Undercover Boss the Newest Reality Show from CBS

"Everyone has daydreamed about watching the boss do their job," said Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment. "The journey of watching a chief executive walk a mile in their employees' shoes is always very revealing, often humorous and, in some cases, very inspiring."

CBS premiered Undercover Boss after the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 with encouraging results. The premise of the show is that those who sit at the top of the corporate ladder will take a week away from their nice offices and boardrooms in order to anonymously go to work on the front lines of their company along with everyday people.

Larry O'Donnell, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Waste Management (WM) Corporation, was the first CEO to participate in what could honestly be considered more of a social experiment rather than a reality show.

He dressed in casual clothing and was set up as a man named Randy Lawrence who was involved in a documentary about "entry level jobs", complete with camera crew. O'Donnell lived in inexpensive hotels as he went around the country, from Texas to New York to Florida, taking on entry level jobs for the WM Corporation.

The television audience watched Mr. O'Donnell work on a trash conveyor, a landfill where he was required to pick up garbage, a dump site where he had to operate the truck scales, a carnival where he had to clean out "Porta-Potties" and finally, working a route on a garbage truck.

The first job that O'Donnell took on was separating garbage that came down on a conveyor belt. He found out that, not only was it hard work that he could not keep up with, the unit manager, Kevin, had instituted an unethical policy of docking an employee 2 minutes of pay for every minute they were late. This docking policy was not passed down through management but was a personal policy of the section manager that put the employees on the defensive and disgruntled.

The second job that we saw O'Donnell doing was working at a landfill. He was tasked with picking up garbage on the ground surrounding the landfill, itself. O'Donnell not only couldn't keep up with the standard for productivity but, in fact was fired for his unsatisfactory performance. O'Donnell's boss for the day was a man who had been on kidney dialysis for well over a decade but could still work circles around him and it made the lesson learned even more poignant.

We then saw O'Donnell shown how to work on the truck scales at a dump site. The woman who worked in that particular office was an hourly employee who had been expected to do the jobs of several people all by herself with no extra pay, whatsoever. She ran the office, did payroll, accounting, running the scales and other jobs that should have been delegated to others. She invited "Randy" to her home for dinner that night where O'Donnell saw how her financial situation was not working out. O'Donnell actually took a chance of blowing his cover in order to speak with her Division Manager in order to fix this situation, hire people to help her and upgrade her pay and benefits.

O'Donnell next went to work at a carnival setting with the responsibility of cleaning out portable toilets. The toilets had to have the waste sucked out through a huge vacuum hose and also had to be scrubbed down with disinfectant. The man training him was jovial and kept a good attitude through what had to be one of the most disgusting jobs I have ever seen.

The last job we were allowed to see O'Donnell train for was working a route on a garbage truck. The woman driver was expected to collect garbage from 300 different houses per day, her "front line managers" seemed to be following her which made her think they were "spying" on her to make sure she did her job and her job was so pressed for time that she carried a small can in her truck that she used to relieve herself since she was not afforded the time to stop to use a real bathroom.

O'Donnell finished his week and then went back to his own office where he called a meeting to let all the department heads know that changes would have to be made. Truthfully, some of the department heads looked at him like he was crazy and those people should be next in line to work the dirty jobs.

Every front line employee that worked with O'Donnell when he was "undercover" was called in, one by one, to talk. He revealed himself and thanked them for showing him what it was really like to do the hard jobs. O'Donnell let them know that he had made mistakes by enacting some policies that made things more difficult for them and was going to make changes. He also informed the manager that was docking people 2 minutes for every one minute that it was not acceptable and he expected the practice to be stopped.

A crowd of employees was called outside for a speech from O'Donnell in which he shared his experiences "undercover" and footage of it was show on large screens so that all could see. The crowd was told that changes would be made and that they would have an input in any policy that affected their jobs from now on.

Many people have often wondered whether or not their boss would be capable of doing their job and many others would not believe that what we were allowed to see on "Undercover Boss" would ever really happen.

