I have to fire our financial manager; help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give a generous severance package. This is going to cost you either way.

It's a small org, can they afford to be "generous"?

The password thing was an oversight.

They need to get the passwords prior to termination.
Termination may need to be delayed by a week or two.

It’s a small org, can they afford not to?

Of course they can lol

PP said ask for a spreadsheet and change the passwrods before you give them the boot.

What are they going to do, say "no"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give a generous severance package. This is going to cost you either way.

It's a small org, can they afford to be "generous"?

The password thing was an oversight.

They need to get the passwords prior to termination.
Termination may need to be delayed by a week or two.

It’s a small org, can they afford not to?

Of course they can lol

PP said ask for a spreadsheet and change the passwrods before you give them the boot.

What are they going to do, say "no"?

Yup. And I’ve seen it happen.

[Anonymous]

Here’s how it can go if you refuse to be transparent and pay a generous severance. The boss says “I/the auditor needs all the passwords.” Suspicious employee gives some not all. Boss doesn’t realize it because they’re so out of the loop and the auditor thing was a ruse so they don’t catch it either. Or, they do get all the passwords, but they don’t know the 2FA involved employee’s personal phone number. Person gets termed with a very bitter taste in their mouth. Boss realizes they have incomplete information and asks former employee to help. They won’t return boss’s call or say sure, in exchange for the severance you should have offered in the first place.

In some cases they will even go back and change the passwords again for the things they still have access to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s how it can go if you refuse to be transparent and pay a generous severance. The boss says “I/the auditor needs all the passwords.” Suspicious employee gives some not all. Boss doesn’t realize it because they’re so out of the loop and the auditor thing was a ruse so they don’t catch it either. Or, they do get all the passwords, but they don’t know the 2FA involved employee’s personal phone number. Person gets termed with a very bitter taste in their mouth. Boss realizes they have incomplete information and asks former employee to help. They won’t return boss’s call or say sure, in exchange for the severance you should have offered in the first place.

In some cases they will even go back and change the passwords again for the things they still have access to.

For most databases, the license is for the company not just one individual. Call customer support and have them reset the password and change the administrator.
It costs nothing.

Leadership needs to get together and make a list of all the databases and accounts that this person uses.
Speak to the employee, get the information.
The Company then changes the passwords so that the employee can't get back in.

Fire them when they're at home so that they do not have access to the work computer again.
Cut-off their VPN access so they cannot access the system from home.


Severance is unheard of for most small orgs outside of executives and C-suite.

Handing over passwrods is a part of job performance and a succession plan as is writing your job description/ duties and responsibilities.
If you don't want it to look suspicious, have everyone do it (they should do this anyway).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s how it can go if you refuse to be transparent and pay a generous severance. The boss says “I/the auditor needs all the passwords.” Suspicious employee gives some not all. Boss doesn’t realize it because they’re so out of the loop and the auditor thing was a ruse so they don’t catch it either. Or, they do get all the passwords, but they don’t know the 2FA involved employee’s personal phone number. Person gets termed with a very bitter taste in their mouth. Boss realizes they have incomplete information and asks former employee to help. They won’t return boss’s call or say sure, in exchange for the severance you should have offered in the first place.

In some cases they will even go back and change the passwords again for the things they still have access to.

For most databases, the license is for the company not just one individual. Call customer support and have them reset the password and change the administrator.
It costs nothing.

Leadership needs to get together and make a list of all the databases and accounts that this person uses.
Speak to the employee, get the information.
The Company then changes the passwords so that the employee can't get back in.

Fire them when they're at home so that they do not have access to the work computer again.
Cut-off their VPN access so they cannot access the system from home.


Severance is unheard of for most small orgs outside of executives and C-suite.

Handing over passwrods is a part of job performance and a succession plan as is writing your job description/ duties and responsibilities.
If you don't want it to look suspicious, have everyone do it (they should do this anyway).

In my experience as a lawyer hired to sort it out after it goes sideways and even in some cases to try to sue the former employee, this is all a nice idea in theory, but generally blows up in the small (and let’s be real, poorly-managed) org’s face. It would be cheaper and easier to be transparent and generous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give a generous severance package. This is going to cost you either way.

It's a small org, can they afford to be "generous"?

The password thing was an oversight.

They need to get the passwords prior to termination.
Termination may need to be delayed by a week or two.

It’s a small org, can they afford not to?

Of course they can lol

PP said ask for a spreadsheet and change the passwrods before you give them the boot.

What are they going to do, say "no"?

Yup. And I’ve seen it happen.

Yeah, I was tasked with getting us back in systems after the firing of an employee. What made it even more difficult in our case is that IT closed the email account so I couldn't even get 2FA there.

There was one government system that we had to pay a consulting fee to the ex-employee to convince her to give us the 2FA code that went to her cell. It was the only way to get back in and it was critical for the organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give a generous severance package. This is going to cost you either way.

It's a small org, can they afford to be "generous"?

The password thing was an oversight.

They need to get the passwords prior to termination.
Termination may need to be delayed by a week or two.

It’s a small org, can they afford not to?

Of course they can lol

PP said ask for a spreadsheet and change the passwrods before you give them the boot.

What are they going to do, say "no"?

Yup. And I’ve seen it happen.

Same this happens more than you think it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask them to provide a password spreadsheet.

Log into the account and change all passwords.

Fire them.

+1

[Anonymous]

I would go with the cheapest option first (ask for the passwords) and if there is resistance upon termination offer severance pending transfer of all sensitive information.

[Anonymous]

Put a keystrokes tracker on laptop

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put a keystrokes tracker on laptop [/quote
Not as helpful as you think. Doesn’t resolve 2FA issues. Assumes employee will log into every account during the time it’s installed. Assumes none of the passwords are autofilled (which sounds great until you consider that the employee can change them after getting fired).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put a keystrokes tracker on laptop

Not as helpful as you think. Doesn’t resolve 2FA issues. Assumes employee will log into every account during the time it’s installed. Assumes none of the passwords are autofilled (which sounds great until you consider that the employee can change them after getting fired).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Severence package contingent upon successful transmission of passwords

Lawyer here, this is how my org has handled in the past. It works.

[Anonymous]

Why are you firing them in the first place? Poor performance or just to save money?

[Anonymous]

For smaller orgs, a corporate password protector should be installed (well before letting someone go).