This woman, she wouldn’t by any chance be bi-polar now would she?
Honestly, I think that she has some very serious mental health issues, but I don’t know that those are being addressed in any way, and certainly am not the one to offer up a diagnosis. I’ve always felt that my boss must know something about her that is making him wildly sympathetic and lenient with her.
I hope she turns up safe and sound. Maybe your boss could install Lojack in her shoes. 
JuanitaTech: I remember reading about how damn near impossible it is to completely delete mail messages from Outlook Express. I’ve forgotten what must be done, but it was more than double-delete or free-space wipe. Do you have any tips about that?
Sorry, waki, what I know about Outlook Express could fill a thimble with plenty of room left over. In Outlook, when you delete an item, it’s sent to your deleted items folder. Until the deleted items folder is emptied or the specific item is deleted from the deleted items folder, it’s still readily accessible.
I’ll say this, though, there are people who make tons of money pulling files or partial files from hard drives that have been ‘wiped clean’ as non-techies put it.
Our company email is out on a server and not pulled down to our hard drives (unless we slot it into folders that is). So I’ve been told (and would like to know for sure from any Outlook gurus) that deleting the emails from the server like that does indeed delete them permanently.
Anyone?
There’s a nifty little tool in the Deleted Items folder called Recover Deleted Items. So, for a period of time, there is a way to recover an item that has been deleted from the Deleted Items folder.
OK, the plot thickens . . .
We managed to find out (through a local network of people in my coworker’s specific field) that what was going on in the nearby city that the coworker had written in the appointment book was a three-day re-certification training specific to her field.
And she never showed up at it.
My boss tried locating the coworker’s mother (who has Alzheimer’s) via the assisted care facility at which we thought she lived, to see if maybe she’d remember when she saw Coworker last. Turns out they had no resident by the mother’s name.
So then I called Coworker’s brother (with whom Coworker has a strained relationship, but hey, we’re all out of straws, here) and he said he hadn’t spoken to Coworker in awhile, but told us where the mother is living, and said he doubted that Mother would remember anything, but that he’d go and talk to her, and call us back.
In the meantime, my boss tried to file a Missing Person’s report, but was told by the cops that he had to be a family member. (Well, shit, she lives alone, and what if she didn’t have any family here? Would she just be SOL?) So when Brother calls back, we’re going to ask him to file the report.
This is one of those situations where if she really is OK, she won’t be for long!
Yikes.
[.02]If you want to get really serious about deleting something beyond recovery, download the freeware version of PGP and use it's File Shredder util, which writes over the entire file in question with zeros rather than just marking it deleted as windows does.[/.02]
Wow. How long has she been gone now? It’s Friday afternoon here.
I know you said you are not an Outlook guru so pardon me for asking you anyway – but does that also apply to server-stored email?
Well, technically, we haven’t seen her since Monday. When she didn’t show on Tuesday morning, we checked The Book and thought, “Oh, she’ll be out until Friday.” Granted, we were a little miffed that she didn’t tell us about this out of town deal, but we weren’t worried until now.
I’ll admit that my first thought when we found out she hadn’t shown up at that training was, “Oooooh, BUSTED!” but truthfully, she LOVES going to conferences and trainings and such (she’s very social), so this is not a tactic she’d be likely to use to get a few freebie days off (especially when there really WAS a conference for her to attend)! Besides, which, she has vacation time out the ass, so she wouldn’t really have to resort to this tactic.
So now we’re officially worried.
I will give you a couple of personal examples of why I disagree with you:
-
Several years ago a friend that I work with was brutally beaten after her husband left the house and before she got off to work. She lay on the floor for some period of time before she died. If someone had done this quickly there is a chance, albeit a small one, that we might still have her with us.
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Another friend of mine fell down some stairs at home, reinjuring an old spinal cord injury on a Saturday night. He lay helpless on the floor until somebody at work noticed him missing on Monday morning. He is single and lived alone (now he’s in an assisted living facility and works remotely).
You see it as intrusive; I see it as concern.
Just a thought, but if the server in question is backed up regularly, as it should be, then deleting them doesn’t do much good at all if they really wanted to see them.
PS: Sorry auntie em, I hope those examples don’t freak you out. I hope that your cow-orker is okay and turns up a little hungover but none the worse for wear.
I sure do hope your friend/co-worker is fine, hon.
But when she gets back safe and sound, and she most likely WILL, SOMEONE needs to sit her down and tell her to get her act together…or she is OUT OF THERE!!! This is a SERIOUS breach of ethics, manners, job performance, friendship…and the Amurrican Way[sup]TM[/sup]!!!
Good Heavens…if I didn’t show up for work and didn’t answer the phone my staff/boss would call out the National Guard to storm my house…they’d assume I was either being held at gunpoint or in serious distress healthwise.
What kind of employee just doesn’t show up without calling?
shakes head
Shibb, no worries. My brother is one of those examples. He had a heart attack in his apartment, and was found because he was such a conscientious (sp?) person that his boss and coworkers knew immediately that something was wrong when he didn’t show up for work (and hadn’t called in) one day, and went to check it out.
Unfortunately, he didn’t survive, but I will always be grateful that he didn’t end up being one of those people who’s not found until days later, when (and sorry if this is too graphic) a neighbor starts complaining about an odor.
Having him gone is hard enough–having to imagine a scenario like that would make it a thousand times worse.
So you’re right–I’m damn glad that people cared.
Scotticher, I mentioned to my boss that this is one of those situations where if the person DOES turn out to be OK, s/he then gets killed by all of the people who were worried!
He said that he honestly doesn’t know which would be worse: if she IS OK or if she ISN’T.
SkipMagic (who has been keeping up on the saga via phone and email) wondered if my boss has a plan for what he’ll do if she’s OK.
I didn’t ask.
At any rate, as far as your "What kind of employee . . . " questions, like I said to FCM YOU JUST DON’T KNOW.
I’m about out of here for the weekend, folks, but thanks for your concern. I’ll keep you posted.
Dear heavens. This is building up to be quite a situation.
:: clicks the button to subscribe to the thread ::
I am nervous and excited and worried to find out how this ends.
Um…what the heck do you do for living that this kind of nonsense would be tolerated repeatedly. Why is this person still employed?
Three things:
auntie em WHY don’t you receive/send your personal email through yahoo or hotmail??
I’m wondering why the apt. manager let the boss into her apartment, too. Seems to me you’d call the police and go with them to check.
I had a co-worker who sometimes didn’t show up and didn’t notify us. He didn’t seem at all like the partier type. Turned out he was a serious binge drinker, though. Does she have a problem with alcohol?