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IT is being moved to the 5th Floor I've just recieved word that our department is to be moved from our dimly-lit tech enclave of engineering, tech support, and QA, to the blarinlgy lit, noisy 5th floor, shared by accounting, marketing, and suits of all sizes and colors and shapes.
Matt
It's all about you
Forgive me. Whining was not my intention, rather to start a conversation of working conditions and arbitrary changes to them. I see now that I am petulant and a whiner. Thanks for your help.
Matt
Now you're whining, sarcastically.
It's all about you
Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will -- his personal responsibility.
Tapiwa
I'm boring, unsupportive, and argumentative! Look at me! LOOK AT ME!
It's all about ME
I can beat that.
Kyralessa
No, using fake SSNs is not an option; they already tried, and this hospital's system spit them back out as invalid.
Kyralessa
We used to live in a hole in the ground. Then we got tossed out and had to go live in the lake.
It's all about you
I've never heard of such an email system. Who makes it? And what do hospitals know about running email, anyway. How bizarre.
WTF
WTF... I hear you... What the fcuk??
Tapiwa
They gave your SSN to some random e-mail admin without your permission?!
Nate Silva
University students are now being identified by their SSN and it's printed on their ID card. Lose your ID card and someone has your name and SSN.
www.MarkTAW.com
At least in Connecticut there's a state law requiring that organizations CANNOT use your SSN in a way that can be traced back to you. Drove the University of Connecticut nuts for a while.
Chris Tavares
What a strange design decision. There are lots of Americans who do not have SSNs, as I learned to my dismay when implementing a medical billing system many years back. Plus lots of resident non-citizens without work authorization, such as students.
John C.
"Making a 9-digit number up at random is a bad idea, as it may coincide with someone's real number and cause them some amount of grief. It's better to use a number like 078-05-1120, which was printed on "sample" cards inserted in thousands of new wallets sold in the 40's and 50's. It's been used so widely that both the IRS and SSA recognize it immediately as bogus, while most clerks haven't heard of it. There were at least 40 different people in the Selective Service database at one point who gave this number as their SSN. The Social Security Administration recommends that people showing Social Security cards in advertisements use numbers in the range 987-65-4320 through 987-65-4329."
www.MarkTAW.com
It is possible that the Hospital is using the SSN to uniquely identify the recipient of the email for HIPAA reasons. As for being able to sue under HIPAA, they would have to disclose your SSN to someone outside of the organization for it to be a problem. There may be a valid reason for these HIPAA partners to be doing this (though I can see the cause for concern).
Lou
There is some logic to the format of SSNs. The first three digits depend on the state.
pdq
Kyralessa, tell the ACLU.
Oh my
not the ACLU. Just ask the legal department if they now assume all liability for identity theft, since they gave out your identifying information without asking.
mb
Matt, I was once in a situation such as you describe. After we moved, it was almost impossible to do the thinking work we needed to do because of the raucous noise and backslapping that used to on around us.
Oh my
"All about you", you're lucky, at least you've got a lake.
Currently I'm working on obtaining, from our university legal department, a written justification of why they advised our staff that it was perfectly OK to disclose all these SSNs without any consent or notification. I expect to know more on Monday.
Kyralessa
>I'm boring, unsupportive, and argumentative! Look at me! LOOK AT ME!
Darcy Horrocks
"Note that the hospital to whom the SSNs were disclosed is a separate business from us. But I don't think this falls under HIPAA because the numbers were disclosed TO the hospital FROM the university. I haven't ruled HIPAA out yet."
Matt Latourette
Burn down the building -- but don't forget to take your red swingline stapler with you before you go.
Mr. Fancypants
Some here seem to consider this frivolous. I went through this exact same thing with my current employer. When I started, the MIS department was on the 3rd floor. We had a cluster of offices to ourselves, which tended to make the "group consciousness" (yes, I see you back there rolling your eyes) more cohesive.
Bill K Ramsey
I used to work in environments where people would have noisy group meetings nearby. I started, eventually, joining in. Of course along the way I'd have to get them starting to explain all the background to the meeting...
Katie Lucas
I've really gotten over the whole work enviroment issue, I once wrote a consignment system for a trucking company where the IT team were housed in the truck weighing station. Every ten minutes a 40 ton (ton not tonne) truck would roll onto the scales and our screens and chairs would rattle while the weighing was done, not to mention the roar of noisy 8-10 litre diesel engines as it roared off.
Realist
Realist,
Dennis Atkins
Dennis,
Realist
{that's just finger in the air statistics}
Crap, it's Monday again
I will share with you a little secret for noisy environments... shhh, don't tell anyone else:
D Ross - BadBlue com
Ear plugs are all very well. But what happens when your boss, who's accustomed to yelling at you from the far corner of the building, suddenly can't get a response anymore?
Been there
Dude, then just throw them right back and if your boss yells at you, tell him you just mean to pick up the thrown object but were immediately overcome by a muscle spasm resulting in you throwing said thrown object back to its place of origin.
Done That
realist,
_
"they are under $200"
Matt Latourette
"Currently I'm working on obtaining, from our university legal department, a written justification of why they advised our staff that it was perfectly OK to disclose all these SSNs without any consent or notification."
Kyralessa
"Why buy the relatively expensive and bulky noise-cancelling headphones when you can get either the reusable, washable foam earplug headsets or a whole box of the disposable foam earplug inserts for far less money?"
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