As I mentioned above, teens often have multiple email addresses, and if you’re a working professional, I recommend you do the same. If your employer provides you email, that employer has a right to all of your communications, no matter how personal, confidential, or potentially embarrassing. And they have that right without a court order or other due process. If you use their system, they own it. I’d recommend acquiring a separate email account for personal communications (Gmail is the most popular, but there are dozens of options) just to avoid potential entanglements.

We are all aware that any messages written on the company email system belongs to the company. The powers that be are free to snoop, at will, through our inboxes, ransack our stored files. Basically, your thoughts are not your own when you’re on the company dime. Given that, most know not to launch a drive to unionize the workplace using the company email system, to abstain from saying “bad things” about the boss, or sending dirty jokes to Al in Accounting.³