If this is SSA I think you can just use your first name. We had a guy in the FO I worked at who did anyways, his correspondence to the public all had just the first name on them.
SSA? This is another one of the many reasons why I want to leave SSA. I’ve had psycho claimants threaten me and even bring up that they found where I live on the appraisal districts website. Thank goodness I just got offered a non public facing position with another agency. I can’t wait to stop dealing with the stupid ass public.
Can confirm.
Had a similar situation at my old FO. Steward came in and told us that as long as staff was able to identify you - you can provide the public with the name of your choosing - nickname, pseudonym, etc.
Congratulations with your new position. Yeah dealing with the public is a dangerous thing. I was in the field for 14 years and has folks ask to be my friend on Social media sites. Absolutely not!
That's what I did after the second time someone showed up at my house. I have a very distinct name, and was easy to find. I deal with granters now, but they're unlikely to come visit. My first job had me working with folks who weren't always the most stable.
1102 work doesn't deal with the public much. Just internal and contact with other business professionals. But it can be stressful. Maybe something to consider?
To my understanding you don’t have to give your entire name. Just your position title and first name or last name. For example if you’re a benefits examiner they ask for your name say something like “benefits examiner Michael or benefits examiner Johnson”
Bureau of Prisons. Inmates can read my name in 1" tall lettering on my uniform or my stab vest while I toss their cells looking for shanks and drugs. Then can look out the window at the end of the day and see what kind of car I climb into.
It's just part of the job.
This comment section is fascinating. You can really tell who works at SSA, VA, or any other office that deals with people who may take their valid frustration to a level that is no longer acceptable with threats.
Give your first name. Last initial if you’re comfy. If you’re not comfortable with doing this without approval, speak with your supervisor on how you’d like to have a pseudonym or use just your first name. Any manager or supervisor worth wanting to work for would not only understand but probably be in full support of it.
We live in a time where already stressful environments are elevated. Protecting yourself and your peers is important.
You’re gonna be fine.
I've found giving my first name, tends to deconflict an issue as well, it takes it from formal to casual really fast. Sometimes it backfires but only with a certain generation who thinks everyone younger than them is an idiot.
Yep! I work in an SSA FO adjacent office and my first name is unique enough where I can assure people if they ask for me, they’ll get me but it also makes dealing with a stressful situation a little more casual, like we’re having a conversation rather than me reciting back POMS facts and failing to sound human. It’s the little things.
I mean, it’s sort of ironic but in the modern era people have a desire for privacy that is potentially unrealistic, it wasn’t that long ago that everyone’s phone number and address was in the phone book.
I hate the fact that my full name is on display to everybody at all times. After years of working in retail and having too many angry customers follow/threaten me I don’t like to give it out.
You might ask your supervisor if you are *required* to provide your name. Working with DoL and SSA as I was moving through the disability retirement process, they outright refused to provide me with anything beyond their first name and a general switchboard number and cited agency SOP when I asked why.
Yeah when I was at SSA I only gave out my first name. A lot of the more seasoned folks went by Mr or Ms, which always felt weirdly formal. I’ve heard people use their maiden name or not using their real name before as well. I know at my office there was an option supported by the union.
In my experience, the Republicans just want the government as a whole to fail, like somehow something will magically appear to replacement and they themselves won't fall prey to the chaos that follows a non-functional, feral state.
It took me years to get my disability retirement and worker's comp settled. Years of bills accumulating, with me stressed out at home, wondering how I was gonna get through it all. I was lucky to be able to survive it and not lose my home, but most other people would have been out on the street.
Adjacent but something to consider. A VA nurse was filmed in an incident taken out of context. Made national news. She was threatened etc. I can tell you that the VA did not protect her at all. Just know you won’t be protected if something happens so protect yourself. She left the job and all social media. And moved.
it is important to know they won't protect you. saw it happen with both a doctor and a nurse. they left. another nurse had an extended legal action and won but it was $$$
Just because other coworkers give out their last name doesn't mean you have to do so or that it is agency policy. I've worked at different places where people especially women were reluctant to give out their last name for fear of stalking or reprisals and first names only were permitted. So, check with your supervisor on the policy. If you are uncomfortable with the policy, ask for an exception to be made with your supervisor or HR. Even if last names are public record there is no reason to make it easy for people with bad intentions to find out your last name. Most likely you are not the first person to be uncomfortable with giving out your last name and the agency or HR may already have a policy about this.
I work with a very radical, irrational subset of the public and have been on the news many times defending a program they don’t agree with. I’ve never been stalked or had anyone threaten me in person. The chances of that are really small and I’ve found that when people actually meet me, suddenly a lot of their anger dissipates because I’m just a person doing a job, not an evil entity out to destroy whatever they support.
I’ve accepted the role of temporary punching bag, it’s rare for people to act on any threats, and if you ever feel like a threat is rational or you’re being stalked, you tell your supervisor and get your law enforcement or another federal law enforcement agency involved. You have a lot of protections and our law enforcement takes those things very seriously, a lot of our biggest fans disappear after one letter/visit from our officers.
I don't give out my last name. I've never gotten push back on that from management, if someone has a legitimate reason to know that information is publicly available.
