My daughter Annie is 9 going on 24. She looks and sounds like a 9-year-old but has the attitude and sass of a 24-year-old. She is at the stage where she will ask me or her Mum a question and then when we answer, she will argue about the answer!
Anyway, she walks herself to school. There are only two roads she needs to cross to get to school and one is supervised by a crossing supervisor (sounds better than a crossing man or crossing lady).
We had a discussion this week about her crossing the road. We feel that we still need to get her across the unsupervised road.
But it made me think about a workplace and when is it okay to let an employee carry out a task by themselves?
I’ve heard some stories where a new employee is given a quick lesson on what they have to do and then left alone to try and ‘Work it out.’
I have also seen the opposite where an employee is required to work with an experienced worker for months before being judged competent to do a task.
What do you think?
How do you judge when someone can do something competently and safely?
Personally, I’d be happy to help my daughter cross the road for the next 40 years.
