Enterprise Email Usage for Startup New Hires

How we use company email safely, legally, and professionally from day one.

Approx. 20 minutes Interactive onboarding lesson | Includes policy PDF preview and assessment
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Your First Email: Harmless or High-Risk?

Page 1
What's in this lesson: Startup-ready email etiquette, security basics, and our official policy, plus a scored assessment.
Why this matters: Email is our primary external signal. Misuse can leak data, hurt our brand, or create legal risk.

Quick Thought Experiment

Imagine you're about to email a big potential customer. Which draft would you actually send from your new @startup address? Tap an option.

Choose a draft above to see how it aligns with our email policy.
Foundations

What Our Email Policy Actually Covers

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From Heavy SOP to Startup-Ready Guide

Our full "Enterprise Email Usage, Electronic Communications, and Record Retention" SOP is detailed on purpose. For day one, you need a simple mental model:

  • Use company email primarily for work.
  • Write as if your message could be forwarded to legal, press, or a regulator.
  • Protect anything confidential or customer-related.

Behind the scenes, the policy focuses on scope (who and what it applies to) and interpretation (we choose the safest option when in doubt).

Reference Document

Exploring the Official SOP PDF

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Visual Preview of the Manual

Here are thumbnail previews of the full "Enterprise Email Usage, Electronic Communications, and Record Retention Manual" you saw in your onboarding pack.

Click any page below to highlight it as your "anchor" reference while you proceed through this lesson.

Tip: use the PDF later when you need exact wording; for now, focus on the scenarios and habits in this lesson.
Acceptable Use

Where Work Email Is (and Isn't) Okay

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Use for Work First, Humans Always

Company email is for legitimate business purposes: customers, partners, recruiting, internal work. Light personal use is fine when it doesn't:

  • Disrupt your work or others' work.
  • Bypass our security controls (e.g., forwarding to personal inbox).
  • Violate our anti-harassment or conduct policies.
Confidentiality

Sending Confidential Information Safely

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Classify Before You Send

Before hitting send, quickly label the content in your head:

Company blog posts, public docs, marketing collateral, job descriptions.
Org charts, internal meeting notes, process docs without customer-identifying data.
Customer PII, non-public financials, security details, contracts, roadmap and pricing not yet announced.

Anything "Confidential" must use approved encryption or secure sharing tools, not bare attachments.

Monitoring

No Expectation of Privacy

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Assume Every Email Is Discoverable

Our systems log, archive, and may inspect email for security and compliance. That means your message could later be reviewed during an incident, audit, or legal request.

Practice a simple rule: never put into company email what you wouldn't be comfortable seeing quoted on a slide in front of the exec team.

Security

Phishing and Technical Safeguards

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Our Controls + Your Habits

We use multi-factor authentication, spam and malware filters, and domain protection (DMARC, DKIM, SPF). These reduce, but don't remove, risk.

Your job is to:

  • Verify unexpected requests over another channel.
  • Be skeptical of links and attachments, especially from new senders.
  • Report suspicious emails instead of just deleting them.
Knowledge Check

Is This an Acceptable Use?

Knowledge Check

You want to email yourself some customer data to your personal Gmail account so you can "finish the deck tonight." What does our policy expect you to do?

Incidents & Brand

Reporting Problems and Representing the Brand

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Report Fast, Communicate Carefully

If you suspect phishing, spoofing, or account misuse, report it immediately using our security channel rather than trying to fix it alone.

For public-facing topics (legal, press, funding, incidents), only designated spokespeople should email externally on behalf of the company.

Summary

Key Takeaways Before You’re Tested

Summary

What to Remember This Week

  • Email is business-first: use it professionally and sparingly for personal matters.
  • Classify content mentally (Public, Internal, Confidential) before sending.
  • Never route confidential data through personal email or unsanctioned tools.
  • Assume messages can be monitored, archived, and discovered later.
  • Our systems block many threats, but you must stay alert for phishing.
  • Report security issues quickly and avoid acting as an unofficial spokesperson.
  • The detailed SOP is your reference; this lesson is your day-to-day checklist.
Assessment

Read This Before You Start the Quiz

Assessment Intro

How the Assessment Works

You’ll answer a short set of scenario-based questions about email usage and security. You need at least 80% to complete this protocol.

  • One correct answer per question.
  • No per-question feedback; you’ll see only your final score.
  • You can retake the lesson if you don’t pass on the first try.

Take a breath and think about the safest, most policy-aligned answer in each situation.

Assessment

Assessment Question 1

Assessment Q1

Assessment

Assessment Question 2

Assessment Q2

Assessment

Assessment Question 3

Assessment Q3

Assessment

Assessment Question 4

Assessment Q4

Results

Your Email Usage Readiness Score

Results

Your assessment score based on this attempt:

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