By author Morgan Jassen on w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶s̶i̶l̶v̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶



2021-01-01 20:23

Regarding Non-empowerment to Job-shadow

What would be an extremely effective way to help my colleague with their job search? 

Invite my colleague to shadow me on my job for part of my work day. 

The benefit here would be obvious; my colleague would be able to see how my role works at my company, and get an actual glimpse into some tools and processes at my role and company. 
In other words, first-hand knowledge exchange. 
This is potentially an invaluable experience to my colleague.
Also I would learn from them at the same time.

Seems simple, but if you ask most anyone about this, they'll say no, bad idea, high risk, security risk. 
And this would be a hard sell to most bosses / hr departments / companies as well.

However on the other hand, I wouldn't invite my colleague *myself* unless I had total trust in this particular colleage.

The sum total is that it is a shame. My conscience is ringing.

A quote now echoes in my mind that I read recently in 'the Open Organization' book, the anecdote about how Nordstrom employee handbook is basically just "Use good judgment in all situations (and that's all.)"

However there is another paradigm.

The paradigm of the one-person business-owner. 

For someone running their own company where they are the sole owner and the sole employee, then by necessity, every single judgement and decision and action that is made and done is based on that one person's sole judgement. 
Now I see the stark contrast in the paradigms.

If you are a business owned and run by one person, you can and must do this at your own risk. 
And so you'd invite your colleague to a job shadow to help them learn *if you judged it low risk and high value overall*.

In summary, this has been a note regarding non-empowerment to job-shadow.



This blog post first published at https://w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶s̶i̶l̶v̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2021/blog/
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