Parental Advice Meets The Modern World

(I work in the human resources office for a large local business. When we hire people, we require them to fill out their new hire paperwork online. As a system administrator, any time something fails, it’s my job to review the issue. On the employee information form is a box that asks for the hire’s social security number. The form states that if you do not have a social security number, as happens with some of our foreign hires, to enter in all 9s. This hire has entered all 9s which requires validation, so I call the person to ask her about this.)

Me: “Hi, I’m [My Name] from [Big Company]. May I speak with [Candidate]?”

Mom: “I’m sorry, [Candidate] isn’t here at the moment but this is her mom. Can I help you with something?”

Me: “No, I need to speak to her about with an issue with her social security number. Please have her call me back as soon as possible.”

Mom: “There shouldn’t be a problem with her social security number! There’s never been a problem with her social security number!”

Me: “The problem is that she did not provide us the correct number.”

Mom: “Oh, I told her never to enter her social in online anywhere; it isn’t safe, you know.”

Me: “Yes, well, I still need to speak with [Candidate] about her falsification of her legal paperwork and see what we can do to rectify the situation.”

Mom: “What do you mean?”

Me: “Your daughter put intentionally false information into the form that her employer requires prior to starting. This is a problem. This affects our ability to create her employee records and set up her payroll correctly. This also affects our ability to remain compliant with federal regulations. I need to discuss this with her, so please have her call me back as soon as possible.”

Mom: “But it’s never safe to give out your social online. I can give it you now, though.”

Me: “Ma’am, that is good advice if you are not sure who is asking for that information or why they may need it, but when one has accepted a formal offer of employment and is sent a secure link to login to the HR system to complete paperwork ahead of starting a new job, it is likely a legitimate request. If your daughter had questions regarding the safety of entering the information or necessity for asking for it in the first place, she should have contacted the representative she had been working with instead of lying on her paperwork and falsifying her information. I need you to have her call me as soon as she can. Additionally, you offering to give it out to random people that you have never personally spoken to before is even stupider than telling your daughter to lie on her paperwork.”

Mom: *very quietly* “Oh.”