When You Leave - Keep Your Stuff Yours

I've transitioned out of several roles over my career. Each time, I've learned something new about how tangled personal and professional digital lives become. Here's what I do now to keep things clean.

The Problem

You use your work laptop for everything. Your personal photos are in OneDrive. Your side project code is in a repo you created with your work email. Your password manager has both work and personal credentials. Your authenticator app has 47 accounts and you're not sure which ones are work.

Then you leave. IT wants the laptop back tomorrow. Suddenly you're scrambling.

This isn't hypothetical. I've seen executives lose years of personal documents because they never separated their data. I've seen people locked out of personal accounts because MFA was tied to a work phone number that got disconnected.

The Separation Framework

1. Never Use Work Email for Personal Accounts

This seems obvious but almost everyone violates it. Your LinkedIn, your bank, your side projects, your industry memberships - all of these should be on a personal email you control. If you created accounts with your work email, migrate them now, not when you're leaving.

2. Keep Personal Files in Personal Cloud Storage

Company OneDrive is for company files. Your personal photos, tax documents, and side project materials belong in personal cloud storage you pay for. Yes, you have to pay for it. That's the price of ownership.

3. Separate Your Authenticators

I use a personal authenticator app on my personal phone for personal accounts. Work MFA stays on whatever the company provides. When I leave, I don't lose access to anything personal because it was never tied to work infrastructure.

4. Export Contacts Regularly

Your professional network is valuable. Export your contacts from Outlook or whatever system you use. Not company contacts - your contacts. The people you've built relationships with over years. You're entitled to maintain those relationships.

5. Document Your Intellectual Contributions

The work you do for a company belongs to the company. But documentation of what you accomplished, the skills you developed, the approaches you created - that's your career capital. Keep a personal record of projects, achievements, and lessons learned. You'll need it for interviews and for your own growth.

The Timing

Don't wait until you're leaving to do this. The best time to separate your data is when you start a new job. The second best time is today.

Once you know you're leaving, you shouldn't be moving large amounts of data. It looks bad, even if everything you're taking is legitimately personal. Do the separation while employed and staying, not while employed and leaving.

A Note on Ethics

This is about protecting your personal property, not about taking company property. Customer lists, proprietary code, strategic documents, internal communications - those belong to the company. Leave them there.

But your photos, your personal accounts, your professional network, your career documentation - those are yours. Protect them.