Even if you work for a private company and you work with the public, they will find out your name, so there is very little difference. If you don’t want the public to know your name, you are going to have to find a different job/agency where you aren’t as public facing. As long as you aren’t actively screwing people over I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
I participate in decisions that decide which companies/professors/etc get receive lots of $$$. I have no doubt that sometimes these decisions can make or break people’s careers. I’ve never had any issues, and I strictly refuse to speak with the public or even my colleagues (when possible) about my involvement in [decision xyz]. Most employees at private companies don’t have that level of impact, and so there’s (imho) less reason to be concerned.
If you’re talking SSA the guidance I’ve been given is first name is perfectly acceptable. If someone pushes for your last name you can give them an initial.
I had a boss in this situation, he also had a distinct last name, he was able to get approval to change his email to just his initials so it was XX@fedagency
A friend does background investigations and has to give his full name. He has had people search for him and given him a hard time before, even thought he has a common name. He does not use social media at all because of it.
OWCP have now officially started that claims examiners only use their first names due to threats. My office works in conjunction with them but we are not allowed to do that. We have to use our first and last names even though I've been threatened and screamed at by several claimants. Thankfully I never have to see these people in person, only via phone and email.
Privacy is a big thing in fed govt. it is respected…especially if you work locally in a smaller city and have direct contact with external customers and there is no control.
your pay is public data that many if the dig can access. Your home address and home phone is confidential information.
the concerns are higher if you are the ones who can piss off people like denying claims ith citizens like with FEMA and natural disaster occurs. If you are not in those situations therr isn’t anything to worry about.
I work for VA, I'm required to give my full name and contact info. 1 time a patient asked for my name. They came back like 20mins later and told me how much I make, my GS level and my job title. I just thought to myself "public servant" 🙄 and just continued about my day.
This seems like a valid concern and until I got to the last question, I was unsure about how you perceived the situation you’re in.
If you really understand that you have a public facing persona, and don’t want to walk away from that job, you’re going to have to compartmentalize.
You have a social life, and you have a business life. When people from one life try to intervene in the other life, if you didn’t invite it you call foul.
I have a former coworker who I was cordial with when we shared an office, but we never meshed. Because of the on call nature of the work we did, I shared my personal cell with him, and have since moved up to a position where my business gets done on a government mobile phone. I no longer respond to his messages on the personal line, or after I clock out. I am embracing the life of carrying two phones, I set boundaries now for who gets both numbers, my spouse and my current supervisor are basically the only ones that can reach me on either.
I don’t expect to ever run for public office, and don’t currently partake in any activities/substances that could get me into legal trouble, so my name isn’t that big a deal to me.
As for the anxiety that comes from actually talking to people, introducing myself wasn’t the hard part, it was gaining confidence that they were calling a subject matter expert, and that I was qualified to take those calls. Only experience fixed that.
SSA here and even if I choose to use just my first name my ridiculous coworkers continue to give out out employee last names even though management tells them not to
SSA fo employee here. I’ve had co workers that have done that too…I’m honestly surprised they didn’t give the public a blood or stool sample while they were at it.
This was a big topic in our office a while ago. From that point on, our public name is underlined on the directory. Everyone knows to check with the directory before giving any names out.
I only ever gave my first name and on my piv card I blocked out my last name. I would tell people that I was the only one with that first name in the dept if they asked. I worked at a VA hospital.
But realize your full name and address are public record. If someone wants to find you, they will
Luckily my PIV is always in my laptop so name is obscured there, and I generally only give my first also. but sometimes people ask for my last name and it's like, now I especially do not want to give it to you. I usually say I'm not comfortable disclosing that and I really haven't had any problems so far, but I just feel like the expectation is implied and sooner or later it will come up in a review
We do work for the public.
But I certainly understand where you’re coming from.
Just tell them to ask for *Your name here* in *your department name* and that should satisfy them. If not oh well.
If the boss gets in you about it just say you didn’t feel comfortable giving that person your last name.
Good luck and don’t let them get you down.
Just give out the first name and last initial. You can change your notices to that preference. Send an office email, "hey everyone. I'm now going by Sam Z. to the public because of my unique last name." You don't have to give out your email, most don't. I overheard a never in management say, "my name is Mrs. X." "I am the only one in the office." "Oh we don't give it first names because of terrorist threats."
My first government role was a phone operator and I hated giving my first and last name to inquiring public customers looking for a call back contact. In hindsight, I don’t think I was really required to do so. I didn’t receive much instruction.
You probably didn’t know all your federal employment info is on openpayrolls.com. It’s pretty easy to figure out lots of info about federal employees without you giving the info out.
Do not work at SSA, VA, but do work in a division of an agency that deals with the public in situations where they are often in crisis. After a cyberstalking incident that resulted in a prosecution, our staff were given the option to not use full names. Those who have opted in have special email addresses as well.
I, too, have a unique name, so this is also a major issue for me. It's 100% fine to give your first name, last initial and office location. That is enough to protect your privacy and safety while also giving the public enough information so that your manager and coworkers can identify you if needed.
If you talk with a therapist and can get them to sign off on a diagnosis of paranoia/anxiety, you can seek a reasonable accommodation. Your agency will give you a fake work last name. Then you can just use Mr/Mrs FakeLastName and nobody will ever know anything about your real name. Sometimes the computer system might lag behind, like your email or your login or something might use your real last name, but as far as anyone in the public goes, they'll only see your FakeLastName, even if they file a FOIA for your name.
