Employee Offboarding: What Can We Learn from Apple

In July 2026, Apple filed a lawsuit against Open AI Foundation regarding trade secrets and the risks that are involved when you do not properly engage in offboarding activities when an employee leaves.

Is this an extreme example of what happens when an employee leaves with valuable company information? Of course. Is it something you should worry about? Absolutely.

What we know is that Offboarding is more than just that administrative-check-boxes-when-an-employee-leaves function. It is a critical look at what specific information an employee has access to and have you made the necessary changes to ensure that access has ceased.

It’s not just access to software and files, but think about your product designs, technical specifications, intellectual property, customer database, detailed pricing information, supplier relationships and associated negotiations, strategic documents, and your top talent. These are areas in which you have invested time and great effort and could be very costly if lost or if it walks out the door to a competitor.

Before you land on the unfavorable side of an employee departure, now is a good time to document your process and controls and to revisit with your leadership team what changes need to occur and how to strengthen the offboarding process.

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