Undercover Boss - ABM Episode

Sunday, December 5, 2010 - Undercover Boss on CBS featured the President and CEO, Henrik Slipsager, of ABM Industries. ABM Industries, which stands for American Business Maintenance Industries, provides janitorial and maintenance services, window washing on large buildings, freight elevator operators, and, through a division of the company called Ampco System Parking, a shuttle service for the airlines. Mr. Slipsager, who is from Denmark, is going undercover as Edward, a Dutch immigrant looking for opportunities in America.

Mr. Slipsager, who works in ABM's headquarters in New York City, wants to pose as an Undercover Boss to try to discover how to develop good employees that want to stay with the company. This married man with several children dies his hair and dons work clothes, getting up at 4:30 a.m. to begin his day as an entry level employee-hopeful in his own company.

Job #1 for Undercover Boss Henrik, posing as Edward, is driving an airport shuttle in Tampa, Florida under the direction of Kenny, the regular shuttle driver. Henrik is interested in the role customer service plays in the company. Kenny begins training Edward to make complete stops, drive the proper speed limit, move quickly when loading passengers and memorize which airlines they serve, what to write down concerning the customers, what to say to them and what codes to use on the two-way radio.

Kenny has been doing this job for four or five years, but is going to school to be a firefighter. He still has two years to go, but says that if you really want something, you have to go after it. Kenny does not appear to think Edward really wants this job, since he is too slow with the customers, too fast while driving and a bit rude as well. When Edward gets confused and swears over the radio, Kenny, horrified, pulls him and heads straight back to the garage. He says everyone in the airport could hear him swearing, and besides, he broke the three rules. He isn't quick enough, he doesn't have good sense when deciding what to say and what not to say, and he keeps speeding. To the undercover boss of the company's humiliation, Kenny fires him. "I've worked for 25 minutes and done 30 things wrong," laments Edward miserably.

Job #2 moves the undercover boss to Chicago, Illinois for some commercial window washing with Peter, the supervisor. The job is dangerous and safety has to be taken seriously, warns Peter. Edward, afraid of heights, is hoping against hope that the window washing will occur inside the building. But when Peter has him help build scaffolding, Edward begins to look nervously up the many floors of windows the huge building has.

Peter, a Polish man who has worked for the company for 14 years, has a seven year old son with cerebral palsy who can't walk or talk much. He and his wife travel to Europe for treatments for their son as often as they can, but the treatments and the flights are extremely expensive, so it doesn't happen nearly often enough. To try to expedite this, Peter works full time washing windows, works as a Tech afterwards, then stays with the kids while his wife works second shift at her job.

Finally the scaffolding is in place on a ledge about half way up the building. "This harness is your life," he warns Edward. "If the cable breaks, this is what you'll be hanging from." They climb on the swaying scaffolding and Peter begins pulling them slowly upward. Edward is visibly nervous, begins sweating while his legs shake. After washing one window, he finally admits defeat. Peter kindly lowers him back to the ledge and Edward's career washing windows is at an end.

Job # 3 is at Ground Zero, 7 World Trade Center, New York City, New York. This is very emotional for Henrik. ABM had 850 employees working at the World Trade Center on 9/11. After the planes hit, Edward went around from hospital to hospital, searching for his people. He was able eventually to account for everyone - ABM lost 17 employees on 9/11. The others were retained by ABM, but were necessarily scattered all over New York. But the 17 dead haunt him, as does the day itself and the site of the horror. 7 World Trade Center was the first one to be rebuilt, and Edward will be working undercover with Maria, a janitor who basically does everything anybody needs. Wherever they are called, they must go; cleaning elevators and boardrooms, restocking supplies, washing windows and scrubbing toilets, vacuuming and emptying trash. Edward scrubs his first toilet ever, under Maria's critical supervision.

Maria mentions with a sigh that she wishes all of the uniforms featured pants. She is nervous when cleaning while wearing a skirt because, as she points out, she doesn't want to bend over to scrub something and have to worry about showing her butt to the person behind her!

