What is your company email retention policy?

Question

My company just instituted what feels like a crazy one. No email older than 90 days will be retained in outlook. Anything you need to keep longer is a "business record" and you should save .msg files in an organized folder structure on a network drive. "Outlook is not an appropriate records repository".

billy_bitchtits · Accepted Answer

Why would they say outlook is not an appropriate repository?
I'd think they could just create an archive folder that is shared among teams and have policy that you only move things meant to be kept there.
Is it just too easy to hoard email if they don't turn on the short retention policy?

trivorak · Answer

My company (oil and gas) was originally 90 days but has changed it this year to 1-year. Was happy when this changed over.When issues would arise I would never have a trail to prove I was asked to do something out of the ordinary.

denimnerd42 · Answer

we have 3 years which I still feel is too short and I lose some info I never thought I should save.
90 days seems like just long enough to go oops.. i meant to save that.
should be like 5 days so you are forced to write it down in an alternate location immediately.

version_five · Answer

I worked at a big international company. We had 30 days, and everybody just saved them on their hard drive as .msg.

elliewithcolor · Answer

In Germany we have to archive every email that leads to an offer, contract or other business document for 10 years. Starting on the 1. January of the following year.
What is not allowed though, is saving everything that could be talk under colleagues or other people that is considered private…
Ohhh and we have to archive them in a way, that we can’t change them, delete them and can proof 24/7 that that’s all the emails we have.

codingdave · Answer

> feels like a crazy one.If you dig into the rationale behind the policy, you'll likely find that it has nothing to do with email usage, and instead is much more related to controlling what is discoverable when litigation arises.

shortrounddev2 · Answer

We have none

What is your company email retention policy?

Why would they say outlook is not an appropriate repository?
I'd think they could just create an archive folder that is shared among teams and have policy that you only move things meant to be kept there.
Is it just too easy to hoard email if they don't turn on the short retention policy?

My company (oil and gas) was originally 90 days but has changed it this year to 1-year. Was happy when this changed over.
When issues would arise I would never have a trail to prove I was asked to do something out of the ordinary.

we have 3 years which I still feel is too short and I lose some info I never thought I should save.
90 days seems like just long enough to go oops.. i meant to save that.
should be like 5 days so you are forced to write it down in an alternate location immediately.

I worked at a big international company. We had 30 days, and everybody just saved them on their hard drive as .msg.

> feels like a crazy one.
If you dig into the rationale behind the policy, you'll likely find that it has nothing to do with email usage, and instead is much more related to controlling what is discoverable when litigation arises.

We have none

What is your company email retention policy?

Why would they say outlook is not an appropriate repository?I'd think they could just create an archive folder that is shared among teams and have policy that you only move things meant to be kept there.Is it just too easy to hoard email if they don't turn on the short retention policy?

My company (oil and gas) was originally 90 days but has changed it this year to 1-year. Was happy when this changed over.When issues would arise I would never have a trail to prove I was asked to do something out of the ordinary.

we have 3 years which I still feel is too short and I lose some info I never thought I should save.90 days seems like just long enough to go oops.. i meant to save that.should be like 5 days so you are forced to write it down in an alternate location immediately.

I worked at a big international company. We had 30 days, and everybody just saved them on their hard drive as .msg.

> feels like a crazy one.If you dig into the rationale behind the policy, you'll likely find that it has nothing to do with email usage, and instead is much more related to controlling what is discoverable when litigation arises.

We have none

Why would they say outlook is not an appropriate repository?
I'd think they could just create an archive folder that is shared among teams and have policy that you only move things meant to be kept there.
Is it just too easy to hoard email if they don't turn on the short retention policy?

My company (oil and gas) was originally 90 days but has changed it this year to 1-year. Was happy when this changed over.
When issues would arise I would never have a trail to prove I was asked to do something out of the ordinary.

we have 3 years which I still feel is too short and I lose some info I never thought I should save.
90 days seems like just long enough to go oops.. i meant to save that.
should be like 5 days so you are forced to write it down in an alternate location immediately.

> feels like a crazy one.
If you dig into the rationale behind the policy, you'll likely find that it has nothing to do with email usage, and instead is much more related to controlling what is discoverable when litigation arises.