Don’t Mix Work & Personal Devices

It’s a well-known adage that you should never mix business with pleasure. This is definitely true when it comes to technology. Nearly everyone in the workforce today likely has a work email address and a personal email address. But humans are lazy and will often use a work email address for personal correspondence or as a login username because we are checking that account more frequently during the day. If this is acceptable to your employer’s policy manual then there’s no harm – until you’re no longer employed there and remember all the personal info that’s stored in an account you are locked out of. But for employers the reverse situation should also be considered: if you allow work accounts to be signed in to personal devices, how can you secure confidential business records when someone leaves? Major tech services like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace have built-in solutions for wiping corporate data remotely. (Shameless plug: if you are a business manager/owner and want to enable this, let us know!) Apple has learned the hard way that this doesn’t always work as planned. It seems some employees unknowingly continued to have access to certain corporate files long after they left the company. This has resulted in accusations of misdeeds on both sides. In the end, it’s clear that keeping a bright line between business and pleasure results in fewer headaches.