Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Employee Termination

As an employee, I had certain MS Word and Excel files that I authored saved on my employers computer system. To prevent unauthorized changes I password protected them. Some are read only and some do not open with out the password. Upon termination am I required to provide the passwords to my employer?


Asked on 4/26/07, 6:29 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Susan Beecher Susan L. Beecher, Atty at Law

Re: Employee Termination

Sorry, but yes, you are required to do that. If these files concern private matters, I would add that generally, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy on your employer's computer system. If these files concerned work that you did for your employer, then your employer owns the files, and has a right to access them.

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Answered on 4/26/07, 7:06 pm
Merry Kogut Key Peninsula Law

Re: Employee Termination

I agree entirely with Ms. Beecher's response.

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Answered on 4/27/07, 12:59 pm


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