Employee Address Lists

PMiles · March 2003

Is it permissible for an employer to distribute copies of a list of home addresses of their employees to other employees of the company if each has been individually consulted and given their consent for such distribution, with the understanding that if any employee objects to the disclosure of their home address information to any other employee, their privacy will be honored and their name will not be a part of the list that is distributed? - Paul

Gillian · March 2003

It is probably OK if you have consent forms that are signed by everyone. That doesn't make it a good idea, though. There are too many places that lists like this can go and the list, as well as the company, will be blamed if something bad happens. I know someone who blames a company address list for providing information that led to a stalking incident. Think about it a bit before you decide to do this.

ray a · March 2003

I also urge caution. I publish a list of phone numbers distributed just to directors and managers so they can contact their employees if necessary. Unlisted numbers are not given out.

As an example of where a list may end up, I made an error awhile back that could have been much worse than it was. The wife of one of our supervisors called to get the phone of a friend who worked with us. The wife was our employee in the past and I have known her and the supervisor for about 20 years so there was a level of trust on my part. Her reason for the request was to invite this friend to a party and she didn't have the home phone number. Well... come to find out the supervisor and this "friend" were having an affair and wife wanted to confront her. Oops. I'll never do that again.

Mike · March 2003

You also don't want to have a published list available to be given to union organizers.

Whatever · March 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-11-03 AT 07:52AM (CST)[/font][p]I wouldn't do it. Furthermore, not only is it bad policy, but why would a company want to pay an employee to do this.

Don D · March 2003

I can only add 'ditto' to the above responses. I can think of no really good, useful purpose to be achieved, and, I too see many things that could go wrong if you did this. The employer is not in the business of helping its employees develop social calendars or build Christmas card lists. At best, this is make-work for some employee to maintain, it sets the company up for potential liability and its a waste of company resources. Other than that, sure, it's ok.

njjel · March 2003

I have been told that it is required that we give our union officers a list of names addresses and phone numbers of the membership???? I was confused when I first heard of this myself.

Don D · March 2003

Our contract requires that we 'Furnish the union with a complete seniority list of bargaining unit employees from the personnel records of the Company once each year.' We do not provide them with addresses and telephone numbers or whether they are members of the union. Since we do not serve as the union's secretary, we do not provide lists of information they should be able to come up with on their own.

Pork · March 2003

PAUL: "DITTO,DOTTO,DITTO" don't do it, regardless of signed authorization of the employee, for all the reasons posted before me! The stalker is a real situation, everywhere these days. Regardless of social reasons and volunteers willing to take their time to produce this list. Remove the company from any association of personal private information, that could be used by someone to invade their privacy outside or inside the company. Do not make it any easier for the "idiots" out there to harass your employees and your company based on an address list. Just another HR who used to be a nice social character willing to provide a roster for the organization's need to socialize and now would not touch that issue again! Pork

AprilShowers · March 2003

>Is it permissible for an employer to distribute copies of a list of
>home addresses of their employees to other employees of the company if
>each has been individually consulted and given their consent for such
>distribution, with the understanding that if any employee objects to
>the disclosure of their home address information to any other
>employee, their privacy will be honored and their name will not be a
>part of the list that is distributed? - Paul

Why do you need such a list? I would say it is appropriate only if it is necessary to the operation of your organization. A friend of mine works at a high school and they do distribute an employee directory with personal information (phone, address, spouse names) to all of the staff. Not sure what they use it for though since they get a separate list for school closings with phone numbers. I guess it could be useful in initiating car pools?

April

Don D · March 2003

My wife teaches and they have calling tree requirements for situations like bad weather. Each person is responsible for calling a few others and those are the only numbers they receive. She has no need for addresses of others. Nor do they have a need for hers.

Trinity · March 2003

Wow, I guess I need to get with our upper management. As a financial institution we are required to have "Disaster Recovery Plans" in accordance with the OFAC and Bank Secrecy Act, etc. passed after 9/11. One of the parts of our Disaster Recovery plan is a contact list of all employees with their number, cell phone, pager, home email, and emergency person to contact. We put this list together so that management could get ahold of their employees in case they get separated in an emergency situation, evacuation, or to tell them not to come in. I guess we shouldn't make it available to all employees though..learned something new today!! Thanks!

Don D · March 2003

That sounds really official; but, I doubt that there's a federal regulatory act requiring a bank to distribute lists of such personal things as email addresses and home street addresses.

ritaanz · March 2003

Don't do it. I distribute to each department head a list of their employees and their phone numbers for emergencies. However, if one wants an address bad enough..... I had an ex-employee sending all kinds of "junk" mail, magazines, purchases from mail catalogues, etc. to 2 of our employees. His wife worked at Motor Vehicles and she got him the addresses. One of the employees got a hold of a post card used to start a magazine subscription and found out who it was that was doing it. The end of the story, the ex employees was arrested for mail fraud and his wife was fired from her job at MV after 22 years.

2406663 · March 2003

I completely agree with everyone else.
A co. wide list with addresses and phone numbers was periodically distributed to all employees (up until recently) and to give an example of what can happen.......I actually received a birthday card in the mail - at my home - from a previous employee!!! Imagine my shock, anger and dismay!!!!

PMiles · March 2003

Thanks to all who took the time to comment from the question I posted about address lists, it helps to have the varied and insightful input. - Paul

Employee Address Lists

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