Undercover Boss

[Pell City Tiger]

Do any of you watch this show? Excellent episode tonight with the president of Waste Management. He went undercover and worked at 5 of his facilities. By far, the best episode yet.

Great ground floor perspective for those of us in supervisory roles.

[bottomfeeder]

I watched it the other night, it was cool.

[The Prowler]

Yeah, they hired this "new guy" at Whataburger...he seemed like a cool kat, but he wouldn't do what we told him to do.  He didn't like the idea that we spit Red Man or Levi Garrett onto every burger that we make, you know, to give it that "one of a kind" taste.  I think he's an Undercover Boss.

[Tiger Wench]

Do any of you watch this show? Excellent episode tonight with the president of Waste Management. He went undercover and worked at 5 of his facilities. By far, the best episode yet.

Great ground floor perspective for those of us in supervisory roles.

I knew Larry when he was General Counsel at Baker Hughes, the company I worked for when I first moved to Houston.  He was a decent, if distant, guy - he attended legal department functions, but was not warm and fuzzy.  He left BHI to be General Counsel at WM, and now is CEO there.

[Vandy Vol]

I saw the waste management episode.  Overall it was fairly good.  Not something that I would make a point of actually trying to catch, but then again, I don't watch TV very often.

My one piece of criticism for the show is that it's not really undercover.  I'm sure they don't know it's their boss, but they've got cameras stuck in their faces.  They explain it away by saying they're filming a documentary, but this nonetheless affects how the employees treat the new guy.  I'd rather see what really happens to new employees, as opposed to people playing themselves up for the camera.

Ultimately, even if they don't know it's their boss, they know it's being recorded and that their boss could theoretically watch it, so they're not performing their job as they would on a normal day.  For example, do you honestly think that the woman who drove the truck route randomly gets notes and gifts from her multiple residents on her route, much less the day that they just so happen to be filming?  That was completely planned either by her or the filmers.

[Lurking Tiger]

...do you honestly think that the woman who drove the truck route randomly gets notes and gifts from her multiple residents on her route, much less the day that they just so happen to be filming?  That was completely planned either by her or the filmers.

It does happen. More than you would think. And that particular incident was genuine.

[Vandy Vol]

It does happen. More than you would think. And that particular incident was genuine.

Maybe I'm just the asshole on my route, but I wake up in the morning on Mondays and Wednesdays, put my trash by the road, then walk back in and scratch my balls until I'm fully awake.  The last thing on my mind is to wait excitedly by the window for the trash man so I can run out and read him the love letter I wrote.  I've never seen it on my street, nor any other street that I've lived on, and the majority of people are at work or school when the trash man actually does come by, so I don't see it being a regular occurrence, much less one that just so happens to occur on the day that a documentary is filmed.

Sure, people show their gratitude for mailmen, trash men, meter readers, etc.  But they don't do it multiple times a week, or even multiple times a month.  And the majority of those that do simply leave a note where it can be found.  And it's usually done on holidays.  It's borderline stalkerish if you're out there every week with a new note or gift.  The odds of that woman being approached by several people in one random day with gifts and notes?  Very slim, in my opinion.

[Lurking Tiger]

.. in my opinion.

Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's here.

But you are wrong this time. That's not an opinion. Just sayin'

[Pell City Tiger]

I would love to see a true "hidden camera" version of the show, but this is what we have to work with. The thing I came away with from this particular episode was the sense that Larry actually learned that one can not effectively manage a workforce from behind a desk. The boss needs to get out among the people every now and then and actually see firsthand the effect their policies have on the workers. They need to see what kind of job their supervisors are doing as well.

Our business unit manager was transferred to another facility around 9 months ago. This guy knew his workforce, hourly and salaried, and could be seen out on the production floor at least once a week. He'd go up to someone, call them by name, and just check on them. You could see the effect an act this simple had on the place. Morale was pretty high and productivity wasn't a problem. Each week, he met with each of us salaried staffers and find out about our projects, how they were progressing and what roadblocks we were encountering. He built a team.

The new guy is the complete opposite. I can count on 1 hand the number of times he's been seen out on the floor. I haven't seen an email from him yet, nor has he met any of his salaried staff. 8 months in and we have no idea what his vision is, goals, anything. Up until last month, I couldn't have picked him out of a line up.

Turnover has increased, morale has plummeted, and we've had more issues with product quality than any time I can remember. Technically, we aren't doing anything different than before. You can tell there is no sense of team out there. The staff has been cut, and most of us are now doing the work of 4 people. It's chaos, and people have gotten to the point that they just don't give a fuck anymore.

3 people have effectively killed the business unit.

[bottomfeeder]

Maybe I'm just the asshole on my route, but I wake up in the morning on Mondays and Wednesdays, put my trash by the road, then walk back in and scratch my balls until I'm fully awake.  The last thing on my mind is to wait excitedly by the window for the trash man so I can run out and read him the love letter I wrote.  I've never seen it on my street, nor any other street that I've lived on, and the majority of people are at work or school when the trash man actually does come by, so I don't see it being a regular occurrence, much less one that just so happens to occur on the day that a documentary is filmed.

