Any HR people here know if a former name can be discovered by employer?

January 16, 2022 4:24 PM

A relative had a name change done and it is not public record because the change was done for her safety in regards to a dangerous person that was in her life. She was recently hired at Company "Y" but as it turns out- the heads of Company "Y" keep in touch with the heads of Company "Z"- which was where she interned several years ago.

Why does this matter? Because she still had her former name when she was interning at Company "Z". So at some point the people at "Y" will probably mention her to the folks at "Z"... and "Z" will reply with..."who? hmmm.. I don't remember anyone by that name ever interning here."

No big deal she thought. Worse case scenerio, she gets fired because new Company "Y" thinks she lied about her previous time at "Z".

UNLESS THAT IS NOT THE WORST CASE SCENERIO. Even though her name was changed her SS# remained the same. When she starts work at Company "Y" they will have her SS#. Is it possible that Company "Z" from years ago still has her SS# on file somewhere? Could something like this conversation happen:
Z: "Hmmm, I don't remember anyone by that name working here. Do you have their SS# and DOB? I can see if they come up in my system that way."

If they do this.. Company Z will see only her former name pop up and figure out they are the same person. This could potentially mean a lot of people could end up knowing her former and new name despite it not supposed to be public record. But can Company Z look her up via that number? Should she just call them and tell them she's changed her mind about the job and won't be starting there after all? It's a terrible bridge to burn, but she may not have another choice. If they can't look anything up in their system with her number or anything then she's in the clear.

posted by fantasticness to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

Is this in the US? I'm having a hard time seeing the scenario happening for a lot of reasons:
1. With the exception of the direct supervisor, people rarely remember interns (no offense, I'm sure she was a great intern). Did she intern for the head of the first company? Was it a company made up of 3 people and an intern? Unless either of those things are the case, her name will never come up in conversation.
2. Unless these are VERY SMALL companies, it is unlikely the boss would mention the employee. And the old boss is unlikely to say, "HEY! THAT PERSON IS A LIAR!!" More likely they'd be sheepish for not remembering the interns name.
3. If this is a background check - those are typically done by outside companies that do use SS# and may contact the first company, so if so, she should give that company a heads up about the name change.
4. If this is a reference check, then the employee should give a heads up to whoever her reference was that there is a name change.
5. If this is a job verification check, then she should also contact HR at the old company to explain.
6. Companies do not share private, sensitive information like SS#'s with other employers. That would be a serious liability.
posted by Toddles at 5:18 PM on January 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

I have worked as an HR leader at tech companies for the last 10 years, and I have never considered looking up someone's personal info to casually verify anything for peers at another company or asked anyone to do such a thing for me. Technically, yes, HR will have records of former employees' DOB, SSN, full name, salary, title, dates of employment, etc., but this is not data that any HR folks I know would think of exchanging for the purpose of a backchannel reference check.

In general, I would say that if she's already been offered the job, the reference checking is done with (if there was any at all). It's highly unlikely that these company heads are going to be talking about this at any point unless the organizations are very, very small and the company heads are extremely close such that they are discussing minutiae all the time with each other, which seems relatively unlikely. If it were to randomly come up in a casual conversation, it might go something like:

"oh, we hired someone who was your intern years ago"
"really who?"
"firstname lastname"
"huh, i don't remember them"
"weird"
"we did have a firstname once"
"oh, maybe they got married and changed their name"
"maybe so"
"okay bye"

I really can't imagine a scenario where anyone in this situation thinks about it much more than that, even if they do put the pieces together that it's the same person but with different names. And if we're talking about companies that have more than 100 employees, it seems unlikely that it would ever come up at all. People come and go, change names, change genders, change careers, change haircuts, etc., and HR really doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about it or worrying if they are presenting the same way at new company as they did at old company. And they spend even less time talking about it with external parties.

In the unlikely event that a problem arises out of this, your relative might be asked to show her new employer evidence of her prior work experience under her old name (paystubs/W-2) and/or evidence of her transition to a new legal name. In this circumstance, she could take the opportunity to tell her new employer that the name change was out of concern for safety, and her prior name must be kept completely confidential. HR is accustomed to keeping things private and generally wants to protect employees and the overall workplace from having anything awful happen, so they will likely take this info in and hold it close.

