Storing important emails in the deleted items folder!

anthony18 · 2012-07-25T20:59:05.000Z

It never seizes (sp?) to amaze me how many c-level execs store/file read/important emails in their deleted items folder. These guys have PHDs, Masters and are Engineers so they do have good education, good IQs… I’ve wondered MANY times if there’s a secret society that c-level execs are members and are given the instructions to store their emails there? Over many years, I’ve seen a handfull of execs do that! Becareful when you click on EMPTY DELETED ITEMS! Have you guys seen that with your employers/customers?

alexanderboujos4095 · 2012-07-25T21:24:48.000Z

All the time, and I work at a Law firm so these guys have done the 6 - 7years of Law school yet STILL do this. It’s just insane. The conversation always goes “No! Don’t delete that” “Then why is it in your trash” “Well i haven’t reviewed it I might need something in there” facepalm “Then I respectfully suggest you don’t put it in the trash”. Every time I see it I just tell them the server cleans them up regularly so they should move it out, and use the analogy that it’s like “Putting your precedents in the waste bin, then snapping at the cleaner when he comes to empty it!”. Usually gets the point across. But you will never be rid of it.

*edit: Oh and it is “ceases”

anthony18 · 2012-07-25T21:29:31.000Z

Ah at least you just confirmed it’s not a Quebec thing! The same behavior across the world… I was getting worried that some weird bug was infecting people here. With all the international travelling and cross specie bugs, you can never be too safe.

magnus369 · 2012-07-25T21:34:26.000Z

yeah, it’s pretty common actually. I guess it makes them think it’s some kind of super secret spy 1337 thing to do… “no one would ever think to check my deleted items for the secret code to my doomsday bomb! ahahhahahahhaha”

tonypoupa7612 · 2012-07-25T21:48:18.000Z

Yep, same here. My Ops Manger does this and when I noticed over 1000 emails in deleted Items (even unread ones!) I naturally went to empty them out and she screamed at me Noooooo!

I just can’t fathom that behaviour, like storing how tos in the rubbish bin next to my desk and expecting them to be there for over a year.

Magnus: I believe the evil laugh is spelt “Mwahhahaha”

magnus369 · 2012-07-25T22:06:05.000Z

Tony Poupa wrote:

Yep, same here. My Ops Manger does this and when I noticed over 1000 emails in deleted Items (even unread ones!) I naturally went to empty them out and she screamed at me Noooooo!

I just can’t fathom that behaviour, like storing how tos in the rubbish bin next to my desk and expecting them to be there for over a year.

Magnus: I believe the evil laugh is spelt “Mwahhahaha”

evil would be mwahahahaha

maniacally stupid would be ahahahhahahhahaha (emphasize the first ah, maybe draw it out a bit. longer)

chris-sanders · 2012-07-26T00:02:03.000Z

Oh god the amount of times people have done this. What are we fucking 2? Do we need to be retaught what deleted means?

Brony-Overlord · 2012-07-26T00:12:27.000Z

Our director of finance does this. It make me cringe when I hear anyone talk about it

magnus369 · 2012-07-26T00:18:06.000Z

The concept of a “trash can” being changed to a “recycle bin” (ie, look we’re recycling bits! we’re so damn eco friendly that even our computer doesn’t waste!) has spoiled the living hell out of these people. I can understand having a recovery point for an oops moment (ie, crap… I deleted the wrong thing), but this has gone way too far. it’s actually considered another storage location that’s safe from quotas…

hmm. I don’t remember for sure, but is the bins/deleted folder exempt from quota? I don’t remember anymore.

apsutcliffe · 2012-07-26T00:19:53.000Z

Yes. And it used to really bug me, but I suppose now that I’ve become a bit more cynical and nothing surprises me any more.

My general view is that the majority of users have not had the necessary training to be able to work effectively. In most businesses, they will make a big deal of going through Health & Safety training, and various other things that they think are essential; but when it comes to working with a PC, everyone is expected to just get on and use it.

The big problem is that then people start to develop bad practices; and sometimes these take hold wihtin the business as people pass bad practice around. For example, I worked at a place where they had thousands of spreadsheets because they had never been shown how to extract the data that they needed from the ERP system; and they used the spreadsheets instead to store data. This amounted to thousands of hours of wasted man power each month; but they wouldn’t accept that there was actually a problem.

Bring on the sharks with the frikkin’ laser beams!

magnus369 · 2012-07-26T01:46:16.000Z

the sharks are over-rated. it’s time to start catching flipper with the tuna fleets before they get out of control.

Briser-fae-the-broch · 2012-07-26T02:05:17.000Z

We get that here too (Scotland) - what irks me is when they start getting “Reachnig Quota” messages and I notice more than 500 emails in there and half of them are still “unread” - you suggest emptying deleted items folder and they freak.

My boss reckons we should set all Outlooks to automatically delete on exit but for these people we can’t do it.

clintconlin · 2012-07-26T04:06:21.000Z

Yep I’ve had that so many times in both companies I have worked for I have had to send out emails advising that people shouldnt use the Deleted Items folder for storing emails. Also in Scotland woohoo!

dereks · 2012-07-26T04:48:16.000Z

Yup. Same thing here. The crazy thing with one of the users here is she actually organizes thing into FOLDERS in the deleted bin…but no other folders outside of it…

derek2417674 · 2012-07-26T04:59:51.000Z

Stupidity is SOP for users unfortunately. Tell them they are doing something very wrong and they will look at you as if another head just sprouted from your shoulder.

coijamesd · 2012-07-26T07:50:08.000Z

I would teach an outlook class and illustrate the point to not store important emails in the deleted items folder by taking someone’s class handout and throwing it in the trash.

I like to think that made it sink in better, but, who knows?

As some people say, it’s job security, I suppose?

mjrowell · 2012-07-26T08:41:31.000Z

Yes, I get a lot of people awfully upset when I empty their trash and/or their recycle bin. We have a 4GB inbox limit but we have to keep growing it because people also think it’s a great idea to store files in their inbox instead of actually saving them on their machine…

john6020 · 2012-07-26T08:45:16.000Z

I always thought it was the odd user I know. Well perhaps it is, but it seems an awful lot of us have them. How strange.

missll5093 · 2012-07-26T08:46:34.000Z

Briser_fae_the_broch wrote:

We get that here too (Scotland) - what irks me is when they start getting “Reachnig Quota” messages and I notice more than 500 emails in there and half of them are still “unread” - you suggest emptying deleted items folder and they freak.

My boss reckons we should set all Outlooks to automatically delete on exit but for these people we can’t do it.

We set a group policy which asks them to delete their deleted items on exit, but they all click no and when you say “why” as above, they all say, there is stuff I need in there.

It must be one of these little mysteries. Like Unicorns. Actually, hold up, Unicorns are not mysteries huh?

Huw3481 · 2012-07-26T08:50:19.000Z

No, unicorns are gee-gees.

Wiv 'orns.