Undercover Boss

Paul in Cannon Beach

Did anyone watch the show "Undercover Boss" last night. It followed the Super Bowl.

Interesting premise. CEO goes "undercover" as a regular employee (with a camera crew following) to see what its really like in the trenches.

I didnt watch the first episode but I saw an extended preview. Looks interesting. The boss has a bunch of a-ha moments where he realizes that some of their policies are very difficult on the employees who have to live with them. At the end of the show, he meets with the employees he worked with but hes back in his business suit and they realize who he really is. A couple of them cringed...

Celeste Blackburn SPHR

I watched it. Thought it was great! It was nice to see the realization from the big boss about how his policies affect the workers and how when he was put in certain situations, he saw how impossible it was to live up to the productivity goals that were really just an effect of the edicts he handed down from the corner office.

My favorite was the guy who fired the boss. This episode featured the COO of Waste Management, Larry O'Donnell, and one of his jobs was picking up paper (I think maybe he was at a landfill or recycling center and was picking up trash that got away). Larry's boss for the day gave him what he thought was an impossible quota (1 bag every 10 minutes). You could tell he was really frustrated and surprised that he couldn't do it. Then, the boss for the day tells Larry that he's been on dialysis for 20 years b/c of kidney problems and he can do 1 bag every 10 minutes so Larry should, too. Larry couldn't, so he was "fired" (since there is a camera around, they couldn't really go fully undercover as a regular employee; instead they told people he was a construction worker shooting a show that had him trying out different jobs for a local tv station).

The guy who looked scared on the commercials had every reason to be. He was a plant manager who docked employees two minutes of pay for every minute they clocked in late from their 30 minute lunch. Larry was not happy. I'm no FLSA expert, but it seems like the DOL would not be happy either. Isn't that illegal?[I][/I]

davids

It is a good concept. However, the boss only spent one day at each location. I'm not sure how much he can learn in one day. I missed the beginning, so I don't know how they explained being followed around by a camera crew. If you saw the scenes for next week's show, a supervisor has his employees engage in some very demeaning behavior. It's difficult to believe that the supervisor did that knowing he was being filmed. Makes me wonder if some of it isn't staged.

ACU Frank

Because supervisors would never participate in demeaning behavior...

Paul in Cannon Beach

Time reviewed the show and called it "phony, manipulating and entertaining".

It does feel a bit like an hour long commercial to personalize CEOs at a time when they need all the positive PR they can get.

On the other hand, the comments by fans on the CBS website have been overwhelmingly positive.

Ha ha.. i feel bad for "Kevin" the middle manager who is the bad guy in this show. Sorry, Kevin, someone has to be the goat.

Paul in Cannon Beach

One thing that bothered me from the first episode is the way the boss tried to help out Jaclyn, the hard working employee with the challenging life. It felt somewhat emotional. Help her out because life is hard for her. That doesn't seem right to me.

Promotions and job duties should be assigned based on merit - not heart strings. Fortunately she seemed like a very capable, hard working person and she deserves whatever promotions and raises she got but it shouldnt be based on the fact that her dad lives with her and she has gone through a lot of hard times.

Paul in Cannon Beach

If you missed the show, you can watch full episodes on [URL="http://www.cbs.com"]www.cbs.com[/URL]

plynnl

I thought it odd that the one woman spent so much time complaining about "corporate" to a new employee she just met and supervised. That seems a bit unprofessional.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Yeah, thats a good point. It is unprofessional.

The deli employees at my local safeway like to complain too. I just stand there and nod my head while they slice my havarti.

davids

I agree with Paul regarding Jaclyn. She seemed like a hard worker, very capable and, perhaps, deserving of a promotion based on merit. However, giving her a promotion and raise based on facing challenges in her personal life sets a bad precedent for the company. I am sure there are many employees in that company who have challenging lives. Knowing human nature, I would not be surprised if some of those employees become resentful that they are not receiving the same benefits as Jaclyn based on their life-challenges.

plynnl

Also she was changed from an hourly wage to salary with the intention of making her wage higher. If she was getting overtime in the hourly position she might be making less now.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Ha ha.. that thought ran through my mind too. I almost thought I saw a flash of terror race across Jaclyn's face too when the boss made that announcement.

One ethical question I have is how they will handle employees who feel emberassed and humiliated on national tv. Its one thing for a reality show contestant who has agreed to go on a show be cast in a bad light as the "villain" but is it fair to characterize a supervisor as "bad" based on 5 minutes of airtime or perhaps just one poor decision?

