If you have non-public information about the company that can materially affect the stock price and you trade on that information, that's inside trading.
Anyway, unless you have a lot of money you're going to dump into your company stock, you're not going to make that much on it anyway. So why take a chance?
Side Note: One correction to something I said earlier. I am playing with one retail company, but it's definitely one that my relative isn't covering in her research.
