Still Using Your Company Email Address for Personal Business?

Last week Microsoft announced another 3,000 layoffs. The news inspired me to check out the Mini-Microsoft blog that used to be a great gut-check of the view inside the company. It is largely inactive now, but as I scrolled past comments about the layoffs back in July, one of them caught my attention.

The anonymous commenter had a great perspective. He acknowledged that while being laid off hurt, he was going to view it as an opportunity to discover what else he wanted to do. He closed by saying “I think it also may be healthy for me to not have my identity associated with my MS email address.”

Yes.

If you use your employer’s email address for your personal use, every time you hit “send”, you’re associating your personal identity with your place of employment. You’re signaling that you, as a person, are tied to your company even for personal matters.

If your identity is tied up with your employer, your job title, or the type of work you produce, it is smart to start building up your sense of yourself that is separate from work. This is a good thing to do anyway, but it is especially important if you’re about to leave a job. If you’re not prepared, you could slip into an identity crisis.

If you are using your work email address for personal business, make the change. Retrain your friends and family to use a personal address.

You are more than who you’re employed by.

Tags: identity