The Shadow Knows

Happy Groundhog Day! Today we celebrate the fact that TV meteorologists are so bad at making extended weather forecasts that we prefer to rely on the prognostications of a small woodland creature, Punxsutawney Phil. But today we also celebrate Job Shadow Day, a day when high school and middle school students venture into corporate America's workplaces to shadow hard-working professionals at their workstations. These youngsters get the unique opportunity to observe the species robotus corporatus in its natural habitat -- sitting for hours in front of computers, talking on the telephone, bickering over who's going to win the Super Bowl, gossiping about celebrities and the big boss, flinging poo and, occasionally, engaging in stimulating conversations about the future of their company. Yes, for one day out of the year, the office is turned upside down to allow worker bees to spread their seeds of knowledge to unsuspecting, optimistic youths who one day dream of graduating from college and working in a 3-by-5 cubicle with padded walls. For one day, these kids' dreams come true. Then they go back into their groundhog hole of ignorance and wait for a job forecast that calls for a warm and friendly career climate for them for the next 50 years. As for the workers, they get their small moment out of the groundhog hole to share their own forecast, only to bury their heads for the next 364 routine days. Days where they wake at 6 a.m. daily knowing the man has got them, babe. [Job Shadow Day]