

I have! It used to be very common, maybe still is but I haven't had a proper job in years.

My recommendation would be to leave the company. Take it as a sign of overinflated management egos and GTFO.

Failing that, identify the key accounts to be switched over and deal with them on a case by case basis. Github allows a new address to be registered without cocking up the contributions history.

If those accounts include porn etc then I revert to my first suggestion.

lawred2 · 13-10-2019 8:22am

10000maniacs wrote: »

A collegue of mine in an American multinational company has been kicked off his email address he has used for years because a new senior manager has joined the company with the same name. My collegue has been working there for over 10 years and has numerous accounts associated with the email address. Any legal suggestions with this case?

That's stupid. They should have used a middle initial to differentiate between the two.

Sure he'll be in countless contacts list with that email address. How are they to know that it is no longer reaching there intended recipient?

Franz Von Peppercorn II · 13-10-2019 8:33am

Vetch wrote: »

The email address itself is the employee's personal data though as it contains the person's name. Odd decision by the company and one that might have been sorted out differently by adding a middle initial or putting the name in a different format.

There’s nothing personal about a work email account. It’s for work purposes only. However GDPR rules seem to mean that any monitoring should be explained beforehand and business related.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/basic-rights-and-contracts/monitoring-at-work/

Franz Von Peppercorn II · 13-10-2019 8:37am

Carawaystick wrote: »

Its the workers data

Personal data are any information which are related to an identified or identifiable natural person

.

Is fairly common for people to quote this as if it subsequently means that GDPR makes any such data unusable by the company. It’s merely defining what personal data is, it doesn’t say it can’t be used for business purposes.

Vetch · 13-10-2019 8:46am

Franz Von Peppercorn II wrote: »

There’s nothing personal about a work email account. It’s for work purposes only. However GDPR rules seem to mean that any monitoring should be explained beforehand and business related.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/basic-rights-and-contracts/monitoring-at-work/

I didn't say that the work email account was personal; what I wrote was that the email address is personal data. It contains the employee's name and has become associated with that person.

That said, I don't use my work email account for my personal dealings but it still contains my personal data as it contains emails relating to my leave, payroll, performance management documents etc etc. Suspect this is the case with many people.

I don't see how monitoring has anything to do with this.

Vetch · 13-10-2019 8:47am

Franz Von Peppercorn II wrote: »

Is fairly common for people to quote this as if it subsequently means that GDPR makes any such data unusable by the company. It’s merely defining what personal data is, it doesn’t say it can’t be used for business purposes.

Correct - but the company still has to ensure that its use of personal data is legitimate in terms of Data Protection law.

Eire Go Brach · 13-10-2019 10:11am

Don’t think it’s a GDPR issue. Stupid decision though. Does not make any sense.
The new person won’t see any older emails of the original owner. They are 2 separate accounts
It will confuse the hell out of colleagues and anyone emailing externally.

AndrewJRenko · 13-10-2019 11:56am

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

Don’t think it’s a GDPR issue. Stupid decision though. Does not make any sense.
The new person won’t see any older emails of the original owner. They are 2 separate accounts
It will confuse the hell out of colleagues and anyone emailing externally.

If lots of people are replying to emails originally sent by person A and those replies are now received by person B, there could be data protection or GDPR issues involved.

It's a really dumb decision by the company - very poor email management practice. It smacks of a decision made by someone who hasn't got a clue about technology, and an IT dept that doesn't have the respect of management to be able to push back.

Lumen · 13-10-2019 1:44pm

There is a legitimate issue with people making assumptions that john.doe@megacorp.com is one particular John Doe.

So one way around this is to change the alias on the original account and set up an autoresponder, that replies with something like:

----
There are now two John Does in MegaCorp.

Please update your address book as follows:

john.b.doe@megacorp.com Global Vice Chimp
john.r.doe@megacorp.com Software Engineering Ninja Class 3

Insincere regards etc..
---

That way it's impossible for the wrong person to be targetted. It also scales as more John Does join the company, just update the autoresponder.

Plus, the Global Vice Chimp gets to appear first on the list.

Strumms · 13-10-2019 1:51pm

It’s a ****ty dumb move either way, the person who was using the email should have been left with it. Or theirs amended to include their middle initial as above...

whomitconcerns · 13-10-2019 2:30pm

Well I've worked for the biggest corporate in the world and first person gets the first.last designation next person gets the initial added or whatever. Literally wouldn't make sense to retroactively reassign/change an employee's email address for millions of business reasons, ignoring all the practical ones even...

Talk to IT, it must be a mistake surely

Strumms · 13-10-2019 3:21pm

Crowd I was with was a large multinational...so throughout the world there was probably 20 David Kelly’s... emails such as...

[snip - no email addresses please. Real or not.]

Literally scores of various variations without nicking someone’s email that’s ridiculous....

daheff · 13-10-2019 3:30pm

ill bet it was a junior IT person asked to set up a new email address. didnt properly look at the system... got distracted came back saw the email address and thought they set it up.

whomitconcerns · 13-10-2019 3:32pm

daheff wrote: »

ill bet it was a junior IT person asked to set up a new email address. didnt properly look at the system... got distracted came back saw the email address and thought they set it up.

This. Seniority of role wouldn't come into it. Has to be a mistake.

