PII Requests

[deanwebb]

PII = Personally Identifying Information, IE stuff that can indicate who is doing what at when to who and maybe even why.

Got a request today from a manager of another group to give out info on another employee. It arrived directly, without copying my manager...



We can't do that. By that, I mean that I was almost about to respond with the answer and then... I thought about it... and realized that this kind of stuff should not be handled in this way. This stuff has HR and legal implications. If anything happens to the guy and I didn't follow proper procedures in handling his information, then I'm in for a rough ride, legally speaking.

Should you ever get a request about PII, be very careful and don't give it out unless you both know the procedures and have evidence that the procedures are being followed.

[Nerm]

Is the manager incompetent or up to something fishy? That is my first thought.

[deanwebb]

The first, most likely. We've politely declined.

[Dieselboy]

Good post. Sometimes you have to take a step back and evaluate what are your responsibilities. The good thing about managers is that they are responsible for you, so if anything "dodgy" comes in you can politely say "speak to my manager"

I had to send off a Purchase Order last week. I had the PO and I had seen on another email the word "Approved" from the CEO, but as I wasn't copied in on the first email and the text all wasn't in-line with the attached PO, I didn't do anything with the PO until I had confirmed this was approved 100% to be sent off by me. Even though I'm excited about getting this new equipment in, it pays a long way to be integral and concise, like the OP.

[deanwebb]

Exactly. And retain all the emails that you can... never know when you have to search back for an item to prove that you were authorized to do something.