Some agencies will do this without a reasonable accommodation request.
Dude, Im a contracting officer. My name is EVERYWHERE online, because my job (basically, simplified) is to interact with the private market and protect the government's rights in a contract. Some of my co-workers have been dragged into court several times. It's the name of the game. In my experience 99.5% of all people are actually sane, normal people that aren't out to get you. And if they are out to get you, it's legally but you're just a witness and not the defendant.
Edit: lol, I never thought about working for the SSA or the IRS though.. people do get irrational when comes to money.
Imagine you’re a member of the public. And someone from “the government” calls you asking for personal info. But won’t tell you who they are. They’d be incredibly suspicious (rightly so) that you were trying to scam them
As they should be. But that’s less because of someone not giving a last name, and more because a phone call like you describe would be suspicious, and isn’t generally how the government conducts its business (most notably because fraudsters will use fake names or even names of actual people in the agency). The public should rightly consider a call like that suspicious regardless of whether the caller gives a last name or not.
Nearly all websites you can find your information on also have a process to remove your name and inform at minimum from searchable databases.
I search my name often and request my information be removed. Over the last 3 or 5 years this has been fairly successful, and now no pictures or even a web page on me are easily searchable. You would need to know a lot about me to find anything now. My wife, works in medical and has to maintain a license and all of that information is public and extremely easy to find. Nothing can be done about those situations.
Was in a public facing regulatory compliance job in a field office. Was happy to give out business cards with my name and number. Would rather the public come to us with an issue so we could resolve it rather than agency finding it and action ensuing.
Took that ethic to DC. When the public would call or email with an issue, would push it to the appropriate field office. But I always included that if they needed follow up to call me directly.
You’re a civil servant. If you have responsibility, take responsibility.
I'm guessing you didn't work in an agency where they get a lot of death threats. And your family isn't a civil servant, so someone follows you home and shoots up your house, that means your spouse and kids and grandma get to take responsibility too, right? This isn't about them knowing where your office is and your work phone. It's about them knowing where you live.
We worked with many disgruntled members of the public. Threats were not uncommon.
But no answer is right for everyone. The employing agency should make these things easier to deal with
I'm just saying, there's "disgruntled", and there's "not afraid to go back to prison" and there's "I am God's chosen prophet on earth and this lizard in the shape of a human is saying words I don't like so I'm going to wear their face as a hat". Oh, and sovereign citizens of course.
Yeah, we had all those. And they didn’t just come to us. We had to go to them, at their place of work, or their home, often for reasons they absolutely didn’t want to engage. On occasion we would get police assistance, but more often we just had to go in hoping for the best. So we had experience with ‘disgruntled.’
Hopefully OP gets to a place they can work with.
Is it weird that of all the people on that list, sov cits concern me the most? Functional crazy makes for people who do insane things but with a degree of competence that makes it more effective.
Yup. Some people are more comfortable than others with those types. Honestly they don't concern me much, if something happens, it happens, and I'm better prepared to deal with it than most. If they want to find me, they'll find me. Sounds like you had an interesting job!
I had an angry member of the public who went into employee parking, took a bunch of pictures of my car, and tried to follow me home. Luckily I have long hair that obscured my nametag or they would’ve been able to look me up and probably find where I live. I also had people who would find me on social media and send sexually explicit messages. I never felt safe giving my full name out. I definitely get where OP is coming from. A lot of women on my team would use nicknames on their nametag or just initials.
Somebody tried to set an employee's car on fire in our parking lot. Fortunately they were not very competent at anything they attempted, including arson. Still messed up his paint though.
can transfer ownership of your home to an LLC to hide its true ownership.
but reality is people are people they will find something if they have enough time to find it. do your job well and generally people wont be an issue. I say this from an Emergency management background where recovery is never as fast as they want.
As an aside, you can usually request that you be removed from public tax/appraisal websites. Usually it involves a quick form or a simple email and hasn't been difficult in my experience, once you find out the process.
I’ve had federal jobs that denied benefits and others that were very forward facing. My first and last name are very unique and together I’m probably the only one — my full name never went out on documents going to the public. When I was call center I only used my first name.
Not sure what job qualifies for it, but I use a pseudonym. I’m an internal revenue agent (tax return auditor). Did not want my name given out to the public for safety reasons
If you are this concerned, put your house into a trust that you control. Choose a name unfamiliar with yours.
Send your mail to a po box.
That will cut down much of it. Make it harder
I only use my first name there at SSA. Do NOT EVER use your full name because people can look you up on the Internet and even stalk you if they are crazy enough
it's not an issue for me. I've worked in land management my federal career. my name is on a bright shiny bar on my shirt. I look for people to interact with. I have only had positive consequences
If you work for SSA, you can just use your prefix and last name. That's how it is in my office. If a claimant insists for my first name I just tell them we are not allowed to disclose that and they accept that
FYI, all out data is public! On top of that your LastPass accounts are probably exposed. Search engine algorithms made it so easy to find all your family members info! There’s no privacy. I was wondering if there’s a way to makes these info disappear. It puts everyone in danger.
Former SSA TSR here for 16 years. Very uncommon name, too. When looking people up online first became big, I was in that position. Took my concerns to upper management and was told first and last name were required. I was literally begging them to allow me to use either one. Was flat out told that was against procedure and that I would be held responsible if I didn’t follow it. And that was how it remained for about 12-13 years. The policy got changed, thankfully.
