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Currently, we have email addresses, such as the following addresses:

Should department addresses be something like [email protected], or should they use the names of real people in that department, such as [email protected] or [email protected]? Please explain why.

What would be better in a scenario where people leave the company, for example? What is the best way to represent department email addresses?

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  • Hi Herr, welcome to the Workplace SE! I edited your post to focus more on the important parts of your question and clarified the title so it focuses on explanations instead of just simply listing pros/cons. We strive to formulate questions so that answers explain why and how. Hope this helps! :)
    – jmort253
    Sep 4, 2013 at 1:35
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    Hey @jmort253, thank you very much :) Although I gave my best to formulate a good question I really appreciate your time and effort to do so. Thank you!
    – Herr
    Sep 4, 2013 at 4:56

3 Answers 3

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How should a departments email addresses look like?

The answer depends on how you intend to use these departmental emails.

Many companies have departmental email lists like "[email protected]" designed to forward the emails to everyone in the department (even if only a department of one). When an individual leaves, that person's individual email address is simply dropped from the email list and replaced with the individual email address of the replacement.

Sometimes, if the email address is used externally, and the company wishes to project a "friendly face", a fictitious name is used in the email. One company I worked for used something like "[email protected]" as an email alias for the Customer Support team mail list.

Almost every company also has individual email addresses.

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  • hmm this looks like the right way
    – Herr
    Sep 3, 2013 at 12:50
  • To add: And when someone leaves, forward the mail from his (her) email address to the person taking over his responsibilities. When that person replies, his from email adress is on the mail, so the old email adress will fade out gracefully.
    – user8036
    Sep 4, 2013 at 9:23
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The most common I see as well currently using in my current job is

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

These are the main ones that are used constantly internal and external. Using the 2nd one is good per person as how many people have the exact same name.

By using a departmental address that everyone can access when someone is to leave they can leave a out of office message stating please email the shared email address where the remaining people can assist you.

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  • Should there be a combination of 1 and 2?
    – Herr
    Sep 3, 2013 at 12:47
  • What if for example, you have 2 or more designers for the designer@ addresses?
    – Herr
    Sep 3, 2013 at 12:49
  • @HerrK Do you mean like michaelgrubeysoftwar[email protected]? Thats a really long Email address..
    – Michael Grubey
    Sep 3, 2013 at 12:49
  • @HerrK Every person has their own Email address and have seperate ones setup that people can have access to so shared mailboxes.
    – Michael Grubey
    Sep 3, 2013 at 12:50
  • no not really. The current problem we are facing is, email accounts are created incrementally like designer1, designer2 & etc.
    – Herr
    Sep 3, 2013 at 12:51
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Generally we do both. We use the general ones for things that we sent in an automated way such as emails from successful or failed databases imports or for things that we might want a group of people to have access to. Then we forward those to the individuals concerned. But everyone also has a direct personal email for the majority of the work where they need to be contacted directly.

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  • Hmm pretty interesting. Are the more general accounts monitored by individuals too?
    – Herr
    Sep 3, 2013 at 12:44

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