The modern workplace, post pandemic, never ceases to amaze. The latest news flash that raised my eyebrows was provided by Business Insider: The Rise of Shadow Stand Ins. (link at the end of this post)
Holy Guacamole. Some of us are old enough to remember the term ‘moonlighting’ which basically meant someone was working a second job for extra cash, usually during late hours. Back in the day, your primary employer would have frowned on that, even though it wasn’t on their time, as they would suspect you might not be your best on their chunk of your time.
Quick digression: I was interviewing people for jobs at a distribution center in the Allentown, PA area many years ago, and I remember an applicant telling me he’d had 3 jobs at one point, each on different shifts, around the clock. Before I could even ask him, he offered ‘Steve, I was blessed to have a 3rd shift job at Bethlehem Steel, because I had to sleep somewhere!’ All due respect to any Bethlehem Steel alumni reading this, but that’s a true story! Insert the Billy Joel song Allentown into your mental soundtrack to go along with that story!
Back to the topic at hand. This Business Insider piece on ‘Shadow Standins’ tells the stories of people who have outsourced some or all of their jobs to family members or even offshore talent. Further it discusses online marketplaces where such workers can be found. Those using this tactic range from the overworked to the incompetent to the disinterested.
To my friends in the HR community, I salute you for being present in the midst of such chaos, and wish you the best in addressing the situation. A simple policy about who does work and who is accountable for it, in your organization, may be useful. Clearly ‘work stand ins’ are not optimal for your organization on any number of fronts from information security to intellectual property. Aye Carumba!
To all others tempted to go this route, a few words of advice from this old former HR executive: a lesson we sometimes learn too late in life is that the ends never justify the means; perhaps that philosophy can be justified in love or war, where they say all is fair, but in the workplace? Nope. The stories and rationalizations in that Business Insider piece are poignant and lengthy in some cases. As we know everyone has a story. Sam Bankman Fried had a story. Enron had a story. Al Capone had a story. We all have stories. Integrity doesn’t care about the story, though.
Set aside ethics for a moment and consider the risk involved to your ability to get results: mediocre offshore/outsourced results need to be monitored and corrected. Ask any company doing legitimate offshoring work. Then think about the professional relationships you must maintain through being present, authentic and genuine. Downstream from those relationships lies your reputation. Easily harmed by mistakes and errors in such an arrangement.
When caught, and eventually all will be caught, I hope the perpetrators have the guts to confront the situation like Newman in this infamous scene from Seinfeld:
Be stoic. Admit the mistake and take the consequences. Go and sin no more!
Back to my HR amigos: think about what and how much of this kind of work merits a termination. Since the situation is new, you may want to go easy until a new policy is published and understood by your people. Offer an amnesty before the crackdown. Be reasonable if possible.
Standins. What’s next? Clones? Replicants? Robots? Keep your head on a swivel, folks.
Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/shadow-stand-ins-workers-secretly-outsourcing-their-jobs-2024-6
