How to correctly handle mailboxes of departing staff members

Managing the IT-side of staff departures is an unavoidable part of our job, and in every case, we're asked to forward the departing employee's email to another staff member. We get this request often enough that it's time to blog about how to handle their mail.

Most often, clients ask us to forward the departing staff member's mail because they're unaware of a better way to handle their departing staff member's (DSM - made-up acronyms!) email: to share their mailbox with another staff member!

By forwarding the DSM's email to another staff member...

1. The DSM's email would get mixed in with the target's email, including all of the DSM's spam - yuck!
2. Worse, we couldn't re-forward those messages to another staff member who, later, needs to see those messages, too.
3. The target of the forwarding would see only future email but none of the existing, potential legally interesting email.
4. The DSM's mailbox needs to remain licensed.

Instead, we can share the DSM's mailbox with one or more staff members! The DSM's Outlook mailbox would appear in the target's Outlook below their own mailbox.

This way...

1. The DSM's email, including their spam, stays in their mailbox.
2. Other staff members can have full access to the DSM's email, not just future email.
3. The target of the shared mailbox can see all of the existing, potential legally interesting email.
4. Best of all, the DSM's mailbox can be converted to a no-cost mailbox.

Hope this helps!