Undercover Boss Becomes More Gimmick Than Reality

When the series Undercover Boss began, it seemed as if it would be a worthwhile way to spend an hour each week. I wrote about the first two episodes as I saw them with potential for a better than average series.

The episodes since have been a bit of a disappointment.

The last three episodes have seemed more scripted than undercover and certain points that were made have appeared more than what would normally be coincidence. I do not care who you are, it is unlikely that one out of every four temporary jobs will find someone spilling stories of major personal loss to a complete stranger...especially if you are a temporary worker with a camera crew following you around.

I hate to agree with Bill Maher on this one but the show Undercover Boss has turned out to be more of a gimmick type of show than anything else.

Two weeks ago the CEO of 7-11 obviously could not keep up with the front line employees but it did appear to be intentional at times. If the only serious problems he found in his stores were baked goods being thrown out and not enough emphasis put in replacing light bulbs then I have a difficult time believing that his visits to the stores were impromptu and unscripted. Many people have done a good deal of shopping at 7-11 and know that there are many more serious issues to contend with other than bulbs and pastries. I did not see the point in watching earnestly because it seemed to be a fixed situation.

Last week the CEO of Churchill Downs did his thing and slipped at least once that I saw, lending me to believe that the episode was again scripted or otherwise fixed. When a person is afraid of horses they can not hide it and if they are not careful they show that they were not being completely honest while on camera. On one job the man said he was afraid of horses but two jobs later he got really close to a horse in it's stall without flinching a bit when the horse pushed it's nose into him...he must have gotten over that fear quick. We learned of the death of someone's daughter via a heart to heart with a complete stranger and that does not seem like something one would share with a stranger. When a female employee has to walk through a dark parking lot at night there should be some kind of security to walk her to her car...the gift of DUH has been given.

I was not impressed with either of the end results of either of these episodes because they did not seem to do much for the company as a whole in either episode. Results seemed to be more oriented to token gains for only the employees that were on camera.

The last episode was with the Founder and CEO of GSI. Once again he seemed to be exaggerating reasons for not being able to keep up in at least two different areas.

He met one woman who doesn't see her kids much because she works 7 days a week for which he donated $5,000 to her sons' football teams for new uniforms. How about making a donation and then changing circumstance where she can have at least one day off per week to spend time with her kids?

Another person with a deceased child is introduced (will there be a deceased child in every episode?) and the company donates $10 thousand dollars for the guy's wedding. Would it not be more meaningful to start a fund to help employees when they experience a loss of a loved one?

One man on the night shift works hard, has such a story of what he didn't have but yet he does an incredible job turning life around to be a great father...it struck me as really odd that his small daughter was in the break room during the night shift. A child that young should have long been in bed and there was no sign of her mother anywhere. Who was keeping an eye on her while her father worked? Why was a small child out that late? Something was not Kosher. The example from this man was made by giving him a $1,000 gift certificate for Christmas and training down the road to become a supervisor. No big changes that affected anyone else but the one man in that particular area.

One woman on the last program should have been canned. She had an obvious chip on her shoulder and had no intent of changing the way she conducted herself. She was allowed to hang on until the CEO revealed himself, was sent to a retraining program but ended up not employed with the company afterwards. It seems a waste of resources to retrain someone who makes it obvious what her intentions are and you can not minimize that big of a chip on her shoulder in a few weeks time.

It is very sad that even the Hooters adds of late have reflected a sexist tone even though Hooters' CEO stated that he wanted to change they way the public viewed his company. It also lends to the belief that the reindeer games of the second episode may have been scripted as well because that kind of misogynistic attitude does not dissipate in a few weeks either.

The lesson here is an old one...if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.