All in all, while it's possible this could cause some confusion, it's unlikely that it will come up at all. And if it does, it seems like it's something that could be resolved by only telling the new company the confidential information and requesting that they keep it confidential. As Rock 'em Sock 'em mentioned, getting guidance from a DV organization about how to handle it if it does come up seems like a good idea so that your relative feels prepared to handle it.
posted by luzdeluna at 5:23 PM on January 16, 2022 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Since you both mention DV orgs: We tried that. They just said that they can verify with the company her informations, but that they can't guarantee such a close knit small company wouldn't share the information amongst themselves. Apparently, they are in constant struggle with trying to get the gov't authorities to change SS# with the name so that these things don't happen, but the gov't doesn't really listen. They're even trying to get the gov't to give DV victims special consideration when the REAL ID comes out next year because there are victims who leave states to get away from their perps and the REAL ID federal system is going to put their safety in jeapardy. Gov't doesn't care and are not giving victims any consideration so far. So quite a few victims are choosing to leave the country if they can afford it- most unfortunately cannot. ....Link This is what we were told.

Former Company had 40 employees. The new company only has 29 employees. New company is especially tight and they act like siblings with each other. They've worked together for many years, are constantly going out to eat after hours together and some have even married each other. She is not willing to give this job any information regarding her name change and I don't blame her.
posted by fantasticness at 6:04 PM on January 16, 2022

Looking someone up by SS# would be so improper I cannot imagine that happening. I strongly suspect the first worst case scenario (fired for 'lying' on resume) is, in fact, the worst case scenario, and even that is very unlikely. If she got the offer, they already investigated the veracity of her resume as rigorously as they care to do so. It would be awful to pass up this opportunity because you imagine people passing around SS#'s when that is incredibly unlikely. I'm my organization were aren't even allowed to send SS#s that we need for tax purposes by email, they are considered that confidential ( we use a secure fax only).
posted by Ausamor at 7:08 PM on January 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

I’m sorry to say that almost no one gives enough of a shit about interns to remember their names, often even *before* they stop interning. Don’t give it another thought.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:04 PM on January 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm not an expert, but it seems like if she doesn't trust Company Y's HR enough to be able to say "hey, I'm being stalked, I'm going to need a few accommodations" she probably can't work there safely. Ok maybe they don't do a background check, but what if they want to do a photo of everyone on the team, is she going to be down for that? Doesn't she need a note in her file saying "under no circumstances are you to give out this person's home address"? For that matter, she might not be the only person who's gone from Z to Y, so maybe someone working there will remember her, which seems like it might need a bit of delicate handling.

I'm sure you and she have thought about this a lot more than I am, and clearly she is ok taking some calculated risks, like including the internship on the resume at all. I don't think the specific risk of the background check is higher than the other things I listed (although the people who think that because you're hired means they've finished the background check are sadly mistaken), but to me it also seems worth taking the calculated risk of talking to one or two senior HR people at Y and getting the situation clear with them.
posted by inkyz at 9:24 PM on January 16, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've worked in HR in various roles over the years and it would be egregiously out of line and weird to share an SSN (or even birth date) in the way you describe. This isn't to minimize any of the feelings your relative is having about the situation as a whole, but that specific scenario is almost certainly not going to happen.
posted by augustimagination at 9:28 PM on January 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

This is how this conversation goes in real life:

"Hey, we have a great employee who was one of your interns years ago."
"Oh yeah? Who?"
"Jane Doe."
"Doesn't ring a bell."
"Yeah, I never remember the names of our interns, either! So about that other thing..."
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:03 AM on January 17, 2022

IMHO, chances are infinitesimally small the association would ever be made between the two identities, and this is where the Streisand effect rears its ugly head.

(Streisand effect is when the attempt to suppress information backfires and it attracts extra attention instead, named after Barbra Streisand tried to cease-and-desist an aerial photographer from including her estate in his public website. When the C&D went public the site got a thousand times the traffic it normally did. )

Other folks have added their reasonings why the two identities would be EXTREMELY unlikely to be linked, and any effect to "inquire" about which may actually provoke the attention she is trying to avoid. I personally say leave the internship off the resume. But that's just me.
posted by kschang at 8:21 AM on January 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

I agree with inkyz that if she doesn't feel safe disclosing to her new company that she had her name changed for safety reasons she's not going to be able to work there safely.

I would strongly urge her to let Company Y know that there was a name change for safety reasons. This also gives her an avenue to let them know not to ever release her home address, contact info, or put a photo of her anywhere on their website or marketing materials. She does not need to give any detail beyond "I changed my name because I have a stalker and I will need some accomodations." If the HR department balks at this then she should not work there.

But I cannot imagine a scenario where an HR department would not be sympathetic to this situation and work to protect her safety.

Source: my friend who changed her name to get away from being harassed by EXTREMELY abusive family members. Her employer was happy to accommodate her.
posted by nayantara at 7:18 PM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]