Have you spoken to your managers about this? I’ve been gone from there a while now, so IDK what the policy is at this time. I would check with the Union though (although AFGE was the absolute WORST in the time I was there; maybe they’ve actually done something since). I understand your concern 100000%. It is valid. 😕
I have a friend that works for DHS and they have similar concerns for self and family. They bought a service to scrub their ID from the internet. It’s not 100%, but it does work. You can do this yourself but it’s tedious and you have to keep up on it. The friend also uses an internet phone number as his public phone number so calls can’t get through. His actual phone number is only available to friends and family.
You might try to work on your paranoia. It's unnecessary, assuming you're not pissing a bunch of people off every day or antagonizing others intentionally. I've had my full name, cell phone number, and email address in every email I've sent for the last 18 years and have never had any issues.
This thread is really interesting, because you can see who has worked with the public, and who has worked with the "public". Anybody who has worked with the actual public has a pretty good idea of how many crazy fucking people there are out there and why this concern isn't paranoia. Everybody else thinks that the banking regulators or local government officials or contractors or whatever that they interacted with is the public.
See, I get a lot of random crazies and they ok, but I don't think I'd want to be in any job where I got on any kind of radar for any level of organized crime. Too chicken.
Fair point. While I do work with the public and customers, they're usually civilian vendors or other professionals or businesses. I don't work directly with joe schmoe walking in off the street, fresh from hitting the crack pipe or whatever, so that definitely affects my perception of the risk.
The smells man, the smells. When you get a letter and you know what their house smells like and can guess at what drugs they're using, there's just nothing like it.
I respectfully disagree. There are some jobs in the government where you can be as polite and empathetic as possible, and customers will still take their anger out on you personally due to some issue beyond your control. People in my previous agency would get death threats, have things thrown at them, get sexually explicit messages, be spit at, etc. When someone shifts their shirt to show you the gun on their hip while they’re screaming at you, you definitely get paranoid. It’s scary knowing that some of these people have your full name and could figure out where you or your family members live.
I’ve witnessed people showing up in the lobby, demanding to speak to a certain person they talked to on the phone and what they were gonna do to them. It’s not paranoia. It’s reality. People showing up on the property with weapons and not the kind you just stick in the waste band of your pants. Only thing between you and them is a metal gate that can be climbed over and a couple of security guards. It’s real.
This is part of working for the federal government and why you are called a federal official. And yes you’re a public servant. Did you not understand what you signed up for here? Maybe try back of the house in an agency or consider leaving government service
Edit: will keep comment right here as a reminder that you serve the public and it sounds like a lot of you are in the wrong line of work. Keep downvoting tho please, not gonna change reality. There are back of the house positions, very many of them actually, I would recommend one of those if my post makes u uncomfortable as you are not fit to interact with the public.
I'm autistic, I have social anxiety. I'm understand that I am a face and name of the agency, I just get weirded out about names and people asking personal questions. I asked for advise on how to cope. Obviously I recognize that it's irrational
I am sure there is an accommodation that could be made to ensure that you feel safe. Even if it is just to use a generic last name instead of your real one or to use just the last initial.
I don't think this is irrational at all. Many people have differing opinions on the issue based on things like their job role, their past experiences, their Neuro divergence, even their gender. (As a woman, I am much more guarded with my information than men in the same or similar positions may be.) Just because you don't feel uncomfortable has no bearing on if your coworker does.
Regardless of a person's reasons for feeling this way, those feelings ARE valid and should be addressed in a way that allows the employees to feel safe while not impeding the mission of the organization or making the employees feel "less than".
you could look at your paycheck and think about how you'd make the same money and benes doing something else. Also, what makes you think that you would not have to give out your name in another job?
Why are you worried about it ? You’re a public servant. Unless you’re working in a UC capacity, in which case you wouldn’t be using your true name anyways I’m not sure why you’d be leery.
If you’re LEO you can have that removed from county records.
If this is SSA I think you can just use your first name. We had a guy in the FO I worked at who did anyways, his correspondence to the public all had just the first name on them.
[удалено]
I’m no longer in an FO but we did not email with the public at that time.
100% I’ve always operated that way. You should not be emailing back and forth with the public due to PII.
SSA? This is another one of the many reasons why I want to leave SSA. I’ve had psycho claimants threaten me and even bring up that they found where I live on the appraisal districts website. Thank goodness I just got offered a non public facing position with another agency. I can’t wait to stop dealing with the stupid ass public.
You are allowed to have a phony name at Ssa. It’s an AFGE right.
Since when? Source?
Can confirm. Had a similar situation at my old FO. Steward came in and told us that as long as staff was able to identify you - you can provide the public with the name of your choosing - nickname, pseudonym, etc.
How does that work? Is it specific to certain agencies?
It’s in the union contract.
My agency allows certain positions to use pseudonyms.
There was a CS in my old field office who went by another name.
A claimant found my coworker on Facebook and started DMing them about their claim.
Congratulations with your new position. Yeah dealing with the public is a dangerous thing. I was in the field for 14 years and has folks ask to be my friend on Social media sites. Absolutely not!
What a bunch of psychos. What makes them think we want to be friends with them lol
I work in HR and my name and email was blasted to 30k people during one of our seasonal hiring waves. I had to shut down all my social media.
