Lose your job and your electronic life may go with it

Those finding themselves out of work these days are abruptly finding that they've lost more than just a paycheck after a pink slip arrives, as many former employees are now learning the hard way after storing personal files on a computer provided by the office.

When the boss man issues them a laptop, many employees begin to use that machine as their primary computer. That's the idea behind giving many workers a laptop to begin with, of course: If you're using that laptop after hours, chances are you'll probably check your email once or twice during the evening, and maybe you'll work a little extra on that Powerpoint presentation, too. It's a subtle trick that gets you to work just a little bit harder and costs the company very little in terms of hardware expense.

It also creates a problem when the company asks for that computer back after firing you for not being productive enough.

Use any computer long enough and it starts to accumulate personal data. Everyone knows better, but for many people it isn't feasible to switch between machines just so you can check out pictures of your new nephew. Over time, everyone's work email account becomes a messy amalgam of real work, personal email, web bookmarks, pictures, videos, music, and just about everything else.

The problem is that when you're laid off, your employer may not really care about all the data on the machine: They just want their laptop back, and right away.

Some of the stories that the Wall Street Journal outlines (link above) border on heartbreaking, including one of a woman who worked for the same company for 18 years, was laid off, and then found that she didn't even have a way to contact her sister because all her contact info was stored on the laptop her employer took back. And just like after a catastrophic hard drive crash, a lot of that data is completely unrecoverable, since standard operating procedure at many businesses is to wipe the hard drive as step one.

The WSJ also offers suggestions for dealing with this issue, ranging from the obvious (don't store personal files on your work machine!) to the wise (if you're laid off, ask -- or beg -- to download your personal files before they kick you out). I'll add that a good backup strategy should also apply to your work computer: A USB hard drive connected to your work machine once a month can do wonders for ensuring you have a copy of your data whether you get laid off or you drop your computer in the pool.