Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that online doesn't mean forever. So if there
Speaker 1: is content online that you will need in the future,
Speaker 1: save it somewhere you are sure you will be able
Speaker 1: to access it. So I know a lot of young
Speaker 1: people are warned that online is forever. That mildly obscene
Speaker 1: comment you left on a social media post as a
Speaker 1: teenager could be found by a potential employer when you
Speaker 1: are job hunting at thirty. It is a sobering realization.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, if embarrassing things last, sometimes useful stuff disappears.
Speaker 1: For various reasons. It turns out that online isn't forever
Speaker 1: for every thing. For instance, I keep reading stories of
Speaker 1: people who got fired or laid off from their jobs
Speaker 1: and can't access stuff on their work server or in
Speaker 1: their work email that is actually personal. Obviously, it is
Speaker 1: awful to lose a job. It adds to the awfulness
Speaker 1: if you can't access your eyeglasses prescription, or your finance spreadsheet,
Speaker 1: or your Christmas card list, or the presentation you are
Speaker 1: giving at that industry conference or that wonderful recommendation letter
Speaker 1: your mintor wrote for you, but you are just keeping
Speaker 1: as an attachment to the work email where he sent it. Yikes.
Speaker 1: One can debate the merits of homing from work, as
Speaker 1: the saying goes, but a lot of information workers do
Speaker 1: personal things on their lunch breaks, with the result that
Speaker 1: the info is on the work computer. Being fired or
Speaker 1: laid off may not be avoidable, but losing access to
Speaker 1: your personal files is. Even if you don't have a
Speaker 1: personal computer and use your work computer for everything, it
Speaker 1: is wise to save your files in a place you
Speaker 1: will always have access to them. One simple option is
Speaker 1: Google Drive, with a drive attached to your personal email,
Speaker 1: of course, and not your work email. It's pretty easy
Speaker 1: to get a personal email account these days. If you
Speaker 1: don't have one, you can do this. That brings me
Speaker 1: to a related point. Some people use their work email
Speaker 1: address for everything. There are plenty of reasons not to
Speaker 1: do that, but I realize a lot of people do.
Speaker 1: If you are one of them, be sure there aren't
Speaker 1: any personal messages you may need access to in the
Speaker 1: future that you can only access through your work email account.
Speaker 1: One option is just to see your personal email on
Speaker 1: messages you send and forward messages you receive to your
Speaker 1: personal account. That way, even if you primarily send and
Speaker 1: receive messages from your work account, you will have them
Speaker 1: available in your personal email account too. Now, to be clear,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about making sure you have personal access to
Speaker 1: personal content. I am not suggesting that you save work
Speaker 1: documents to your personal server or forward work emails to
Speaker 1: your personal account, especially if there are any security issues involved.
Speaker 1: But that note from your mentor needs to be available
Speaker 1: if you are suddenly escorted out of your office and
Speaker 1: you want to use that note to help you land
Speaker 1: another job. Not only do you want to be prepared
Speaker 1: if you lose access to work servers or email to
Speaker 1: ensure you can still get access to your personal things,
Speaker 1: it's also wise to be prepared if important web content
Speaker 1: gets taken down. For instance, if you apply for a job,
Speaker 1: save the job description. You don't want to find yourself
Speaker 1: preparing for an interview but unable to review the job
Speaker 1: description because it's no longer posted. If you cite an
Speaker 1: internet source and a work document or even on your
Speaker 1: personal blog, capture it somehow, even as a screen shot
Speaker 1: or something like that, so if you or someone else
Speaker 1: needs to refer to the source in the future, you can.
Speaker 1: It is convenient to keep links on file for pages
Speaker 1: you'll want to return to, but don't count on a
Speaker 1: weblink working for you forever. It might go behind a paywall,
Speaker 1: or the site will get acquired and the new owners
Speaker 1: will take it in a different direction. In other words,
Speaker 1: it is wise not to count on online being forever.
Speaker 1: If you'll need something, save it somewhere you'll be able
Speaker 1: to get to it. Then that will be one last
Speaker 1: thing to worry about. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura VANDERCAMD. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.