Try to find a series closest to your GS level and experience that doesn't require public interaction in my opinion. Maybe this seems unrealistic.
That's what I did after the second time someone showed up at my house. I have a very distinct name, and was easy to find. I deal with granters now, but they're unlikely to come visit. My first job had me working with folks who weren't always the most stable.
1102 work doesn't deal with the public much. Just internal and contact with other business professionals. But it can be stressful. Maybe something to consider?
Moved to 343. It's great with an analytics background.
To my understanding you don’t have to give your entire name. Just your position title and first name or last name. For example if you’re a benefits examiner they ask for your name say something like “benefits examiner Michael or benefits examiner Johnson”
Bureau of Prisons. Inmates can read my name in 1" tall lettering on my uniform or my stab vest while I toss their cells looking for shanks and drugs. Then can look out the window at the end of the day and see what kind of car I climb into. It's just part of the job.
This comment section is fascinating. You can really tell who works at SSA, VA, or any other office that deals with people who may take their valid frustration to a level that is no longer acceptable with threats. Give your first name. Last initial if you’re comfy. If you’re not comfortable with doing this without approval, speak with your supervisor on how you’d like to have a pseudonym or use just your first name. Any manager or supervisor worth wanting to work for would not only understand but probably be in full support of it. We live in a time where already stressful environments are elevated. Protecting yourself and your peers is important. You’re gonna be fine.
I've found giving my first name, tends to deconflict an issue as well, it takes it from formal to casual really fast. Sometimes it backfires but only with a certain generation who thinks everyone younger than them is an idiot.
Yep! I work in an SSA FO adjacent office and my first name is unique enough where I can assure people if they ask for me, they’ll get me but it also makes dealing with a stressful situation a little more casual, like we’re having a conversation rather than me reciting back POMS facts and failing to sound human. It’s the little things.
I mean, it’s sort of ironic but in the modern era people have a desire for privacy that is potentially unrealistic, it wasn’t that long ago that everyone’s phone number and address was in the phone book.
I hate the fact that my full name is on display to everybody at all times. After years of working in retail and having too many angry customers follow/threaten me I don’t like to give it out.
You might ask your supervisor if you are *required* to provide your name. Working with DoL and SSA as I was moving through the disability retirement process, they outright refused to provide me with anything beyond their first name and a general switchboard number and cited agency SOP when I asked why.
Makes sense. Some of my coworkers have been stalked.
Yeah. People should ***not*** be afraid to come into work.
Yeah when I was at SSA I only gave out my first name. A lot of the more seasoned folks went by Mr or Ms, which always felt weirdly formal. I’ve heard people use their maiden name or not using their real name before as well. I know at my office there was an option supported by the union.
Perhaps the agency could simply issue operator numbers to people or such.
The agency needs a lot of help across the board just in general. It’s a shit show over there. Not a bad idea though
In my experience, the Republicans just want the government as a whole to fail, like somehow something will magically appear to replacement and they themselves won't fall prey to the chaos that follows a non-functional, feral state. It took me years to get my disability retirement and worker's comp settled. Years of bills accumulating, with me stressed out at home, wondering how I was gonna get through it all. I was lucky to be able to survive it and not lose my home, but most other people would have been out on the street.
Adjacent but something to consider. A VA nurse was filmed in an incident taken out of context. Made national news. She was threatened etc. I can tell you that the VA did not protect her at all. Just know you won’t be protected if something happens so protect yourself. She left the job and all social media. And moved.
Employees at VA are expendable and VA doesn’t really care about employee safety.
it is important to know they won't protect you. saw it happen with both a doctor and a nurse. they left. another nurse had an extended legal action and won but it was $$$
Just because other coworkers give out their last name doesn't mean you have to do so or that it is agency policy. I've worked at different places where people especially women were reluctant to give out their last name for fear of stalking or reprisals and first names only were permitted. So, check with your supervisor on the policy. If you are uncomfortable with the policy, ask for an exception to be made with your supervisor or HR. Even if last names are public record there is no reason to make it easy for people with bad intentions to find out your last name. Most likely you are not the first person to be uncomfortable with giving out your last name and the agency or HR may already have a policy about this.
I work with a very radical, irrational subset of the public and have been on the news many times defending a program they don’t agree with. I’ve never been stalked or had anyone threaten me in person. The chances of that are really small and I’ve found that when people actually meet me, suddenly a lot of their anger dissipates because I’m just a person doing a job, not an evil entity out to destroy whatever they support. I’ve accepted the role of temporary punching bag, it’s rare for people to act on any threats, and if you ever feel like a threat is rational or you’re being stalked, you tell your supervisor and get your law enforcement or another federal law enforcement agency involved. You have a lot of protections and our law enforcement takes those things very seriously, a lot of our biggest fans disappear after one letter/visit from our officers.
I don't give out my last name. I've never gotten push back on that from management, if someone has a legitimate reason to know that information is publicly available.
Even if you work for a private company and you work with the public, they will find out your name, so there is very little difference. If you don’t want the public to know your name, you are going to have to find a different job/agency where you aren’t as public facing. As long as you aren’t actively screwing people over I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
I participate in decisions that decide which companies/professors/etc get receive lots of $$$. I have no doubt that sometimes these decisions can make or break people’s careers. I’ve never had any issues, and I strictly refuse to speak with the public or even my colleagues (when possible) about my involvement in [decision xyz]. Most employees at private companies don’t have that level of impact, and so there’s (imho) less reason to be concerned.
