I changed my user ID on my home machine many years ago as matching the userID I have at $work makes working from home so much easier. (I also match the UID for the same reason.) To keep stuff working, I had a symlink with the old home directory pointing to the new one for many years (I think I got rid of it a year or so ago). This allows you to keep working with the least amount of effort, and to make changes to match the new path over a longer period of time.
This assumes, of course, that your sysadmin will allow it. Barring the BOFH, I think this is a reasonable request. Good luck!
