Let's jump straight into the reasons you should never use personal email accounts for work:

1. Consumer-grade email doesn't have business-grade security. It just doesn't. By using it to send work-related material, you're jeopardizing your company's intellectual property.

    

2. You're missing backup & compliance features. You can conduct backup routines on business email accounts. They are also deployed within regulatory compliance guidelines. Consumer email accounts aren't.

    

3. Your personal emails could become discoverable in a lawsuit against the business. This is the big one for you personally. Here's how it happens.
   
   
   • You send work-related emails through a personal email account.
   • You also use that email account for personal communications with friends, family, your significant other, bill payments, etc.
   • Someone sues your employer. The court subpoenas the company's records.
   • Those records include all work-related emails. Since your personal email account did send some work-related emails, all emails within that account—like the emails sent to your significant other—now become part of the court's subpoena!

This can and does happen. Would you want your personal emails read out loud in a courtroom? No? Then don't use personal email accounts for work. Not even once!