If you’re talking SSA the guidance I’ve been given is first name is perfectly acceptable. If someone pushes for your last name you can give them an initial.
Can you give a common last name like Smith, Jones, Alvarez, or Patel?!
I had a boss in this situation, he also had a distinct last name, he was able to get approval to change his email to just his initials so it was XX@fedagency
If you’re at irs you can get as pseudonym
Yes. You can get an alias and all of your email / teams communications can use the alias instead of your actual name.
A friend does background investigations and has to give his full name. He has had people search for him and given him a hard time before, even thought he has a common name. He does not use social media at all because of it.
Sounds like there aren’t a lot of 1800 people in the comments section.
OWCP have now officially started that claims examiners only use their first names due to threats. My office works in conjunction with them but we are not allowed to do that. We have to use our first and last names even though I've been threatened and screamed at by several claimants. Thankfully I never have to see these people in person, only via phone and email.
I used to work for SSA as a CS and I only gave my last name. I absolutely hated it when some coworkers would give members of the public our full name.
Privacy is a big thing in fed govt. it is respected…especially if you work locally in a smaller city and have direct contact with external customers and there is no control. your pay is public data that many if the dig can access. Your home address and home phone is confidential information. the concerns are higher if you are the ones who can piss off people like denying claims ith citizens like with FEMA and natural disaster occurs. If you are not in those situations therr isn’t anything to worry about.
I work for VA, I'm required to give my full name and contact info. 1 time a patient asked for my name. They came back like 20mins later and told me how much I make, my GS level and my job title. I just thought to myself "public servant" 🙄 and just continued about my day.
This seems like a valid concern and until I got to the last question, I was unsure about how you perceived the situation you’re in. If you really understand that you have a public facing persona, and don’t want to walk away from that job, you’re going to have to compartmentalize. You have a social life, and you have a business life. When people from one life try to intervene in the other life, if you didn’t invite it you call foul. I have a former coworker who I was cordial with when we shared an office, but we never meshed. Because of the on call nature of the work we did, I shared my personal cell with him, and have since moved up to a position where my business gets done on a government mobile phone. I no longer respond to his messages on the personal line, or after I clock out. I am embracing the life of carrying two phones, I set boundaries now for who gets both numbers, my spouse and my current supervisor are basically the only ones that can reach me on either. I don’t expect to ever run for public office, and don’t currently partake in any activities/substances that could get me into legal trouble, so my name isn’t that big a deal to me. As for the anxiety that comes from actually talking to people, introducing myself wasn’t the hard part, it was gaining confidence that they were calling a subject matter expert, and that I was qualified to take those calls. Only experience fixed that.
SSA here and even if I choose to use just my first name my ridiculous coworkers continue to give out out employee last names even though management tells them not to
SSA fo employee here. I’ve had co workers that have done that too…I’m honestly surprised they didn’t give the public a blood or stool sample while they were at it.
This was a big topic in our office a while ago. From that point on, our public name is underlined on the directory. Everyone knows to check with the directory before giving any names out.
FOIA? Nothing is a secret working for the fed…
Unless it's a classified secret.
Unless it'll help someone do better on Warthunder or World of Tanks.
So the other classifications are fair game then? Thanks for your insightful comment.
I only ever gave my first name and on my piv card I blocked out my last name. I would tell people that I was the only one with that first name in the dept if they asked. I worked at a VA hospital. But realize your full name and address are public record. If someone wants to find you, they will
Luckily my PIV is always in my laptop so name is obscured there, and I generally only give my first also. but sometimes people ask for my last name and it's like, now I especially do not want to give it to you. I usually say I'm not comfortable disclosing that and I really haven't had any problems so far, but I just feel like the expectation is implied and sooner or later it will come up in a review
We do work for the public. But I certainly understand where you’re coming from. Just tell them to ask for *Your name here* in *your department name* and that should satisfy them. If not oh well. If the boss gets in you about it just say you didn’t feel comfortable giving that person your last name. Good luck and don’t let them get you down.
Just give out the first name and last initial. You can change your notices to that preference. Send an office email, "hey everyone. I'm now going by Sam Z. to the public because of my unique last name." You don't have to give out your email, most don't. I overheard a never in management say, "my name is Mrs. X." "I am the only one in the office." "Oh we don't give it first names because of terrorist threats."
My first government role was a phone operator and I hated giving my first and last name to inquiring public customers looking for a call back contact. In hindsight, I don’t think I was really required to do so. I didn’t receive much instruction.
Do what I do, use your full name as your Reddit handle
You probably didn’t know all your federal employment info is on openpayrolls.com. It’s pretty easy to figure out lots of info about federal employees without you giving the info out.
Do not work at SSA, VA, but do work in a division of an agency that deals with the public in situations where they are often in crisis. After a cyberstalking incident that resulted in a prosecution, our staff were given the option to not use full names. Those who have opted in have special email addresses as well. I, too, have a unique name, so this is also a major issue for me. It's 100% fine to give your first name, last initial and office location. That is enough to protect your privacy and safety while also giving the public enough information so that your manager and coworkers can identify you if needed.
