job seekers: stop sharing an email account with your spouse by Alison Green on October 27, 2009 Are you one of those people who shares an email address with your spouse (like JohnAndAngela@email.com)? I don’t understand why people do this at all. (Email accounts are free, after all, and even if you don’t care about privacy, maybe your friends who are emailing you do.) But if you’re job seeking, you really should open your own account, with a name that doesn’t sound like I’m emailing two people when I correspond with you. Prohibitive? No. Slightly odd? Yes. You may also like:I'm addicted to snooping in my boss's emailLinkedIn is sharing your data with AI -- unless you tell it not tohow should I address my interviewer in application emails? { 17 comments }
class-factotum* October 27, 2009 at 1:37 pm I am not implying any causation here, but three of the couples I know with shared emails have divorced. Just saying.
Anonymous* October 27, 2009 at 1:56 pm It's extreme insecurity in one or both of the people masked as something cute. I see it on Facebook as well.
Anonymous* October 27, 2009 at 3:31 pm gosh, I can't agree with you more. I never got it why a couple has to share an email address. Sounds really stupid to me, it's like you are a half-person on your own.
Rebecca* October 27, 2009 at 3:58 pm If two people share an e-mail address, I assume it's because one of them is too stupid or inept to use their own e-mail.
Anonymous* October 27, 2009 at 5:34 pm 100% in agreement. I'm in HR and I find this continuously weird. When I send follow up letters, I wonder if I am supposed to address them both? Is the spouse aware of the job search? and if not…oog, I don't want to be part of that.
Lise F* October 27, 2009 at 6:32 pm Ugh, this is something I dealt with when I worked as a research analyst. In a data file we're using, we'd have two graduates of a college, both of whom are being targeted with an online survey of alumni opinions, and I have to send an email to both of them. So they'd end up with two emails in their inbox, one of which read "Dear John" and the other of which read "Dear Angela." It got even more fun if they decided to use each other's email to reply to the survey, and I ended up with two survey responses with the same (supposedly) unique ID. My husband and I are very close, and we share a lot of stuff, but it's just unprofessional to share email addresses.
Emily* October 27, 2009 at 11:14 pm From what I've heard, this is really popular with a certain brand of Christians as a "safeguard against the ever-expanding temptations of the Internet". (They're pretty defensive about any suggestion that it might be a sign of distrust or jealousy, too!) http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-09-08-christian-email_N.htm
Ask a Manager* October 28, 2009 at 12:10 am Emily, that is HORRIFYING. Thank you for that deeply disturbing article!
nuqotw* October 28, 2009 at 2:33 am Actually, I think it's kind of convenient – like having a single phone number. For social purposes, I can't tell you how many couples I can only reach half of. (Though I do agree that of course, spouses should maintain separate email accounts for professional purposes.)
class-factotum* October 28, 2009 at 1:23 pm spouses should maintain separate email accounts for professional purposes And for social purposes. Just because I write something to my college roommate does not mean I want her husband to read it. When I pointed this out to her (this was before their divorce, which I could have seen coming because of the shared email), she told me that she tells him everything anyhow, which annoyed me, because I don't think marriage dissolves the bounds of confidentiality between friends.
Anonymous* October 28, 2009 at 4:43 pm Can we also put a rule that says no odd/inappropriate email addresses such as hotlady@email.com. They come into my HR department like that all the time!
Anonymous* October 28, 2009 at 8:40 pm On a slightly related note, I used to tell the undergraduates who worked for me that they needed to change their phone message to something professional when they got ready to graduate and start job-hunting. Some of them hadn't thought of that.
Anonymous* October 29, 2009 at 12:30 am Re Emily's article:It sounds to me like some people don't trust themselves to do the right thing unless someone else is constantly checking up on them. That's not the kind of person I'd want working for me.
Anonymous* October 29, 2009 at 1:42 am On the phone message thing, I totally agree with Anonymous. A long time ago, my friend started a business and I suggested that she change her vm message which was her 3 year old daughter's voice talking and singing something. She rejected the suggestion, and needless to say, the business never took off.
Anonymous* October 29, 2009 at 1:21 pm Off-topic somewhat, but I have told my friends with "shared" e-mails, facebook, etc. that I will not use their e-mail because I want to talk to them, NOT their spouse. Even if it's nothing personal in the e-mail, I still am not interested in their spouse reading it.
Anonymous* November 13, 2009 at 10:56 pm I totaaly agree! I've worked as a receptionist in the past and people usually walk in and leave me their resumes in hopes of being called. I'm nosy, so I like to look them over. I am shocked to see some of the email addresses they use and type them on their resumes; do you think HR is going to take you seriously with an email such as HOTLATINLOVER6969@AOL.COM or BLACKJESUS@YAHOO.COM Give me a break!