Company used an employee’s personal phone number to pay customers. Firing him 6 months later proved to be a costly mistake

When a company issues a pink slip during a significant workforce reduction, the professional relationship is expected to end on the spot. However, an increasingly common and troubling oversight in corporate practices is making ex-employees unwilling digital hostages. The latest case involves an accounts receivable clerk (u/Pixelated_death28) from Texas. Despite being fired in January and replaced shortly after, the company expected them to help with confidential information. The post, shared on July 3, has received 3,800 upvotes on Reddit.

The desperate plea

Well, the entire incident started with the author's number being used on Square to process customer payments. Originally, their boss's number was used for this, but since she wasn't always available, she and the IT department decided to replace it. "I didn’t make that decision myself," they noted. In fact, the ex-employee was told that the change would result in smoother operations. Nonetheless, in January, the employee was fired, but the company forgot to change the number. "They are now unable to access the account," they added.

The aggressive tactic

Being left logged out of their own payment processing system due to this mistake, the company became desperate to get hold of this employee. When direct calls failed, they crossed all boundaries by asking the daughter of a former coworker, who shared a close relationship with this employee, to act as an intermediary and demand cooperation. However, resolving the issue isn't as simple as the author giving the company a temporary passcode.

That is because fixing this mistake requires Square support to navigate a lengthier identity verification process. Additionally, it would also require the ex-employee to formally authorize the removal of the personal phone number from the corporate account. This wouldn't have been an issue otherwise, but the ex-employee said they're now working at a different firm. On the other hand, they said they don't want to help the company either, because before firing them, the company made accusations against them and treated them badly. 

Importance of offboarding

This entire fiasco sheds light on the sheer importance of proper offboarding; each step is followed carefully. In fact, 76% of IT executives believe that if not handled well, offboarding an employee can affect the company, according to enboarder.com. Meanwhile, a Gallup study revealed that more often than not, employees don't get to experience a smooth exit. To be precise, only 22% were extremely satisfied with their exit process. 

'Change your phone number'

Reacting to a Reddit post, u/Mediocre-Try-9381 wrote, "You don't have to do anything. Tell them you can offer a one-day contract for $1000 to be paid in full upon arrival for taking time off, going in, and working with their vendor." At the same time, u/mercurygreen commented, "You are not responsible for this, as long as you don't actually use the access. That said, don't be surprised when you get a somewhat intimidating/threatening letter from a law firm. If they can't contact Square directly through alternative means, they deserve the fail."

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