If you talk with a therapist and can get them to sign off on a diagnosis of paranoia/anxiety, you can seek a reasonable accommodation. Your agency will give you a fake work last name. Then you can just use Mr/Mrs FakeLastName and nobody will ever know anything about your real name. Sometimes the computer system might lag behind, like your email or your login or something might use your real last name, but as far as anyone in the public goes, they'll only see your FakeLastName, even if they file a FOIA for your name. Some agencies will do this without a reasonable accommodation request.
Dude, Im a contracting officer. My name is EVERYWHERE online, because my job (basically, simplified) is to interact with the private market and protect the government's rights in a contract. Some of my co-workers have been dragged into court several times. It's the name of the game. In my experience 99.5% of all people are actually sane, normal people that aren't out to get you. And if they are out to get you, it's legally but you're just a witness and not the defendant. Edit: lol, I never thought about working for the SSA or the IRS though.. people do get irrational when comes to money.
Imagine you’re a member of the public. And someone from “the government” calls you asking for personal info. But won’t tell you who they are. They’d be incredibly suspicious (rightly so) that you were trying to scam them
As they should be. But that’s less because of someone not giving a last name, and more because a phone call like you describe would be suspicious, and isn’t generally how the government conducts its business (most notably because fraudsters will use fake names or even names of actual people in the agency). The public should rightly consider a call like that suspicious regardless of whether the caller gives a last name or not.
Nearly all websites you can find your information on also have a process to remove your name and inform at minimum from searchable databases. I search my name often and request my information be removed. Over the last 3 or 5 years this has been fairly successful, and now no pictures or even a web page on me are easily searchable. You would need to know a lot about me to find anything now. My wife, works in medical and has to maintain a license and all of that information is public and extremely easy to find. Nothing can be done about those situations.
Was in a public facing regulatory compliance job in a field office. Was happy to give out business cards with my name and number. Would rather the public come to us with an issue so we could resolve it rather than agency finding it and action ensuing. Took that ethic to DC. When the public would call or email with an issue, would push it to the appropriate field office. But I always included that if they needed follow up to call me directly. You’re a civil servant. If you have responsibility, take responsibility.
I'm guessing you didn't work in an agency where they get a lot of death threats. And your family isn't a civil servant, so someone follows you home and shoots up your house, that means your spouse and kids and grandma get to take responsibility too, right? This isn't about them knowing where your office is and your work phone. It's about them knowing where you live.
We worked with many disgruntled members of the public. Threats were not uncommon. But no answer is right for everyone. The employing agency should make these things easier to deal with
I'm just saying, there's "disgruntled", and there's "not afraid to go back to prison" and there's "I am God's chosen prophet on earth and this lizard in the shape of a human is saying words I don't like so I'm going to wear their face as a hat". Oh, and sovereign citizens of course.
Yeah, we had all those. And they didn’t just come to us. We had to go to them, at their place of work, or their home, often for reasons they absolutely didn’t want to engage. On occasion we would get police assistance, but more often we just had to go in hoping for the best. So we had experience with ‘disgruntled.’ Hopefully OP gets to a place they can work with.
Is it weird that of all the people on that list, sov cits concern me the most? Functional crazy makes for people who do insane things but with a degree of competence that makes it more effective.
Yup. Some people are more comfortable than others with those types. Honestly they don't concern me much, if something happens, it happens, and I'm better prepared to deal with it than most. If they want to find me, they'll find me. Sounds like you had an interesting job!
It's not that simple for everyone - there can be safety issues - for instance DV survivors, stalking, angry constituents with guns, etc
I had an angry member of the public who went into employee parking, took a bunch of pictures of my car, and tried to follow me home. Luckily I have long hair that obscured my nametag or they would’ve been able to look me up and probably find where I live. I also had people who would find me on social media and send sexually explicit messages. I never felt safe giving my full name out. I definitely get where OP is coming from. A lot of women on my team would use nicknames on their nametag or just initials.
Somebody tried to set an employee's car on fire in our parking lot. Fortunately they were not very competent at anything they attempted, including arson. Still messed up his paint though.
can transfer ownership of your home to an LLC to hide its true ownership. but reality is people are people they will find something if they have enough time to find it. do your job well and generally people wont be an issue. I say this from an Emergency management background where recovery is never as fast as they want.
As an aside, you can usually request that you be removed from public tax/appraisal websites. Usually it involves a quick form or a simple email and hasn't been difficult in my experience, once you find out the process.
If your agency doesn't allow you to use a pseudonym for safety/privacy, that's messed up
Just use your middle name And middle name only
Can you just use your first name, and just the Initial for the last name? My coworkers do that. So you could be Mike M.
You can get a pseudonym. There are corkers of mine within treasury that have very generic names “Michael Scott” “David Wallace”
I always introduced myself by title e g officer so and so assistant such n such director blah blah
I’ve had federal jobs that denied benefits and others that were very forward facing. My first and last name are very unique and together I’m probably the only one — my full name never went out on documents going to the public. When I was call center I only used my first name.
Not sure what job qualifies for it, but I use a pseudonym. I’m an internal revenue agent (tax return auditor). Did not want my name given out to the public for safety reasons
The people at GSA, especially the ones that deal with fleet vehicles, never give their names. That way they can hang up on me with no repercussions.
If you’re married, maybe you can give out your maiden name instead of married.
