Employer has deleted my account

have they changed their inactive time policy etc? if so then it may not be anyone’s fault but if not then i’d definitely take it to HR if you think it was done maliciously

I’m in NHS Scotland and I think the email systems are different, but I got a letter from IT along with my maternity leave letter saying that there was an update to the policy and that if you don’t log in every 90 days your email will be deactivated so essentially you need to decide whether to remember to sign in while on maternity leave, or deactivate your email. I believe this is a fairly recent policy change for us. I presume you didn’t get similar warning?

@Sophie No I’ve had no notification at all. It was fine the first time (2021) so I never thought this time would be any different. They shouldn’t require someone on maternity leave to login at all really though should they. Everything should remain protected while you’re off. Sounds like limitations of whatever new system they’ve implemented. I assume the same would happen if someone was on long term sick leave. It shouldn’t have happened.

@~ Miss Ritaa🦋 I’m not aware of any policy at all, and it wasn’t an issue at all when to took a year off for my first maternity leave in 2021. I don’t think it was done maliciously, I think it’s an oversight but it should never have happened without giving me the opportunity to login or save things that I’ve otherwise lost.

This is most likely an issue between IT and HR, a breakdown of communication. IT see things black and white, we emailed you automatically without knowing you were off, we didn't check with anyone and because you didn't do x y z, we've deleted your account. Unless anything else has happened, this is not discrimination.

@Claudia Ok so a major annoyance then. But probably worth contacting HR and letting them know this has happened and a more robust system needs to be put in place to protect those on statutory leave? Or at the very least ensuring they are informed before they lose everything!

@Lauren absolutely. They probably have no idea about it and will be livid

Not NHS but this happened to me during mat leave. Caused no ends of issues on my return but it’s solely an IT cock up and nothing to do with pregnancy, it’s just their data policy and we are just numbers in the payroll.

Not NHS, but i have been told this will be the case when i’m off on mat leave and it’s just the system set up. As long and they help sort you out with new access I don’t think it’s discrimination probably just been a a system issue

I work for the government and this is standard practice if you do not log in every 3 months. To be honest, I’d be delighted if I returned to work with no emails - if something is important it would be saved elsewhere and for emails, people will email again 😂

This happened to me on my last maternity leave from my nhs job. I returned to work after 9 months and my email was deleted and i was wiped off from using the nhs system. It was a massive inconvenience for both me and my employer because it took a month or so for me to be put back on the system x

I work for the NHS and this is standard at our trust. I had to contact IT before my mat leave to suspend my account so they wouldn’t delete it but made sure to save anything I wanted before just incase

Possibly just a mistake although very irritating for you

If this is policy at my Trust it must be new since I went on maternity leave and not shared with me because I literally work in the Communications team so it would be my job to communicate this policy change to staff if it had happened while I was still at work!

@Lauren tbh it might have been in place during maternity leave 1 but they actually cocked up by not deleting you that time too

I work for the NHS. It’s pretty standard that your account gets disabled after a period of time when it’s not in use x

I work for the NHS and no one said my account might be deactivated. I've been logging in every couple of months to delete all the trust update emails so I don't have hundreds to go through when I go back.

I am on mat leave for NHS and keep checking my emails at home but had to go into work to reset my password as I had been locked out I do this to keep up to faye but you should be told if this is going to happen. I would be so annoyed to have to start again. This is my second mat leave at 2 different trusts and never told about it. Xx

This happened to me as well

@Sheryl (can't see waves) It’s a nightmare isn’t it! It’s going to be such a struggle going back without everything I had on my account. I’ve never been made aware this was going to happen, it never happened on my first maternity leave so I never had any reason to think I’d lose everything this time.

This is completely normal and happened to me when I was out of a job from April till November last year. I had to get a new account when I joined my new job in November, during my maternity leave I have just been using the email account to make sure it doesn’t get closed. I mean your employer probs should have informed you but there’s literally nothing they can do. It’s not your employers fault.