(sarcasm, but true story, afaik:) You could do what I understand a former employer of mine did: fire the employee, then call the state police and report that the employee &quot;stole&quot; company property by not wiping source code from a personal laptop as was demanded by the company at the time of firing. Police confiscated laptop, and employee was forced to hire counsel to get it back.<p>I imagine it was effective at encouraging the employee to delete the data, but at the great cost of advertising to all employees that we were all viewed as dirt.<p>If there&#x27;s a lesson to take from this, it&#x27;s that when you&#x27;re in a position of power, you should use sticks carefully if at all. But I hope that many (including the OP) already learned that lesson as a child.<p>(Thankfully, I was able to leave the company myself not long after.)