Many positions at Associated Food Stores come with an email address. The address typically includes a first and middle initial and the website domain address for the company. However, just because it has a name on it, doesn’t mean the address belongs to the individual. Avoid potential challenges down the road by using a personal email address for personal business.
In today’s world, an email address is used for many things. Streaming services, financial institutions, schools and community groups almost always ask for email addresses. While it might be tempting and convenient to share a work email address, there are many reasons to avoid this practice including:
Using company email for private needs complicates leaving a job.
While people may plan to be with a company for a long time, that may change in the future. If this happens, team members will eventually lose access to their work email account. Team members who used their work email account may find it difficult to recover their passwords for outside services. Many password reset requests go to a registered email account. Using a personal email account helps avoid these challenges.
Corporate email accounts are often targets for spam and viruses.
Corporate email addresses are often easier to find than personal accounts. They might be listed on the company website or given to vendors and other business contacts. Scammers and hackers gather these email addresses and try to exploit them. They try to hack the password or send phishing attempts that could expose the email account to the hacker. From there, hackers may have access to your personal data.
Keeping a private, anonymous email address through Microsoft’s Outlook.com or Google’s Gmail is the best way to keep work life and personal life separate and give team members control of their correspondence and contacts.
“We do all we can to ensure team members have the technology and access needed to do their jobs well,” said Brad Hess, director of information services. “Using a personal email address for personal business can go a long way in making sure there aren’t challenges later on.”