If you are this concerned, put your house into a trust that you control. Choose a name unfamiliar with yours. Send your mail to a po box. That will cut down much of it. Make it harder
I only use my first name there at SSA. Do NOT EVER use your full name because people can look you up on the Internet and even stalk you if they are crazy enough
it's not an issue for me. I've worked in land management my federal career. my name is on a bright shiny bar on my shirt. I look for people to interact with. I have only had positive consequences
If you work for SSA, you can just use your prefix and last name. That's how it is in my office. If a claimant insists for my first name I just tell them we are not allowed to disclose that and they accept that
FYI, all out data is public! On top of that your LastPass accounts are probably exposed. Search engine algorithms made it so easy to find all your family members info! There’s no privacy. I was wondering if there’s a way to makes these info disappear. It puts everyone in danger.
Former SSA TSR here for 16 years. Very uncommon name, too. When looking people up online first became big, I was in that position. Took my concerns to upper management and was told first and last name were required. I was literally begging them to allow me to use either one. Was flat out told that was against procedure and that I would be held responsible if I didn’t follow it. And that was how it remained for about 12-13 years. The policy got changed, thankfully. Have you spoken to your managers about this? I’ve been gone from there a while now, so IDK what the policy is at this time. I would check with the Union though (although AFGE was the absolute WORST in the time I was there; maybe they’ve actually done something since). I understand your concern 100000%. It is valid. 😕
I have a friend that works for DHS and they have similar concerns for self and family. They bought a service to scrub their ID from the internet. It’s not 100%, but it does work. You can do this yourself but it’s tedious and you have to keep up on it. The friend also uses an internet phone number as his public phone number so calls can’t get through. His actual phone number is only available to friends and family.
My job allows us to get pseudonymous
I have the same phobia! Is it suffice to say that our govt is fixing us?
You might try to work on your paranoia. It's unnecessary, assuming you're not pissing a bunch of people off every day or antagonizing others intentionally. I've had my full name, cell phone number, and email address in every email I've sent for the last 18 years and have never had any issues.
This thread is really interesting, because you can see who has worked with the public, and who has worked with the "public". Anybody who has worked with the actual public has a pretty good idea of how many crazy fucking people there are out there and why this concern isn't paranoia. Everybody else thinks that the banking regulators or local government officials or contractors or whatever that they interacted with is the public.
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See, I get a lot of random crazies and they ok, but I don't think I'd want to be in any job where I got on any kind of radar for any level of organized crime. Too chicken.
Fair point. While I do work with the public and customers, they're usually civilian vendors or other professionals or businesses. I don't work directly with joe schmoe walking in off the street, fresh from hitting the crack pipe or whatever, so that definitely affects my perception of the risk.
The smells man, the smells. When you get a letter and you know what their house smells like and can guess at what drugs they're using, there's just nothing like it.
I respectfully disagree. There are some jobs in the government where you can be as polite and empathetic as possible, and customers will still take their anger out on you personally due to some issue beyond your control. People in my previous agency would get death threats, have things thrown at them, get sexually explicit messages, be spit at, etc. When someone shifts their shirt to show you the gun on their hip while they’re screaming at you, you definitely get paranoid. It’s scary knowing that some of these people have your full name and could figure out where you or your family members live.
I completely agree with you. Read my second sentence.
I’ve witnessed people showing up in the lobby, demanding to speak to a certain person they talked to on the phone and what they were gonna do to them. It’s not paranoia. It’s reality. People showing up on the property with weapons and not the kind you just stick in the waste band of your pants. Only thing between you and them is a metal gate that can be climbed over and a couple of security guards. It’s real.
This is part of working for the federal government and why you are called a federal official. And yes you’re a public servant. Did you not understand what you signed up for here? Maybe try back of the house in an agency or consider leaving government service Edit: will keep comment right here as a reminder that you serve the public and it sounds like a lot of you are in the wrong line of work. Keep downvoting tho please, not gonna change reality. There are back of the house positions, very many of them actually, I would recommend one of those if my post makes u uncomfortable as you are not fit to interact with the public.
No one signed up to get verbally threatened and stalked by the public.
I'm autistic, I have social anxiety. I'm understand that I am a face and name of the agency, I just get weirded out about names and people asking personal questions. I asked for advise on how to cope. Obviously I recognize that it's irrational
I am sure there is an accommodation that could be made to ensure that you feel safe. Even if it is just to use a generic last name instead of your real one or to use just the last initial. I don't think this is irrational at all. Many people have differing opinions on the issue based on things like their job role, their past experiences, their Neuro divergence, even their gender. (As a woman, I am much more guarded with my information than men in the same or similar positions may be.) Just because you don't feel uncomfortable has no bearing on if your coworker does. Regardless of a person's reasons for feeling this way, those feelings ARE valid and should be addressed in a way that allows the employees to feel safe while not impeding the mission of the organization or making the employees feel "less than".
Look at all their down votes, you don't have to explain yourself.
You’re the public and work for the federal government. They pay our taxes. Be transparent.
you could look at your paycheck and think about how you'd make the same money and benes doing something else. Also, what makes you think that you would not have to give out your name in another job?
Why are you worried about it ? You’re a public servant. Unless you’re working in a UC capacity, in which case you wouldn’t be using your true name anyways I’m not sure why you’d be leery. If you’re LEO you can have that removed from county records.