Ex-employee deleted files and access.

If and when I get back in, is there a way to make sure no other human being is a legal user?

You could delete their accounts.

I don’t know if I even saw how to change the other login. I *think* it said something about password set (or some other verb) by user.

I would get on the phone with your hosting company and explain the situation. It may be that your ex employee got to it faster. Have your hosting company restore the site but add a .htpasswd file that only you have the password to. From there you can change whatever you want without giving anyone else access. Once all the accounts are deleted (be sure not to delete the content those accounts created) you can remove the .htpasswd file and go about your business.

Hope things work out for you.

I can’t delete their accounts if I can’t get in.

If you have access to the database, you can create an md5 hash of whatever password you want and update the database manually.

Actually have you tried just clicking on the forgot password link on the login page? It should let you reset it…

When I click on the forgot password link, it presents a sign-in for my email address, which it then refuses to accept. No such email. It’s the same email I’m using here, so WP is not consistent.

do you have database access?

no
I’m asking my isp, media temple, to do an emergency backup restore. Again. maybe I’ll get access after that.

Let them know that you have a disgruntled employee waiting for this to happen and lock you out once again. There are ways around this so that you don’t have to go deleting accounts as fast as you can.

I changed it right after the restore. He may have simply gotten there sooner, I suppose.

I used my login to set up a new password, but WP won’t accept my login when I try to log in.

Then you need to get access to the database and change the email address of your login in the wp_users table. Then when you click forgot password, you will get an email prompting you to change your password.