Do I have to “hand over” my work email account which I created for myself?

Question

I work for a "mom & pop" style franchise. When I started taking over, the company did not have their own email account. They were all using their personal email accounts. So since I did not want my email account filling up with a bunch of work stuff I opened my own work email for me and allowed others to use it so that it was easier to receive/send things.

I'm going to be leaving the company, and they all still use their personal accounts. How can I determine if I should be expected to "hand over" the email account I created for use with my work?

Answer 1

I'm going to assume that by "do I have to?" you mean "am I expected to?" or "should I?". ("Am I legally required to" would be off-topic.) You should expect to hand over the email account (i.e. give them the password and stop using the account) if any of the following apply:

• if the email address contains the company name, e.g. acmesales@gmail.com
• if there are any automated systems that interact with the account
• if the account set-up will take time to replicate elsewhere (e.g., it has important contacts, or rules for automatically processing some email, or email templates)
• if customers have the email address (they may continue to use it for a while)
• if there is company-sensitive information in the account

In the last two cases, it may be acceptable to simply close the account. Ask Mom and Pop how they would like to handle it.

Answer 2

Send all work related emails in a Export to your Boss/Manager/co-worker. Setup a automatic Response that this account is no longer in use for the Company X.

This is assuming you are the only one with login credentials to the account.

If someone else has them and want to continue to use this account advice him/her to Change the Password from date [day after your lastday].

Do Keep a back-up from everything related to work communication (not Passwords or sensitive Information) in your possesion unless they explicitly ask you not to. I have been asked about Agreements with co-workers send to private adresses long after I worked their and it helped me clear up alot of missunderstandings.