An employee who signs elsewhere has a few days, sometimes just a few hours, to retrieve what belongs to them from the servers of their former employer. After this period, the professional email is cut off, access to the digital safe may change, and some documents become difficult to obtain. Knowing what to download, in what order, and on what medium makes the difference between a smooth transition and months of follow-ups with HR.
Professional Email and GDPR: What You Can Demand Before Leaving
Most guides on changing employers focus on payslips or the employment contract. It is often forgotten that the professional email inbox contains equally useful documents: training confirmations, exchanges on annual objectives, acknowledgments of receipt of documents sent to HR.
Since a ruling by the Court of Cassation on June 18, 2025 (n° 23-19.022), emails sent or received on professional messaging are classified as personal data under the GDPR. In practical terms, one can exercise a right of access to messages that concern them, even after leaving the company.
The CNIL reminds us that the personal email address must be deleted after the employee’s departure, with prior information about the closure date. In other words, keeping your professional email after the end of the contract is not an option. It is necessary to anticipate: transfer useful emails (certificates, skills validations, exchanges related to remuneration) to a personal address before the cutoff.
For those using platforms like myPrimobox, the question also arises. Knowing how to keep your documents when changing employers involves checking the access perimeter: some digital safes remain linked to the employee, others to the employer.
Personal File and HR Documents: Employee’s Right of Access
The personal file gathers the documents that the employer keeps on each employee: employment contract, amendments, evaluation sheets, fitness or unfitness notices, work stoppages, potential disciplinary letters. It is not always thought of, but this file remains accessible upon request, even after departure.
The Paris Court of Appeal (March 23, 2023, n° 21/09288) confirmed that the GDPR right of access covers all elements of the personal file: career, remuneration, evaluations.
Which Documents to Retrieve as a Priority
- The payslips for the entire employment period, including corrective payslips, which will be used for calculating retirement rights and reconstructing the career
- The work certificate and the Pôle emploi (France Travail) certificate, which must be provided by the employer at the end of the contract
- The reports of annual and professional interviews, useful for justifying a level of responsibility or negotiating a position elsewhere
- The final settlement and the associated receipt, which formalizes the amounts paid upon termination of the contract
It is noted that responses vary regarding the ease of obtaining these documents: some HR departments send everything within a few days, while others require formal follow-ups by registered mail.
Personal Data Stored by the Employer: Retention Periods and Deletion
The employer does not keep your data indefinitely. The GDPR imposes retention periods proportional to the purpose of processing. After the legal deadlines set for each category of document, the company must delete or anonymize the data.
If you wait too long to exercise your right of access, some documents may have legally disappeared.
Personal Backup Strategy
The most reliable approach is to create your own archiving even before resigning. A digital folder on a personal medium (encrypted external drive, personal cloud service) with a simple structure is sufficient.
Three reflexes to adopt:
- Download each payslip as soon as it is available on the digital safe, without waiting for the end of the contract
- Keep a copy of training certificates and certificates obtained during employment, as the training organization can also provide them but with longer delays
- Save professional emails that confirm agreements on variable remuneration, bonuses, or negotiated departure conditions
Work Files and Intellectual Property: The Boundary Not to Cross
Retrieving personal administrative documents is a right. Copying work files produced for the employer, however, falls into a completely different category. Creations made within the framework of the contract belong to the company, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
This includes presentations, customer databases, source codes, internal document templates. Even after spending months building them, their ownership remains tied to the employment contract. Taking a business contact database to reuse it at a competitor exposes one to lawsuits for unfair competition, even for data theft.
The nuance lies in the nature of the document. A portfolio of graphic achievements (screenshots, non-confidential mock-ups) can be created to showcase one’s career, provided that no strategic information is disclosed. A snippet of generic code, without proprietary data, poses fewer problems than a complete business algorithm.
The best practice is to request written permission before leaving, specifying exactly which elements one wishes to keep as part of a portfolio. A written agreement from the employer protects in case of future disputes.
Changing employers does not eliminate your rights to your personal data, but it imposes a tight schedule. Downloading your payslips regularly, exercising your GDPR right of access as soon as you receive notice of departure, and clearly distinguishing personal documents from company files: these three reflexes avoid most of the administrative complications that arise after signing a new contract.