According to Lynn Brown of the WM corporation, it really did happen and the changes that Mr. O'Donnell spoke of are still being made.

The filming of "Undercover Boss" with the Waste Management Corporation was done in March 2009, according to a statement Ms. Brown sent me by email.

When asked if the show was scripted or did O'Donnell actually follow up on the changes he spoke of, Ms. Brown stated, "It was not scripted. Every employee he worked with - including some not on the show - had their issues and frustrations addressed. We are hoping to continue that in the months and years ahead".

In an email exchange, I asked Ms. Brown if she could give me a few examples of the changes made within the company as a direct result of Mr. O'Donnell's participation in "Undercover Boss". and she sent me a few of the changes made;

"Employees in Syracuse misunderstood how to read the Kronos conversion from minutes to hundredths of an hour. When they saw that one minute was the same as 0.02 minutes (or 2 one-hundredths of a minute), they thought they were being docked two minutes for every one minute they were late. This was not the case and is certainly not our company policy. What we really had was a miscommunication, and through the show, the plant Manager- a WM Summit Award winner - was able to clear up the misunderstanding with the employees after the show.

Some of the employees thought that Route Managers were spying on them. You can see their trucks in the show. The Route Managers observation process is certainly essential to the company's safety and continued improvement in productivity. However, in some cases, it had become a negative experience for our drivers who sometimes feel that the Route Managers are just trying to catch them doing something wrong. The coaching process is something many drivers do not look forward to. Therefore, we are developing special communications training for Route Managers so they can give constructive and positive feedback to our drivers, and learn to be effective coaches. In professional sports, a coach serves to help make the professional excel as professionals, and that is exactly what we want our Route Managers to do with our drivers.

The female driver didn't have a place to go to the restroom during her route. As a result, we have created a task force with a cross-section of employees (including that female driver) to help us make Waste Management more attractive to females. We are also asking that all managers ensure that all our drivers have a place to use the restroom on their route that is arranged in advance.

The employee on dialysis has become a company-wide health mentor. We have a big program that includes health fairs and, among other things, teaches people to look at their "numbers" - like blood pressure. Walter is a part of this program and is telling his story about how his kidneys are damaged from high blood pressure. He has already spoken to more than 500 employees and is helping them be healthier.

The leadership of the company no longer implements a policy in the field without having field/front line employees involved in the program before it is rolled out to avoid unintended consequences."

When asked what effect has it had on the company, Ms. Brown replied," We no longer make decisions that affect the front line without input and opinions from the people that it will affect. This will be powerful for WM."

Ms. Brown also said, "Larry is the real deal. He is what he seems!"

There were 38.6 million viewers that watched the first episode of "Undercover Boss", according to the press release sent to me by Barbera Abseck of CBS.

The press release from CBS also stated the following information;

"Companies whose chief executives will make the undercover journey include such corporate giants as Waste Management (Larry O'Donnell, President and C.O.O.), 7-Eleven (Joseph M. DePinto, President and C.E.O.), Hooters (Coby G. Brooks, President and C.E.O.), White Castle (Dave Rife, Owner/Executive Board Member) and Churchill Downs (William C. Carstanjen, C.O.O.).

Each week a different executive will leave the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their company. While working alongside their employees, they will see the effects their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organization and get an up-close look at both the good and the bad while discovering the unsung heroes who make their company run.

The series moves to its regular Sunday (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) time period on Feb. 14 when Coby Brooks, President and CEO of "Hooters" goes undercover in his own company, he finds himself struggling to keep up in a fast-paced kitchen and is, later, forced to take immediate action when a restaurant manager steps out of line.

The CEO and President of 7-Eleven, Joe DePinto, goes undercover in his own company where he discovers that one of his corporate policies has not been implemented on the frontlines and later finds himself inspired by one of his delivery driver's approach to life on Feb. 21.

CBS is off to a good start with their latest reality endeavor.