Losing Access When You Leave the Company — Or Do You?

Back in the old days, leaving an employer was easy. Before they shoved you out the door, they took away your card key, went over a checklist of equipment you might have at home, and turned off your company e-mail ID and VPN account. But one effect of our working and developing in the cloud is that “company” resources — and the company’s likelihood to shut off access — is far less clear.

In other words: What do you “turn off” when someone leaves the company? Some things are obvious, like VPN access. Some are less so, and apt to be overlooked. For years, years, I could access the web stats for an earlier employer, and thus peek at how my old site was doing and how many of my articles continued to draw traffic. The only reason I lost my login was that the company changed its servers. (I assure you that I did not abuse the (unintended) priviledge; besides, those folks always treated me well.)

This is not the only example, and, my friends whisper, I am not the only person in such a situation. I expect that you can probably log into the Askimet comments system for the content management system you built, three gigs back. You also might discover you can access the version control system for an Internet app you once wrote. Go ahead: Try.

I expect that, if you’re developing any sort of stuff online (as opposed to 100% within the company firewall), you can get to

something

, even if it’s pretty boring or stale.

That’s because the people who tick off items on a checklist prepared by the HR department or even IT are unlikely to think of everything for which you might have the keys. Your laptop? Sure. The version control system? Do they even know what one is? Development teams often use their own tools and online services (it’s always amusing to try to explain IRC to a suit).

And the further back it in time the “separation” was, the less likely someone will discover how many ex-employees or previous contractors have access. After some point, nobody will flick off that power switch (other than by upgrading their own apps, as in my previous example). The people who created the accounts for that online project management tool or that Campfire are gone, too, or at least their attention moved on.

But those are mostly benign; I doubt you really care about being able to change the comment spam settings. What I find a bit more curious — and more debatable — is the social media accounts that were once part of your corporate identity. Are those turned off, by you or by the company… and should they be?

Some of those are in an individual’s control. For example, many people have a “work” ID for their instant messaging account. I might create an AIM ID of EstherAtJW (but have not, so don’t go poking around, you’ll only be disappointed). When you leave the company, you no longer log into that account; former business associates (some of whom might want to hire you) have no idea how to get in touch ( since we already know that the e-mail ID is turned off). There, at least, you have some control; you can still log in.

But how about access to a LinkedIn or Facebook discussion group that the company runs? I’m not speaking of a group for “Current Employees of Foobar Inc.,” but rather an industry group that’s sponsored by your (ex)company. If you remain in the same industry, you probably do want to continue communicating with the same people. (And not just to write, “The jerks laid me off!”) You are, presumably, an interested member of that industry, with the same connections you had three weeks ago. Your technical knowledge and enthusiasm didn’t necessarily disappear along with the key to the company workout room, and not every ex-employee is disgruntled (some of us are rather gruntled, in fact).

I’m not saying that companies should let ex-employees wander around their electronic parking lots. I’m just saying that their criteria for access is sometimes a little strange… and nobody seems to question it.

Do you still have access to any systems owned by an ex-employer or ex-client? I’m curious.