Sure, people show their gratitude for mailmen, trash men, meter readers, etc.  But they don't do it multiple times a week, or even multiple times a month.  And the majority of those that do simply leave a note where it can be found.  And it's usually done on holidays.  It's borderline stalkerish if you're out there every week with a new note or gift.  The odds of that woman being approached by several people in one random day with gifts and notes?  Very slim, in my opinion.

You couldn't tell the lady giving the gift was SPECIAL? Special in that she was not up to stands set by the bammers as being in the norm.

[BZ770]

I haven't see the show but I saw a preview for next week at Hooters. CEO is going undercover.  I will record that one.

[Vandy Vol]

Certainly, I can have my opinion and you can have yours.  But unless you know something personally about the employees and/or the residents shown on the show, then I highly doubt you can claim to know the absolute truth.  A recent Time article reviewed the show and found it to be full of BS as well.  I'm going by what I saw in the show and what I know about how people typically acknowledge their trash men.  Even if a special needs person decides to be, well, special, and have a pre-written note, what are the odds that she does it on the exact day that a film crew is following her?  What are the odds that her supervisor/manager happens to choose her truck to follow on that same day as well?  I mean, I'm sure she's not the only truck that the company has, and unless they're picking up trash for Mayberry, they have a decent number of trucks...yet hers just so happens to get supervisor surveillance that day?

While it is a decent show, it reeks too much of emotional cheesiness for most of this not to be set up in some way.  We didn't see your average worker who's angry about his job and his pay, doesn't like his supervisors, doesn't enjoy his job, etc.  We saw the guy who was on dialysis three times a week, the woman who was going to have her house foreclosed on, the COO's special needs daughter, etc.  Afterall, do you think the COO of Waste Management is going to allow them to come on television and show the angry employees who barely do their job and resent their supervisors and superiors, including Larry O'Donnell himself?  No.  They want to paint a happy picture where employees are happy about their job, everyone respects the work that is done, everyone shows them their respect, and in the end everything works out.

I may not be a trash man, but I've worked in a variety of jobs, including factories and the food industry, and that is just not how the real world works.

[Lurking Tiger]

Certainly, I can have my opinion and you can have yours.  But unless you know something personally about the employees and/or the residents shown on the show, then I highly doubt you can claim to know the absolute truth.  A recent Time article reviewed the show and found it to be full of BS as well.  I'm going by what I saw in the show and what I know about how people typically acknowledge their trash men.  Even if a special needs person decides to be, well, special, and have a pre-written note, what are the odds that she does it on the exact day that a film crew is following her?  What are the odds that her supervisor/manager happens to choose her truck to follow on that same day as well?  I mean, I'm sure she's not the only truck that the company has, and unless they're picking up trash for Mayberry, they have a decent number of trucks...yet hers just so happens to get supervisor surveillance that day?

While it is a decent show, it reeks too much of emotional cheesiness for most of this not to be set up in some way.  We didn't see your average worker who's angry about his job and his pay, doesn't like his supervisors, doesn't enjoy his job, etc.  We saw the guy who was on dialysis three times a week, the woman who was going to have her house foreclosed on, the COO's special needs daughter, etc.  Afterall, do you think the COO of Waste Management is going to allow them to come on television and show the angry employees who barely do their job and resent their supervisors and superiors, including Larry O'Donnell himself?  No.  They want to paint a happy picture where employees are happy about their job, everyone respects the work that is done, everyone shows them their respect, and in the end everything works out.

I may not be a trash man, but I've worked in a variety of jobs, including factories and the food industry, and that is just not how the real world works.

K

[The Prowler]

Certainly, I can have my opinion and you can have yours.  But unless you know something personally about the employees and/or the residents shown on the show, then I highly doubt you can claim to know the absolute truth.  A recent Time article reviewed the show and found it to be full of BS as well.  I'm going by what I saw in the show and what I know about how people typically acknowledge their trash men.  Even if a special needs person decides to be, well, special, and have a pre-written note, what are the odds that she does it on the exact day that a film crew is following her?  What are the odds that her supervisor/manager happens to choose her truck to follow on that same day as well?  I mean, I'm sure she's not the only truck that the company has, and unless they're picking up trash for Mayberry, they have a decent number of trucks...yet hers just so happens to get supervisor surveillance that day?

While it is a decent show, it reeks too much of emotional cheesiness for most of this not to be set up in some way.  We didn't see your average worker who's angry about his job and his pay, doesn't like his supervisors, doesn't enjoy his job, etc.  We saw the guy who was on dialysis three times a week, the woman who was going to have her house foreclosed on, the COO's special needs daughter, etc.  Afterall, do you think the COO of Waste Management is going to allow them to come on television and show the angry employees who barely do their job and resent their supervisors and superiors, including Larry O'Donnell himself?  No.  They want to paint a happy picture where employees are happy about their job, everyone respects the work that is done, everyone shows them their respect, and in the end everything works out.

