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WorkZone: Good luck in the new job, but don't take those business records along

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WorkZone: Good luck in the new job, but don't take those business records along

Denver employment law specialist Michael Greco’s Top Ten list of mistakes that employees make when leaving one job for another includes taking business records, sabotaging records left behind, and soliciting clients and fellow employees to follow to the new place of employment.

Those are only a few of the reasons why Mr. Greco, who works for the firm of Fisher & Phillips, ends up litigating cases involving departing employees. Not all such mistakes are motivated by bad intentions, he said.

A saleswoman who has accepted a new position may take records from her old employer just to make sure her final commission check is correct. She may not realize that leaving with those records violates company policy, Mr. Greco said.

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Or an employee may take contact lists that include personal contacts as well as professional ones, he said. The same goes for taking reports or other work done on the job, which is considered the property of the employer, Mr. Greco added.

Linda Hollinshead, an employment law attorney in the Philadelphia office of Duane Morris, said it’s important for employers to remind departing employees of their obligations based on company policy, non-disclosure agreements and contracts. Those obligations can extend beyond the time they draw a paycheck from their former employer, she said.

It’s not just the employer left behind who should be paying attention. Mr. Greco said the departing employee’s new employer also wants to know what the new employee is entitled to bring along and make it clear there’s no pressure to do something that would violate agreements with their former employer.

“You don’t want to buy yourself a new lawsuit,” he said. “You want to be aware of a prospective hire’s contractual obligations to their current employer.”

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The higher up in the chain of command departing employees are, the greater the concern about what they do before and after they leave. That’s especially true with high-ranking employees who leave on less than amicable terms, Ms. Hollinshead said.

“The disgruntled employee is certainly somebody that can cause damage,” she said.

In those cases, the employer may want to analyze phone and computer records to determine what the employee was doing before leaving. That includes checking whether the employee spent time at the office after hours, another mistake that made Mr. Greco’s Top Ten list.

“It’s safe to assume that if you’re working on a company computer, there’s appreciable risk that the company is going to be able to look at what you’ve done,” Mr. Greco said.

Ms. Hollinshead advises employers to have policies that allow them to monitor computer use at any time, not just when suspicions are aroused.

In the case of departing workers who had remote access to a company’s computer system, the former employer should make sure that access is discontinued, Mr. Greco said.

Len Boselovic: lboselovic@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1941.

First Published: July 12, 2015, 4:00 a.m.

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