Tools / Do this first
The four-minute download
This is the highest-value four minutes on this site. The window is often hours, sometimes less, and almost nobody is told it is closing.
Where to save it
Personal storage you control. Not a work laptop, not a work drive, not a work account. Email it to a personal address and save it in a second place. The whole point is that it survives the moment your access ends.
Save these
- The separation agreementEvery version you have received, saved as separate files with the date in the filename. Do not overwrite.
- The signing certificateThe certificate of completion or audit trail from the e-signature platform. It is a separate file and easy to miss.
- Everything the agreement namesOffer letter, confidentiality and invention assignment agreement, arbitration agreement, equity plan and award agreements, policies it incorporates.
- Pay statementsThe last three to six, plus your final one when it arrives.
- Benefits enrollment summaryWhat plans you had, the plan numbers, and the coverage end date.
- Equity detailsGrant dates, vesting schedules, exercised and unexercised totals, exercise deadlines. Export or screenshot everything.
- 401(k) detailsProvider name, plan number, balance, and any outstanding loan balance.
- Your last two performance reviewsYours, from your own file.
- Contact detailsPersonal email addresses and phone numbers for colleagues you want to stay in touch with.
- Your own work, carefullyOnly non-confidential material you created and might want for a portfolio. When in doubt, leave it.
Leave these
- Customer and prospect lists
- Source code, designs, schematics, models
- Pricing, margin and financial data
- Internal strategy documents, board material, roadmaps
- Other people’s personnel, compensation or medical information
- Anything marked confidential, proprietary or privileged
- Databases, bulk exports or mass downloads of any kind
Why this line matters
Taking confidential company material can breach your agreements, create trade secret exposure, and give an employer a clean reason that has nothing to do with your original situation. A good filter: would this matter to the company if a competitor had it? If yes, leave it.
If your access is already gone
You are not stuck. California gives you three statutory routes to your own records, two of them with a $750 penalty attached, and one letter can use all three.
Naming convention that will save you later
One folder, files named with the date first. That is the whole system.
2026-04-02 separation agreement v1.pdf 2026-04-04 separation agreement v2.pdf 2026-04-04 email - revised agreement.eml 2026-04-08 executed agreement.pdf 2026-04-08 certificate of completion.pdf 2026-04-09 final pay statement.pdf timeline.md