Symptoms

Customer had created a simple workflow with a default activity which had the service account as the destination user and checked the checkbox to notify participants when they receive a work item. Upon deploying it, the service account did not receive the email as they had expected.
 

Diagnoses

Diagnosis: When SmartActions is enabled, the service account is not able to receive notifications. If smartActions is needed, a different account must be used as the destination user in order for the account to receive notifcations. If smartActions is not needed, then disabling smartActions should result in the service account being able to receive notifications.
 

Resolution

Resolution: Customer needed smartActions enabled so another account was used for the workflow and resulted in the workflow working properly.