Question

Have you had experience writing work e-mails? What is the difference between a work email and a personal one?

Answer 1

Difference between personal and corporate mails:

Email Access

Personal email accounts can be accessed from almost anywhere, even if you read your mail at home through a program such as Microsoft Outlook. Most personal email services have Web-based email inboxes where you can read, write and edit email from any computer. Many corporations have email accounts that can only be accessed at work or through a work computer. Usually those accounts are routed through a program such as Outlook, and users don't have access to the Web-based service. Password and other items that need to be edited in corporate email are changed through an IT employee instead of through your own settings, as they would be in personal email.

Security

You can be relatively sure that your email use isn't being monitored in your personal email. Corporate email, on the other hand, should be considered an open book to your employer. Everything from the messages you write to the attachments you send are subject to scrutiny and should be kept strictly business. Unlike a personal email account, which can be used as you please, corporate email accounts are maintained and paid for by a company that wants the accounts used for business purposes. Some companies will also have stronger password and email security than you would find on a standard account. This is especially true if information like client names or financial spreadsheets are exchanged via the corporate email system.

Etiquette and Attachments

Personal and corporate-based email systems have different standard etiquette. Though you might send a casual email to a family member or a funny picture to a friend from a personal email account, the same should not be done from a corporate-based email account. Corporate email message should be checked carefully for grammatical or spelling errors; they should include your full name and the full name of the recipient. They should not include any abbreviations or Internet speak. Attachment sizes may also be different on different email systems. Hotmail offers 10GB attachments via SkyDrive, while Yahoo have a 25MB attachment limit for email. The company you work for may have set a lower limit on attachments sent via the corporate email system.

Cost

The cost of personal and corporate email also varies greatly. Many people get free personal email accounts from Internet service providers with Internet plans; free email accounts are also available from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and a slew of other companies. When a business wants to offer employees a corporate-based email account, it usually incurs a significant cost. Each individual email account, as well as the attachments and volume of email being sent, contributes to the final cost. Though corporations can also use free email accounts for employees, they won't come with a corporate domain and won't look as professional.