The password is on her phone
The domain’s verification code goes to a former colleague’s phone.
(Illustrative scenario, not a real incident)
At this twenty-person online tea shop,the social media and ad accountswere all run by Xiao Wei in marketing.
Registered with her email,passwords saved on her phone,two-step verification tied to her phone number.
On ordinary days nothing went wrong. Everyone relied on her.
When Xiao Wei left, she handed over a list of passwords,sent to her manager over a messaging app.Only later did they findthat some of those passwords had been changed long ago and no longer worked.
The domain was about to expire and needed renewing.The company couldn’t log in,because the registrar’s verification codewent to Xiao Wei’s phone.
In the end, they had to call herand ask her to read the code aloud.
I used to think a handover was just a list.Later I realizedyou can hand over the list,but not the way to recover the account.
Every password change meant telling everyone,so nobody changed them.And so the people who leftnever stopped knowing the passwords.
The old saying goes: always cut a spare key.Just don’t keep itin one person’s pocket.
Bind the recovery email and phone for the company’s domain, pages, and ad accounts to the company, not a person; keep at least two admins, so if one is gone, the other can get you back in.