I may not be a trash man, but I've worked in a variety of jobs, including factories and the food industry, and that is just not how the real world works.

Correct....every bit of it.  It is just a little too "set up" for me, and knowing that the episodes are set up, it just makes me that much more uninterested.  Kinda like the feeling that I got by the third season of OCC.

[wreckingball]

Correct....every bit of it.  It is just a little too "set up" for me, and knowing that the episodes are set up, it just makes me that much more uninterested.  Kinda like the feeling that I got by the third season of OCC.

Or the final episode of the OC.

http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/snl-dear-sister/57650

[BZ770]

Hooters episode is on now.

[Kaos]

I saw the waste management episode.  Overall it was fairly good.  Not something that I would make a point of actually trying to catch, but then again, I don't watch TV very often.

My one piece of criticism for the show is that it's not really undercover.  I'm sure they don't know it's their boss, but they've got cameras stuck in their faces.  They explain it away by saying they're filming a documentary, but this nonetheless affects how the employees treat the new guy.  I'd rather see what really happens to new employees, as opposed to people playing themselves up for the camera.

Ultimately, even if they don't know it's their boss, they know it's being recorded and that their boss could theoretically watch it, so they're not performing their job as they would on a normal day.  For example, do you honestly think that the woman who drove the truck route randomly gets notes and gifts from her multiple residents on her route, much less the day that they just so happen to be filming?  That was completely planned either by her or the filmers.

Agree. 

I will pass on it from here on out because it appears to be scripted.  I'd prefer a hidden camera type situation if they want to have even the semblance of legitimacy. 

[Kaos]

Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's here.

But you are wrong this time. That's not an opinion. Just sayin'

So you're saying you are a trashman who gets gifts or you sit by your window waiting for the trashman so you can give them?  Which is it, Leroy?

[Kaos]

Certainly, I can have my opinion and you can have yours.  But unless you know something personally about the employees and/or the residents shown on the show, then I highly doubt you can claim to know the absolute truth.  A recent Time article reviewed the show and found it to be full of BS as well.  I'm going by what I saw in the show and what I know about how people typically acknowledge their trash men.  Even if a special needs person decides to be, well, special, and have a pre-written note, what are the odds that she does it on the exact day that a film crew is following her?  What are the odds that her supervisor/manager happens to choose her truck to follow on that same day as well?  I mean, I'm sure she's not the only truck that the company has, and unless they're picking up trash for Mayberry, they have a decent number of trucks...yet hers just so happens to get supervisor surveillance that day?

While it is a decent show, it reeks too much of emotional cheesiness for most of this not to be set up in some way.  We didn't see your average worker who's angry about his job and his pay, doesn't like his supervisors, doesn't enjoy his job, etc.  We saw the guy who was on dialysis three times a week, the woman who was going to have her house foreclosed on, the COO's special needs daughter, etc.  Afterall, do you think the COO of Waste Management is going to allow them to come on television and show the angry employees who barely do their job and resent their supervisors and superiors, including Larry O'Donnell himself?  No.  They want to paint a happy picture where employees are happy about their job, everyone respects the work that is done, everyone shows them their respect, and in the end everything works out.

I may not be a trash man, but I've worked in a variety of jobs, including factories and the food industry, and that is just not how the real world works.

I've had a ton of jobs, too.  I've come to believe that it would be better if more people did this.  I see so many myopic people who've never really done but one thing. 

I'm not that old, but I've done all of the following  at various times (without being fired) and have never had fewer than two jobs at a time:

Baled hay
Worked at a Pizza Hut
Wrote for a newspaper
Drove a parts delivery truck
Worked for a parts store
Worked at a clothing store
Worked at a convenience store
Sold cars
Sold insurance
Sold advertising
Managed customer accounts for a furniture store
Managed a furniture store
Owned a furniture store
Worked at a latex plant
Coached HS football, basketball and softball
Taught high school
Worked at a wood processing plant
Designed and developed web applicatoins
Managed a web department for a national conglomerate
Managed a software company
Owned a software company
Posted on a message board

There might have been more, but that's all I can think of.

[The Prowler]

I've had a ton of jobs, too.  I've come to believe that it would be better if more people did this.  I see so many myopic people who've never really done but one thing. 

I'm not that old, but I've done all of the following  at various times (without being fired) and have never had fewer than two jobs at a time:

Baled hay
Worked at a Pizza Hut
Wrote for a newspaper
Drove a parts delivery truck
Worked for a parts store
Worked at a clothing store
Worked at a convenience store
Sold cars
Sold insurance
Sold advertising
Managed customer accounts for a furniture store
Managed a furniture store
Owned a furniture store
Worked at a latex plant
Coached HS football, basketball and softball
Taught high school
Worked at a wood processing plant
Designed and developed web applicatoins
Managed a web department for a national conglomerate
Managed a software company
Owned a software company
Posted on a message board

There might have been more, but that's all I can think of.

and yet...you're still a fuckin' dork.  Go figure.