I need to have a backup of my work email in a separate area so that I can have evidence of certain conversations I have had with management that could be important in case certain things come to a head.
I think it is unlikely that things will go that far in that kind of direction, but I always like to be safe rather than sorry. What would be the best way to do this?
It’s hard to say without knowing more details of your email system, corporate policies, and the number of emails you’re trying to keep.
If you’re just talking about a few emails, you can possibly save them as PDFs or just print them.
If you’re talking about a lot of emails, and you use Outlook you might Goolge how to archive emails to a personal PST file.
Your company might have policies against employees having personal PSTs, and they might have technical controls in place to either prevent or detect it if you try to set one up. They may also have controls in place to detect if someone is trying to take data off network. So, be aware of that if you are thinking about saving the emails and taking them elsewhere.
Does your company have a strict email retention/deletion policy? If not, what prevents you from just leaving the emails in your inbox?
Where I work they started emptying your inbox and deleted items after a certain age. I made my own folders besides my inbox and deleted folders and move email that I want to make sure I want to keep for a while.
It’s also a way to organize things.
Also, I think you could just forward them to your own personal email.
Thank you thank you thank you!!! I am glad I posted this. I was afraid of just this sort of thing so it is good to know what the possible things they could detect are. I don’t want to raise any alarms; I’m still playing dumb about the whole thing. You would be amazed at how stupid some people act when they think you’re not a very sophisticated person.
Is just a printout good evidence though, say, in a court of law?
I am not a lawyer in any way shape of form. But I would think that a print out would help a lot.
What might also help, and may be good for you is called “Contemporaneous notes”.
A note to yourself on paper about what and when. Date it, and give some basic facts about the email or what is going on. It shows your concern.
Just keep the note/s, it may help you remember things, and it is something.
If you do print it, and want it to be some sort of evidence, make sure it has the full header with it. Not just to/from/subject/date. It needs to show the sending path, the originating IP, and stuff like that. I don’t know what email program you use and if printing headers is default. But I’m sure it can be turned on.
A PST file can be created anywhere you can write your files - local disk, server share. Basically, it’s a way to move emails out of the Exchange server database and into a local file.
Just create a PST file and move some innocuous stuff in there as a test (like save “junk Mail” mass mails and ads that you may want to read someday…) and see if anyone complains or if the system won’t let you.
Then you can back up this file to a USB stick or such.
I would just forward them to my own personal email address. In the OP’s case I might create an email address just for the purpose.
The problem I see with a PST file is that the OP would need to have Outlook installed on a home computer if he wants to open the email messages there.
Many companies have rules against putting work-related emails in a non-work mail address for reasons of security. Assuming that the emails in question are company confidential, this could give them an excuse for terminating the OP.
I use Thunderbird, and read work emails on my personal laptop. I can save emails into a local folder which sits on that laptop (I don’t save confidential emails this way). That’s fairly easy to do. If they allow personal laptop use for work related emails, it isn’t even illegal.
We don’t use Outlook here.