I assume CBS lawyers ran this through the usual vetting process but networks have done some dumb stuff before. I could easily envision a defamation or hostile environment claim arising from an episode where an employee is castigated for their behavior on the show.

cnghr

The discussion of the woman who was being promoted and given a raise in part because of tough circumstances in her life just doesn't sit well with me, and I think it would set a very bad precedent within the company. I mean, almost everyone has tough times at some point in their life, why would you single one person out and basically reward them because...what? Their tough life is tougher than somebody else's? And who gets to be the judge of which challenges in life are more deserving than others?

Reminds me of a situation where an employee was recommended to me by her supervisor for a promotion because "she's got kids going into college and she needs to be in a position where she can make more money". Nothing was said about the abilities, skills, dedication, or just plain hard work she was willing to put in to merit a higher position or salary, just that she "needs to be able to make more money". Hey, don't we all?!

Celeste Blackburn SPHR

When watching the show, I really got the sense that Jaclyn was doing the job of at least 3 people -- all at the pay rate she was hired to do one job. I think going to Jaclyn's house and highlighting the hard time she was having at home added to the drama of the TV show, but it seemed pretty obvious that if she really was being paid only as an administrative assistant and had taken on a lot of other duties that she should get a raise.

The feeling I got is that they told the employees that the "boss" was just a regular guy doing a reality show (sort of a "Dirty Jobs" type show) for a small/local network. While it is unprofessional to talk about your company and it's policies the way some of these people did, I think it is a testament to how fed up and frustrated they were.

I can't imagine that the companies ran the idea of the TV show through their legal department. For instance, the policy of docking employees two minutes of pay for every minute they clocked in late to work is a mine field of problems. Talking to one of our attorneys here, she mentioned that not only would Waste Management be liable for making up that back pay but it could also turn into a class action. When I was watching the show, I imagined a DOL or EEOC employee taking notes and opening a file for investigation the next day.

Paul in Cannon Beach

There have been instances where a reality show episode led to real life legal troubles. I think one of the companies on the show "Ax Men" got into hot water over some alleged illegal harvesting of naturally fallen trees in one episode.

One of the attractions of reality shows is the opportunity for a "train wreck" to happen at any time. If Undercover Boss is contrived and manipulated, it will become apparent and the viewers will abandon it. There has to be a hint of danger for a reality show to work.

NaeNae55

The problem with such a tv show is that you really don't know what else happened. You just see what the producers choose for you to see so they can sell their program and make it a success.

I only saw the end of the program, but it seemed to me that the announcer was the one claiming Jaclyn got a promotion and more pay because of her circumstances. The CEO seemed pretty smart to me, so I have to assume he was smart enough and had enough experience not to promote someone because he felt sorry for them. I must admit to a little bit of skepticism, as I wondered what he would be saying if he wasn't on tv.

I have no doubt the producers got everyone to sign a waiver, by fair means or foul. Time will tell if the supervisor (or anyone else for that matter) sues. He might have felt he had no choice but to suck it up to keep his job. The whole thing does look like a lawsuit waiting to happen. But isn't that part of the attraction?

cnghr

[quote=Paul in Cannon Beach;719010]There have been instances where a reality show episode led to real life legal troubles. I think one of the companies on the show "Ax Men" got into hot water over some alleged illegal harvesting of naturally fallen trees in one episode.[/quote]

My husband is a big fan of "Ax Men" and when we read about the company getting trouble (they were the ones hauling trees out of the river in Washington) we were hoping they'd show that on t.v. If it is supposed to be reality t.v., shouldn't they show all the possible ramifications of what the participants are doing? But they never mentioned it and now those guys are doing their "aqua logging" down in Florida this season, which adds new excitement (in the form of snakes and alligators) to the show, I gotta admit!

Paul in Cannon Beach

I just watched the preview for the episode where the CEO of hooters goes to work undercover and witnesses a restaurant manager force his waitresses to participate in a degrading "contest".

I have known some sadistic supervisors but its hard to believe this idiot would pull this off while the cameras rolled.

Of course, I have never been to a Hooters so I don't know much about the franchise.

Sharon McKnight SPHR

[quote=Paul in Cannon Beach;719017]I just watched the preview for the episode where the CEO of hooters goes to work undercover and witnesses a restaurant manager force his waitresses to participate in a degrading "contest".

I have known some sadistic supervisors but its hard to believe this idiot would pull this off while the cameras rolled.

Of course, I have never been to a Hooters so I don't know much about the franchise.[/quote]


So-o-o, that makes you the only male in this country over the age of fifteen who's never been to Hooters? You should go. Live on the wild side.

Paul in Cannon Beach

There aren't any around here. I saw one while I was on a recruiting trip but I didnt think a receipt from Hooters would look too good on my expense list.