Asitis2019 · 13-10-2019 3:48pm

10000maniacs wrote: »

A collegue of mine in an American multinational company has been kicked off his email address he has used for years because a new senior manager has joined the company with the same name. My collegue has been working there for over 10 years and has numerous accounts associated with the email address. Any legal suggestions with this case?

Why is this a legal issue?

Why doesn't the It department simply add a 1 to the new email address, or use a middle name or an initial?

This is not difficult. It is simple. It is not a legal issue.

AndrewJRenko · 13-10-2019 3:58pm

daheff wrote: »

ill bet it was a junior IT person asked to set up a new email address. didnt properly look at the system... got distracted came back saw the email address and thought they set it up.

What do you mean? The system wouldn't let you set up a second account with the same email address as an existing user.

ianobrien · 13-10-2019 9:30pm

So, what about the other work systems that are tied to the email address? I imagine it's like other American Multinationals where I've worked where there were various work systems tied to the email, for example annual leave, clock in, HR & performance systems, security / site access systems, etc.

I imagine it's more of a HR problem to ensure that personal data associated with the email address on the various systems are not carried over to the new start. I imagine that it's only right and proper to ask

Franz Von Peppercorn II · 13-10-2019 11:53pm

Asitis2019 wrote: »

Why is this a legal issue?

Why doesn't the It department simply add a 1 to the new email address, or use a middle name or an initial?

This is not difficult. It is simple. It is not a legal issue.

Because the new executive wants his name without any additions.

beauf · 14-10-2019 12:42am

I think you'd have a to write an official letter to HR and the companies data protection officer of the data risk associated with this, not to mention difficulties with software licencees, accounts etc.

So that you wash your hands of it all and cover your ass.

jhegarty · 14-10-2019 12:47am

New emails can be generated by people who don't know about the change.

As an example , let's say OP sent an email to the company doctor last week , response goes back to Global Vice Chimp and we have a GDPR violation.

beauf · 14-10-2019 12:49am

Asitis2019 wrote: »

Why is this a legal issue?

Why doesn't the It department simply add a 1 to the new email address, or use a middle name or an initial?

This is not difficult. It is simple. It is not a legal issue.

Because they hired someone stupid into a senior position and now they get to make loads of stupid decisions. I mean if this was his first move, its only going to get more insane from here on.

Mrs OBumble · 14-10-2019 1:14am

This was either a mistake by a poorly supervised junior IT person, or the company now has a senior manager whose ginormous ego is going to lead to a whole raft of poor decisions.

See someone in HR. Quietly explain the risks. Don't mention GDPR explicitly - but they will figure it out themselves.

Either the decision will get changed. Or your friend needs to focus on job hunting, because the company is likely to do lots of dumb things.

14-10-2019 2:36am

That's really dumb, especially as a developer. There are countless services and APIs etc. he could have signed up for over the years with that email.

joeguevara · 14-10-2019 2:49am

This is all about context. If for example your friend requires their email to be contacted by clients and may affect things like commission if it's changed then there is an issue. If it has no impact then it is a non issue.

Care should be taken on how it's approached. Perhaps it could be agreed to have a transition period to ensure that everyone knows of change.

It does appear to be bat handled. It could have been resolved by shortening the new person's name or using a hyphen. I have never come across this issue before but presume it must be common.

I don't think it's a data protection issue as the emails while personal information, are not the focus of the issue. The person's name in email address is also personal information but the domain is the property of the company. They are not disclosing personal information to new person but simply taking the name which is also the new person's name. It wouldn't be a data protection offense. It could be a trademark offense if the email address is so unique that taking it could have a dramatic impact on the person's livelihood.
N

joeguevara · 14-10-2019 2:52am

Deleted User wrote: »

That's really dumb, especially as a developer. There are countless services and APIs etc. he could have signed up for over the years with that email.

If it was personal services that were signed up for using a work address then it's irrelevant as work email should only be used for work purposes. If it is work services then as I posted a transitional period should be given to change address.

tdf7187 · 14-10-2019 3:03am

10000maniacs wrote: »

Any legal suggestions with this case?

No.

whomitconcerns · 14-10-2019 7:59am

joeguevara wrote: »

This is all about context. If for example your friend requires their email to be contacted by clients and may affect things like commission if it's changed then there is an issue. If it has no impact then it is a non issue.

Care should be taken on how it's approached. Perhaps it could be agreed to have a transition period to ensure that everyone knows of change.

It does appear to be bat handled. It could have been resolved by shortening the new person's name or using a hyphen. I have never come across this issue before but presume it must be common.

I don't think it's a data protection issue as the emails while personal information, are not the focus of the issue. The person's name in email address is also personal information but the domain is the property of the company. They are not disclosing personal information to new person but simply taking the name which is also the new person's name. It wouldn't be a data protection offense. It could be a trademark offense if the email address is so unique that taking it could have a dramatic impact on the person's livelihood.
N

It's not common for a company to swap an email address internally after 10 years on the whim of a new hire, regardless of seniority.

Someone f##ked up here.

daheff · 14-10-2019 5:37pm

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

What do you mean? The system wouldn't let you set up a second account with the same email address as an existing user.

I mean the person doing the set up got interrupted midway through and when they came back checked was there an email account there (or tried and was told of the duplicate) so assumed they set up the account and associated it with the new user profile.

Samuel T. Cogley · 17-10-2019 3:32pm

Business accounts like those with Microsoft I can sort of understand but are we talking personal external account also? Who does that?

Kicked off company email address because manager of the same name has joined the comp

Comments