When they reach a showroom overlooking the devastation of the tragedy and the bustle and activity of rebuilding, things turn serious. Maria washes the windows with tears running down her cheeks as she recounts losing her 27 year old nephew, who was on the 96th floor when the planes hit. Every time she looks down in to the pit, she thinks of him, and quietly relates the finding of "a piece of her nephew after two years, which was returned to the family for burial." Maria watches the white pigeons falling all around the site of the disaster for a minute. White pigeons, she says, represent souls that are not at rest. She and Edward contemplate the 17 lost souls that formerly worked for ABM as they clean a display case showing a replica of the Freedom Tower.

Job #4 is also at 7 World Trade Center, in the freight elevator operated by Larry, who takes great pride in his "office." Larry, who has been happily married for 37 years, has worked for ABM at the World Trade Center for 26 of them, and was foreman until he had a stroke. ABM took care of him, and he enjoys working for them. He is a very good freight elevator operator who knows and cares very much about the passengers frequenting his elevator.

Larry was cleaning sidewalks on the day the planes hit. He didn't know what was happening, but suddenly there were people jumping to their deaths, and he was covered with soot and ash as the building collapsed. He remembers ABM and the union telling the employees to stay home and recuperate, and making sure they all had jobs when they returned. But now they are scattered all over the city and Larry misses the huge family of 850 ABM employees who used to work at the World Trade Center together. Henrik thinks about an ABM employee who was able to use his cleaning squeegee to open the elevator doors, thus saving many lives that awful day. Larry is happy to see the Freedom Tower finally being built after so many years.

Edward the undercover boss transforms himself back in to Henrik the CEO and invites all of the individuals he's worked with the past week to headquarters. He is happy to have met people who are so proud of the work they do. He genuinely likes the people he's met and would love to consider himself their friend. He is impressed at how they want to build and create something wonderful instead of looking back at the tragedy that happened and despairing. The employees, meanwhile, are apprehensive about coming in because they don't think Edward did a very good job.

When Henrik comes in to the room, Maria is shocked that she is actually meeting the President of her company face to face. He laughingly tells Maria that she about killed him; then he informs her that soon she'll be receiving her new uniform, with pants instead of a skirt. On a more serious note, ABM is going to dedicate 17 granite pavers at the World Trade Center to commemorate the employees lost on 9/11. Also, $25,000 will be donated to a 9/11 fund in memory of her nephew. She is very happy for all the families who lost loved ones on that day. Maria also gets a promotion.

Henrik told Larry that he really appreciated the way he interacted with everyone who got on his elevator. Also, he said, all the talk about 9/11 brought back memories for them both. He wants to work with the union to host a reunion for all the employees that worked in the World Trade Center and considered each other family, since they are now all scattered around New York City. On a more personal note, he wants to send Larry and his wife on a trip of their choosing for their anniversary. Larry and his wife choose Hawaii for their trip.

When Kenny realizes that Edward was actually undercover boss Henrik, he is laughing and apologizing for firing him. But soon he is in tears as Henrik tells him that he really wants Kenny to consider a future with ABM. He wants Kenny to move in to management training, and furthermore the company will pay for all his education expenses as long as he remains with ABM. Kenny, in shock, says his mother always told him that hard work pays off. He says he is blessed. He decides to change to a business major and work toward being a manager at ABM.

Henrik thanks Peter for making him feel as secure as possible while washing windows. He decides he'd like to use Peter's experience and expertise on a Safety Council, reporting recommendations on safety directly to Henrik Slipsager, and says that Peter will be compensated for participating. Also, he wants to send Peter's family to Europe, all expenses paid, so his son can have a month of intensive therapy treatment for his cerebral palsy.

Henrik Slipsager, after going undercover as a boss in his own company, has discovered that his employees are always trying to satisfy the customers, leaving the customers with a good feeling towards ABM. He concludes that with employees like these, ABM has a great future.

Source: watching Undercover Boss on CBS