[svlug] Username Policies

[Eisenberg, J. David]

-----Original Message-----
From: svlug-bounces+david.eisenberg=evc.edu at lists.svlug.org on behalf of David Rosenstrauch
Sent: Wed 7/16/2008 3:33 PM
To: svlug at lists.svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] Username Policies
 
Steven Friese wrote:
>> Does anyone know of a company that has been sued for it's email
>> username policies?  For example, if a company is using
>> firstname at company.com for their email address and there is a conflict
>> of first names, can the company require users to either use a
>> different first name, a variant of their first name or an alias?
>> 
>> I am suggesting that our company use firstname.lastname at company.com
>> but I am getting a lot of resistance.

I'd be interested in knowing what the objections are.

>> 
>> I've asked our CEO to verify the policy with our lawyers so we don't
>> run afoul of any discrimination laws , but I was hoping someone might
>> be able to point me to a web site with some info on this topic.
>> 
>> Thanks,

> FYI - many companies (including my former employer Credit Suisse, a 
> major bank) use the firstname.lastname at domain.com format, so I'd think 
> it's a safe bet.
>
> I wouldn't think you'd need to force someone to change their name even 
> in the case of a name clash, though.  I imagine the duplicate could be 
> handled by a slight change to the format for either the duplicate or 
> both users, e.g., first.middle.last at domain.com.  But that's just off the 
> top of my head.  I'd imagine that after 10+ years into the Internet era, 
> there's a pretty strong history of standard procedures for handling this 
> sort of thing that you could probably find via your favorite search engine.

Although I've had name collisions in the classes I teach at the college; two people both named "Cuong T Nguyen" or some such; the problem is exacerbated with Vietnamese due to a relatively small number of family names.

> Even if you did have to make an alteration to a name for email purposes, 
> I'm not sure I can see how/why someone could have cause to sue.  Most 
> employment in this country is "at-will employment" 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment), so if a person didn't 
> like the email address they were assigned, they could just quit.
>
>DR

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