Re: [psusers] Employee name format

["Morgan, Michael" <MiMorgan@SBHCS.COM>]

With rubber gloves.

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Kenny Melton [SMTP:KMELTO1@TANDY.COM]
        Sent:   Wednesday, June 30, 1999 6:15 PM
        To:     Multiple recipients of list SQR-USERS
        Subject:        Re: [psusers] Employee name format

        Better yet, how would you handle The Artist Formerly Known As
Prince?

        Kenny

        -----Original Message-----
        From: Gracen Duffield [mailto:gduffiel@TDHCA.STATE.TX.US]
        Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 4:59 PM
        To: Multiple recipients of list SQR-USERS
        Subject: Re: [psusers] Employee name format


        When I was born, my parents decided that since I was a girl, I only
needed
        two names.  That way, when I got married, I would add my husband's
name and
        then I would have a complete name.

        Since then, the seeds of my feminist rebellion have slowly twisted
and
        turned on the injustice of not having a middle name. Why should my
brother
        get a middle name, but not me?  At my highschool graduation, the
person who
        graduated in front of me had four!! names ( Megan Campbell Fitzhugh
Wallace
        -- figure out which o' them is the "middle" name ).

        I have spent hours obsessing about this, but now, having read Jim's
post, my
        spirit is lifted.  Maybe my parents were on to something.  I don't
know, but
        when the rest of you don't get paid because your names were
accidentally
        wiped out of the system by someone trying to fix the middle initial
problem
        (MIP),  my money will be sittin' pretty in the bank.

        You know, maybe we'd all be better off (albeit, possibly unemployed)
if
        users weren't actually allowed to enter any data in the system.
Barring
        that, can I see a show of hands for the "Buchanan ID" proposed last
week
        .....


        Gracen Duffield
        Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs
        475-3839


        -----Original Message-----
        From: Jim Hardesty [mailto:jhardest@lmberry.com]
        Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 2:50 PM
        To: psusers@egroups.com
        Subject: [psusers] Employee name format


        Here's a fun problem:
        PeopleSoft defines employee name as Last,First MI.  (one letter MI).

        And many of us have found that PeopleSoft has a problem with the
rotate name
        routine (rotname3.sqc) because it will not correctly handle names
with
        spaces in
        the first name.  'Leone-Chipman,Mona Lisa T' comes out as
        last=Leone-Chipman,
        first = Mona and MI=L.  and it ignores the T altogether.  (We
modified
        rotate name
        to correctly look for space and initial in the last two characters
of name
        and
        whatever remains is first name).

        But here's a new one.  I just found out that our users have been
entering
        full
        middle names for some time.  So we apparently have hundreds of
employees
        with
        names like 'Wallis,Brandy Lee' instead of 'Wallis,Brandy L'.

        Which is kinda scary.  Because now we have no way to get middle
initial for
        those people.  There is no way now to know if 'Wallis,Brandy Lee'
has a
        middle
        name of Lee or a first name of Brandy Lee with no middle name (it
happens).

        Wow.  Big fun.

        The payroll manager says that they have been hiring people like this
for
        years
        (ouch!) because that is the name on the Social Security Card.  Uh
oh.  So if
        Betsy Ann Smith shows me a social security card, I have no way of
knowing if
        she has a middle name or not.  Is she "Betsy Ann" Smith or "Betsy"
"Ann"
        Smith?  Or worse, Mona Lisa Teresa Leone-Chipman.  Is her middle
name
        "Teresa" or is it "Lisa Teresa"?

        You could pretty much fix the rotate name routines to grab last name
and
        shove
        everything else into first name by looking for the comma.  This
would work
        fine for
        JRs, IIs, etc.  But there wouldn't be any way to get middle initial.
What
        would you
        do, grab the first letter off the last 'word' in the first name if
they have
        more than
        one 'word' in the first name?   And what if someone has two first
names and
        no
        middle name?  Or one first name and two middle names?  Yuk.

        So, what to do...what to do?

        The SQR programming isn't so much an issue.  I doubt there is a
single time
        we
        NEED middle initial so it is a moot point.  Although who knows on
some tax
        interfaces?  PeopleCode could be an issue, but probably not.

        The real issue is functionally, what the heck should we be putting
in the
        Name
        field?

        Inconsistent data is not good.  We can't have 1/2 our employee names
with a
        middle name and 1/2 with only initial.  But what if we are required
to use
        the
        Social Security Card name and old people like me have a card that
says
        "James
        E Hardesty"?  But maybe my wife has a new card that says "Joanne
Lynn
        Hardesty"?

        This has "endless fiasco" written all over it.  Before you laugh, go
run a
        query and
        see if you have anybody out there with a bad name...

        jim



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