My Ex Manager replied to a request for a reference in my name.

[Houzen]

I was retired at the end of 2011 and somehow my employers broke into my e mail account.
When I left I just put a message on my account to the effect I had retired and to contact another person.
My ex employers wanted me to leave my password but I refused.
It has just come to my notice that a reference was requested through my e mail account 6 weeks after I left about another employee and a reply was sent in my name which I totally disagree with.
I have complained but the answer I have got is a regulation came in on the 1st February 2012 stating if we received a request for a reference on another employee we were to do a draft reply but it had to be agreed by the Human Resources manager before it could be sent out and my reply would have not been agreed anyway.
Does anybody know if I can take any action against the company for sending it a reference in my name which I think is incorrect and was sent without my authority.

[boxtops]

I don't know the legal answer, but surely a reference sent in your name after you had left the company doesn't hold water anyway? You were no longer an employee so no longer able to respond on behalf of the company?

[boxtops]

..and PS when anyone leaves from our service, their email accounts are shut down altogether, I don't understand why yours wasn't?

[Houzen]

Hi Boxtops

In most cases people left their e mail passwords with the manager so he could look at the incoming emails.
Unfortunately I did not trust him so I did not but left an out of office reply on my acount.
What I am concerned about is the employee has now got the new job on an e mail purporting to come from me and I do not know what other replies have been sent in my name.
I know I had left the company but there was no security on the doors so in theory I could have sneeked in and sent e mails from certain computers.

[VHG]

Surely once you left the comapny it was no longer YOUR email account but theirs. They own the computers it runs on and every email account in the company. So I am surprised you would not give them your password.

Also it would be very easy for the IT support people to change your existing password to a new one.

However sending out emails in your name is another matter, and it does sound a bit devious.

However as you have retired why not just forget your old company and move on and look forward to your retirement.

Do you need all the hassle.

[EvianBaby]

But it wasn't your e-mail account. It might have had your name on it but it belongs to your employers.

[rojash]

"My ex employers wanted me to leave my password but I refused."

Good grief! Presumably if you'd had a company car you'd have refused to hand over the keys.

[TheNovice]

Surely the initial request was dealt with by your 'out of office' message so the original sender would know you were not available.

[woofgang]

If you can prove that you had left the company before the reference was sent then what are you worried about? Yes i know you could have sneaked back in bthe onus would have been on the company to prove that you did.

[Prudie]

"My ex employers wanted me to leave my password but I refused."

As an aside to the question I'm pretty sure company IT is able to access all staff e-mails and hard drives without passwords - they just make it easier.

[tonywiltshire]

Your ex-employer is under no obligation to provide a reference unless it is an express term in the employees contract of employment or in some financial services. If the reference was a business reference the employer is responsible for the reference being fair and accurate not the individual, if the reference is written negligently the ex-employer may be liable in tort as they are under a duty of care to ensure any reference given is fair and accurate. You may wish to look at Spring v Guardian Assurance 1994.

[joko]

i would contact the company and tell them what happened.

i doubt you can do anything lrgally but you can certainly make them think twice about doing it again.

i assume you dislike the person in the reference?

i suppose for me it would depend on how much i disliked them - if they had made my life a misery and now i found they had a job based on my fake words id be furious and want to let it be known ... however if the person is fine and you have no problem with them, they i would just leave it - as it may cause them problems

[craft1948]

If you have left, and presumably have no access to the email account, how do you know about the reference being sent?

[chelle7272]

I'm very surprised that after you left the company would not have changed all passwords and any security codes you were privy to anyway.

And how do you know about it if you have left?

[factor-fiction]

Please can you calrify how you know this happened?
I cannot think of any reasonable reason to refuse to allow your employer details of access to your account.