Re: Should be made illegal
Unfortunately in the US that also hold you over when leaving "Don't hand over all your notes then we won't pay out your redundancy".
I may have purposely deleted all my notes and info I'd created over the years before I was let go. Fuck 'em, if you're getting rid of me just to employ someone cheaper (this isn't rackspace) then fuck am I going to help the person replacing me. Yes, not their fault but fuck businesses that do that to their staff.
Come now, always train your replacement to the absolute letter.
Of the existing documented procedures that management laid down on paper circa 1990 when they did an update drive when doing that application for ISO9001 that hasn't been updated since.
It's very important that your replacements know how to write an autoexec.bat, config.sys, and know how to find the right order to load devices to memory so you don't run out, and how to assign IRQ addresses manually etc. As long as you can truthfully say that:-
1) That this information is required to understand the documented company procedures.
2) if a problem in this area arises they would need the information that you have given them.
3) That you have had to deal with these issues before.
Then personally I think it's fair game. If management wanted you to do something else then of course they would task you to do it. As a mere pleb you should not argue and should just do exactly what you are told to do like a good employee without arguing even if the assigned job doesn't make sense to you.