Todd Fast's Blog

Global Name Uniquification at Sun

This memo was sent to all Sun employees today. I guess I'm lucky I have a unique name!

TO:        U.S. Employees
FROM:      Global Employee Name Management
DATE:      April 1, 2006
CONTACT:   Name Management x94678 (WHO-R-U)
ACTION:    Please read.

This bulletin contains important information about your name.

Overview

Sun has long had a requirement that every UNIX username inside Sun be
unique.  The transition to these globally unique usernames was at times
painful, but the result has been that Sun has been able to support a
level of global operation that is unprecedented.

It is now time to take that process to its next logical step:  Ensuring
that employees' names are unique.

Employees with duplicated names represent immeasurable opportunities
for confusion, wasted time, and security breaches.  In the interests of
improving the efficiency of the company, we are embarking on an
ambitious effort to improve this situation by making employees' names
globally unique.

Implementation

In the first phase, to be implemented between today and April 1, 2007,
approximately 800 employees with duplicated first and last names will
be renamed to eliminate the duplication.  At the completion of this
phase, it will be possible to uniquely refer to any Sun employee using
the employee's first and last name.

In the second phase, to be implemented between April 1, 2007 and April
1, 2008, approximately 20,000 employees with duplicated first names and
last initials will be renamed to eliminate the duplication.  At the
completion of this phase, it will be possible to uniquely refer to any
Sun employee using the employee's first name and last initial.  In
addition to the obvious convenience improvement involved, substantial
savings are expected through eliminating printing the full last name on
various internal documents.  The ink required to print a typical name
will be cut in half!

In the third phase, to be implemented between April 1, 2008 and April
1, 2009, all employees at the Vice President level and above will be
renamed so that their first and last initials are unique.  Employees at
the E/Z-10 level will be renamed so that their first, middle, and last
initials are unique.  In addition, in each Director-level group and
each building, all employees will be renamed so that their first,
middle, and last initials are unique.  At the conclusion of this phase,
it will be possible to refer to any highly visible employee using only
two or three letters, and to any employee in a particular organization
or physical location using only three letters.  In the vast majority of
cases, use of initials should be sufficient to identify an employee.

New Employees

New employees will be required to conform to the naming requirements in
effect on their start date.  If required to pick a new name, they will
be encouraged to take the future naming requirements into account in
their choice.

Conflict Resolution

In general, the employee with the lower badge number will retain the
original name, and those employees with higher badge numbers will be
renamed.  The employee will be allowed to choose a new name, but if the
employee is not able to decide on a suitable name before the deadline,
a new name will be assigned in consultation with the employee's
manager.
                    

        

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            Posted at 04:47PM Apr 01, 2006
            by Todd Fast in General  | 
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