Loose Use of ID Numbers Is Asking for Trouble

Question: I’m a certified public accountant at a large accounting firm. I’m worried because the firm requires us to use our Social Security numbers as identifying numbers on client billing forms and expense reports. These forms are distributed throughout the firm, and the reports are used to create other internal reports that are widely disseminated. The mail room staff sometimes leaves copies of these reports on employees’ desks, where they may sit for days if the recipients are out of town. They’re visible to anyone who walks by, including the janitorial staff.

Given the increasing frequency of identity theft, this use of Social Security numbers seems to be downright dangerous. It seems the company could just assign us random numbers that wouldn’t identify us.

Answer: Yes. It’s dangerous.

Government officials, management consultants and privacy experts agree the company is making a potentially costly mistake by circulating Social Security numbers so freely because identity theft has become rampant. Reports of suspected credit theft to Trans Union, one of the nation’s largest credit reporting firms, rose from 35,000 in 1992 to about 500,000 in 1997, according to Beth Grossman, manager of the identity-theft program at the Federal Trade Commission.

Grossman said criminals with a person’s name, Social Security number and date of birth can open checking accounts, get credit cards and driver’s licenses, and buy cars or jewelry in the victim’s name. That can damage victims’ credit, even forcing them into bankruptcy. Government officials have found that often the illicit source of data is the workplace, with co-workers selling information or making it available to criminals, she said. “Any place information is all stored together is at risk.”

Beth Givens, director of the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said company officials sometimes mistakenly view Social Security numbers as an easy and convenient way to track workers, but their naivete can put their employees at risk.

“I call what that company is doing information malpractice,” Givens said.

Management consultant William S. Hubbartt, author of “The New Battle Over Workplace Privacy,” suggested the reader draft a memo to management outlining the problem and urging that a new employee identifier be used. He said some employers may resist making the change because it might cause bureaucratic problems. But, he added, a company’s reputation could be injured if it became known as a place that cannot be entrusted with confidential data.

For more information on identity theft, visit the World Wide Web sites https://www.consumer.gov/idtheft and https://www.privacyrights.org , or call the FTC’s hotline at (877) IDTHEFT.

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Q: At the consulting company where I work, my employer gives performance-based bonuses just before Christmas. I suspect I’ll receive a substantial amount.

Here’s the problem: I’m actively looking for a new job and hope to get an offer any day now. If I’m offered a job and decide to leave my current employer before bonuses are passed out, am I still entitled to the bonus or part of it? Would it be bad form to ask for the bonus even though I am leaving? I feel I’ve been a good employee.

A: Check out the company’s bonus-plan documents, said Mike Emig, who leads the performance management and compensation practice for Deloitte & Touche’s mid-Atlantic region. Emig said most companies have written policies outlining the terms under which bonuses are granted.

But Emig advised that it’s probably wiser to stick around a bit to be sure to get the bonus. Unless there’s a specific written agreement between worker and employer, the company may not feel obligated to give money to a worker who has departed.

“It would be foolhardy not to hang on,” said Emig, who noted that sometimes year-end bonuses become a “handcuff” for workers.

Year-end bonuses are becoming more common among employers. According to the Bureau of National Affairs’ Human Resource Report, about 20% of companies surveyed now report that they give them out, up from 14% in 1996.

In some cases, when prospective employers are desperate to hire, they’ll offer to match the bonus to get the worker to start sooner. Sometimes that sum becomes, in effect, a hiring bonus. On the other hand, a savvy job-hopper can double-dip by swooping up the year-end bonus from one employer while negotiating a separate hiring bonus on the other end.

“It’s a matter of timing,” Emig said. “If you have negotiating strength, you’ll have more options.”

Kirstin Downey Grimsley can be reached via e-mail atdowneyk@washpost.com.