Reimagining the Court Jester: How Professional Whistleblowers Promote Workplace Safety and Openness

• Petra Steinhoff

  Text editor online

The court jester is back. In past times, he was known as a joker and an entertainer, but also as the only one who was allowed to tell the truth to the king.

The modern version of the court jester walks around the workplace. In recent years, more and more cases of abuse of power, inappropriate behavior and cultures of fear in the workplace have come to light. The court whistleblower can prevent this problem, says Juri Hoedemakers, who brought back the phenomenon.

The goal of the professional whistleblower, or the professional whistleblower, is to create a pleasant workplace, where everyone feels safe and wants to speak out.

Hoedemakers won the thesis prize of the Rotterdam School of Management in 2020 with his thesis on the added value of the court whistleblower in today’s organizations. He wrote three books on the subject and is pursuing a PhD on it. He also gives lectures, most recently in the Vatican, and works as a professional whistleblower for organizations.

In this situation it helps companies to hold up a mirror in a light way and look for blind spots within the organization. He does this by talking to staff, often when he walks outside the office walls, by working in departments and by engaging in requested and unsolicited meetings.

What he discovers in discussions with employees, he returns anonymously to the management of a company. “I am the outside on the inside. I say the worst, rawest things, but delivered lightly.”

Aad de Groot, chairman of the board of directors of DSW Zorgverzekeraar, where Hoedemakers works as a court bailiff one day a week, agrees. “I get it back one by one, without gentle words. I like that, because you can do something with it.”

But sometimes it is also controversial. “Staff really want to see you in department quite often and I try to do that as much as I can. But then the joke of the court tells me that people want to see more of me. That’s not so good to hear.”

Not only the management, but also the employees held up to a mirror, says Ingrid van Huijkelom from the board of directors of SDW Zorg. “His approach is also very focused on the question: what have you done? He gives people a voice and invites them to take action. I now see more energy, connection and openness in the group.”

“You don’t have to be sick to get better,” said SDW Zorg program manager Anke Swinckels. “It doesn’t have to be 180 degrees different, it can be in small things. He doesn’t always come up with eye-openers, he also points out things you can’t see anymore.”

Employees are often very critical of the court’s mockery at first, says Hoedemakers. “What can such a clown do to us? But because of my scientific background, people quickly take it seriously.”

As a court spy he is often more trusted than, for example, a counselor. “I am not aiming for the throne and I have no financial interests. I have been paid in advance for the whole process and I will not stay with a company for longer the 45 weeks. After that you start thinking too much in the company’s colors.”

Since Hoedemakers sees it as his mission to further the ideas of the court jester, he has founded a jester association with business expert and leadership coach Tim de Zeeuw. 51 professional jumpers are now trained.

“Especially in these times, it is very important to speak boldly,” says De Zeeuw. “We help people and organizations to do this effectively, but also light, with the court procedure.