# Got fired- owe employer password info, etc...? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 28, 2023, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730 "2023-07-28T14:21:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/125 "2023-07-30T14:22:49Z")
I get lazy and cast my cute little Samsung S pen 10 inch tablet onto my 72 inch television =) I have also cast my laptop onto it to play Elder Scrolls Online =) ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/126 "2023-07-30T14:24:33Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > you will notice that nowhere does it say that your employer cannot fire you because you refuse to perform a task that you don’t think is part of your job. There is a notable exception to this (though it probably doesn’t apply here) known as [Constructive Dismissal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal). If you deliberately assign new tasks to a person to put them in an “intolerable working condition” in order to force them to quit, that is illegal a patchwork of different US laws. However, it is up to the employee to be able to prove constructive dismissal so it’s one of those crimes that is hard to enforce. But, if for example, everyone who attended a union meeting suddenly had janitorial duties added to their work roster afterwards, that would be very illegal and a relatively slam dunk case. ---
**Author:** ![Digger11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Digger11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digger11)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/127 "2023-07-30T14:26:40Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My second point was the use of an office computer for personal email. It never occurred to me not to. In fact, even now, after getting on to 23 years of retirement, I still use that account for essentially all my email. Obviously, my employer knows I do that. I suppose that, in principal in IT could look at my email, although that seems unimaginable. You should assume that your employer is monitoring everything you do on a work-supplied computer. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/128 "2023-07-30T14:37:52Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > There is a notable exception to this (though it probably doesn’t apply here) known as [Constructive Dismissal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal). If you deliberately assign new tasks to a person to put them in an “intolerable working condition” in order to force them to quit, that is illegal a patchwork of different US laws. Constructive dismissal is only illegal in the US if it violates a law - if you assign those tasks to a person to get them to quit because they are too old or the wrong gender or attended a union meeting , it will be just as illegal as directly firing them directly for the same reason. If you do it because you need a vacancy to hire your brother-in-law and you are trying not to raise your unemployment insurance rate , it’s not illegal - but that person will be treated as if you had fired them for the same reason and will be eligible for unemployment benefits even though they “quit”.(which will have the same effect on your rate as firing them would have) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/129 "2023-07-30T14:38:08Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > A little off topic, but a laptop doesn’t restrict plugging in an external monitor. I use a docking station that allows up to three monitors and I have a giant 42” 8K monitor on my desk. I’ve been meaning to upgrade my last generation MacPro, but the new line of MacPros is astronomically expensive. So I bought a MacBook Pro M1 last summer, expecting it to tide me over until I figure out the desktop situation, only to realize that it outperforms my old desktop by leaps and bounds and is about at half the price of a new MacPro. So it’s become my desktop, and is hooked up to a 30" 4K and 24" HD monitor, in addition to the laptop monitor. There’s just very little reason to get a desktop these days, at least for me as a photographer, with as powerful as these laptops are. Sure, if I needed access to more powerful graphics cards and such, but I get plenty of screen real estate ,and I don’t need to crunch through my GPU all that much. Maybe if I were a video guy, I dunno. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/130 "2023-07-30T14:43:25Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My second point was the use of an office computer for personal email. It never occurred to me not to. In fact, even now, after getting on to 23 years of retirement, I still use that account for essentially all my email. You worked at a university , right? I think that’s a special case , especially since at least some colleges/universities give students forever emails and some give retired faculty other “perks” forever. . Most employers cut off access to that email one way or another when employment ends. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/131 "2023-07-30T18:33:31Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > the new line of MacPros is astronomically expensive. So I bought a MacBook Pro M1…, expecting it to tide me over. Same situation, but down a step. I retired and had to give back my MacBookPro. Money was tight, so I got an el cheapo used Macbook (cheaper than an Air, and older). As a stopgap for a year or so… Five years later, and I’m still doing huge Photoshop files. Keys are falling off, shift key’s sticking, can’t upgrade it any more… but it keeps chuggin’ along! . > [@hajario](#): > > You shouldn’t use your office _email_ for personal stuff. I had a friend that kept sending stuff to my work email. Not a problem, thought I… until he sent me pics of his girlfriend… n00dz! Right then, I decided I’d never become a VP, in case they looked at my emails (good excuse to avoid all that responsibility). ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/132 "2023-07-30T20:36:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The password is actually needed to be able to access the account. In that case, access to the account and access the password would seem to be the same thing. The OP didn’t specify as to what type of account/password this was. If it’s a user on a network, then presumably somebody with administrative rights has access to everything connected to the account. However, if it’s an account within an application, like a payroll system, then it’s possible that this is the ONLY account within that system, or the only account that has admin rights. In this case, then getting the password is by far the most expedient way to get to the data connected to the account. If that’s the case, then I would agree with the quoted statement. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/133 "2023-07-30T23:19:36Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Money savings mean that companies are doing more with fewer people, and there is a lack of redundancy and backup. Who has the time to learn someone else’s job? So the risk is higher. I’m living this nightmare right now as almost every veteran of my agency has quit in the last year, taking their expertise with them. Everything has to be learned all over again, and it’s been a bumpy ride. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/134 "2023-07-30T23:29:12Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > All in all, the new boss sounds like she has zero idea how to run a business and your wife is well shut of the place. What’re the odds that the “Boss Lady” still has a functioning business (or even still has a job in the field) a few months from now? This is the kind of ego-driven mistake that this “boss” will keep making, over and over, in other aspects of the business. (I worked with one of those, and we saw all the future pitfalls coming, and watched our Boss With Blinders fall into each one.) ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/135 "2023-07-30T23:31:31Z")
I’ve seen the departure of literally thousands of people over the last 30 years from my several employers. For some years I was in the department responsible for terminating access and recovering equipment (laptops, pagers, cell phones, PDAs, hey I said 30 years 🙂 ) I don’t remember needing to get any logins from anyone, ever. If we ever did our IT folks would have been in trouble. However from my dealings with the court system, judges often have NFI about IT best practices and I can see one of them equating not providing passwords with stealing intellectual property or resources. And you can tell from my postings in other threads that my employers are anything but a shining example of HR and IT competence. But relying on one employee’s credentials to access important information seems insane. I did have a former employer try to call me back to help on-board some cheaper people they employed to replace us. They threatened to withhold my severance if I didn’t do it. I told them I would do it for $300/hour (this was 20+ years ago). I never heard back and they did release my severance check. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2023, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/136 "2023-07-30T23:34:33Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > However, if it’s an account within an application, like a payroll system, then it’s possible that this is the ONLY account within that system, or the only account that has admin rights. You reset the password to her email account in the admin console and you go through the Forgot Password flow in your SaaS app to reset the password and get back in. Probably more important than the passwords is a list of all the websites you’ve registered for and are paying for. It can be maddening to have a monthly $3.99 charge from “Generic Biz LLC” and not know what service is connected to it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/137 "2023-07-31T01:19:26Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > You worked at a university , right? I think that’s a special case , especially since at least some colleges/universities give students forever emails and some give retired faculty other “perks” forever. . Most employers cut off access to that email one way or another when employment ends. That’s correct. I am prof. emeritus, which means I am still part of the university. I have been using email for personal purposes since we got email in late 1984, getting on to 40 years. In fact, it turned out that the #1 source of email to McGill university from outside of Canada during the first 6 months of our having it was my son writing letters home. (Being computer literate, his work/study job at college was manning the computer help desk during four hours every evening. He did not get a lot of customers, so after had finished his homework, he would usually write home.) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/138 "2023-07-31T15:23:50Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Laptops are fine for fiddling around, but both my Wife and I need more screen space for our jobs. As others have noted, a laptop allows for using an external monitor. I’m typing this on a double-wide monitor (wanted more real estate, but small home desk, so no room for dual monitor). I have a mesh shelving unit on top of the desk’s hutch (was my daughter’s school desk), with 3 computers, various peripherals, and a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch. Heck, my laptop display went wonky 4 months ago, and I have yet to swap it out because I simply don’t need to (if I had to travel, that’d be a different situation). As far as the email: Any company will (or should!!) have a policy that explicitly states that emails are subject to monitoring. Personal use would be discouraged or outright forbidden, though really, the occasional message from the kids’ school or whatever would likely not be complained about. Dunno about the ethics / legal requirement to share the PASSWORD to your own work account; it’s quite possible whomever does the IT for the OP’s wife’s employer could simply get into her email as needed. I do concur with others who say the corporate account logins, alarm codes etc. should be turned over without any argument, as this has the potential to basically make the company unable to function, and would potentially open the wife up for some kind of legal retaliation. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/139 "2023-07-31T16:06:34Z")
I had a somewhat comparable situation many years ago, though it didn’t involve passwords or access to any physical resources. I had an employee who coordinated three shifts in what was basically a very small call center. To make her scheduling tasks easier, she developed an Excel spreadsheet that was moderately complex. It allowed her to more easily verify that everyone was assigned shifts that didn’t exceed their time for the week, as well as facilitating the printing of individual shift assignments. It significantly reduced her scheduling workload. Well, we caught her falsifying her own schedule and actual hours worked. She would come in on her scheduled shift, work an hour, go home for 6 hours, and then come back for the last hour of her shift. She did it for months. When I terminated her, she was able to delete the spreadsheet template and all past and future schedules before she left. She claimed that they were her “personal” property, since we hadn’t specifically assigned her to make a spreadsheet or template to do that task. We didn’t file a suit or try to take any other actions, but I did take the opportunity to remind her that the spreadsheet template was work product developed at our location, using our computer and software, while she was being paid by us. It seemed pretty obvious that the template belonged to us. She always insisted that this was not the case. We ended up reconstructing the files. Took us about two hours. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/140 "2023-07-31T16:27:43Z")
Yeah, I wasn’t really thinking about a KVM or docking station. Not sure what they will set up. And I’m really the guy that’s gonna do it (we live remote). I don’t really want to insert myself into this yet though. If they say here’s your laptop, go for it, I’ll be buying monitors and a docking station, wireless mouse and keyboard. I just want to make sure my wife has a good set up. It will run it over my satellite dish and modem. No choice there. No bandwidth restrictions and very fast. So we are good there. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/141 "2023-07-31T16:43:33Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > When I terminated her, she was able to delete the spreadsheet template and all past and future schedules before she left. You weren’t able to retrieve the files from backups? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/142 "2023-07-31T17:12:09Z")
> [@ttsfixit](#): > > She said "WHAT!!, that is a violation of our no compete clause in her contract and I will be definitely contacting my lawyer. I’ve never heard of an office manager at a real estate agency having a contract, much less a non-compete clause. What does she know? Proprietary copying techniques? Back door entrances into the MLS listings system? Enhanced discounting from their coffee supplier? Such a non-compete would never hold up. The role isn’t proprietary enough. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/143 "2023-07-31T17:13:35Z")
Nope. This was many years ago and the files literally existed on the common use IBM XT. She deleted the files and the next back-up (to tape) over-wrote the old back-up. I would never allow something like that to happen now, but it was a non-critical computer that wasn’t even networked. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730/144 "2023-07-31T17:29:09Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > This was many years ago and the files literally existed on the common use IBM XT. Ah, gotcha. I had a similar thing happen with a ‘common’ computer, except it was a disk crash. That was the last time I oversaw a computer that wasn’t being backed up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-fired-owe-employer-password-info-etc/987730.md?page=8)