How real or fake is Undercover boss?

[aceplace57]

Just watched the Popeyes episode on the cbs website. They sent a new corporate team lady out to work. She got some serious dirty work done. Scrubbing toilets, frying chicken, and even scrubbing out greasy garbage cans. I think we know why they sent the new corporate team lady for this job.

This show does remind us how important it is for management to have some connection to the real work or business operations. So many MBA corporate types take jobs in industries they never actually worked in. At a minimum they should at least work as an assistant manager or cashier at a store. Learn the product they are responsible for managing.

[D-bear]

I can only speak from experience, but we all knew that the film crew was there for Undercover Boss... Tip #1 Gee, why is every single VP and director in town all of the sudden? There is a film crew for "a new reality show" coming to follow a new hire? Um, we're at an airport where security is so, post-9/11 tight that we can't even take that make-a-wish kid and his dad down on the ramp to see what a plane looks like from the outside??? And after the show aired??? Yeah, remember how I said we were going to reinstate that pay cut you all took? It was totally mis-edited. You heard that you were going to get that pay back, but what I actually said was You are all going to get your pay rates reinstated, pending the approval of the Board Of Directors. And, oh yeah, the BOD has actually nixed the whole plan... Kthxbye...

[aceplace57]

It's like the Warehouse workers that pulled items for that internet mail order company (similar to Amazon).

The boss actually choked up and cried at the end. I think he was sincere. But, there's not a lot that can be done to make that job easy or fun. Warehouses get very hot. Spending millions to install AC and pay the enormous utility bills isn't financially viable. The best they can do is offer Energy Drinks and heat related breaks. Same thing loading those trucks with the boxes. It's going to be hot miserable work. There's no magic way to make it fun and not bankrupt the company. There's always some third world country willing to outsource the work for half the cost.

[Frank]

Originally Posted by aceplace57

There's always some third world country willing to outsource the work for half the cost.

Up until this sentence, I was agreeing with your post. I am, however, mildly curious as to how we're going to outsource distribution work within the U. S. to a third world country.

[aceplace57]

Couldn't the main distribution warehouse be anywhere in the world? A guy working for $1 an hour could pull product and fill & box up orders just as easily as a $9 an hour American in Kansas. Fed Ex has world wide service. Your order would get delivered to your door maybe 1 day later. You'd never know your internet order was filled by a starving kid in Sri Lanka.

I don't like foreign outsourcing, but the savings can be significant and very tempting to a company that's bleeding labor & pension money.

Originally Posted by Frank

Up until this sentence, I was agreeing with your post. I am, however, mildly curious as to how we're going to outsource distribution work within the U. S. to a third world country.

[Tarwater]

Are you at all familiar with how expensive FedEx international shipping can be? No company is going to save money shipping individual packets from somewhere as distant as Sri Lanka.

[aceplace57]

Well, maybe Mexico or one of the South American countries would be better for a huge Internet order distribution center. You still get cheap labor and can get away with not paying any employee benefits. Pension plans and benefits are the main reason so much of our manufacturing has shifted overseas.

[hajario]

Originally Posted by aceplace57

Well, maybe Mexico or one of the South American countries would be better for a huge Internet order distribution center. You still get cheap labor and can get away with not paying any employee benefits. Pension plans and benefits are the main reason so much of our manufacturing has shifted overseas.

You need to study up dude. They have labor laws and benefit plans in Mexico. I've done consulting in a few Mexican factories. They are not sweat shops by any stretch and the larger ones have free health clinics on site.

[kushiel]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

When I worked in a convenience store, my manager and I were chatting one day about a co-worker (OK, it was really catty gossip). My manager said that this woman was looking for another job, and bitching that she HAD a decent job at the c-store. Apparently the look on my face gave me away. She wanted to know what was wrong with the job. I said something on the order of we're paid minimum wage, we NEVER get raises no matter what, the shifts suck, and there's no room for advancement unless one of the managers leaves, so this sort of job is only for when you are looking for another job. I said that I had taken the job because I wanted to be able to pay my bills, I really wasn't fond of working 8 hours on my feet, having to put up with drunks, with no break and no way to get ahead. She wasn't happy with that answer.

Man, it's amazing how she just forgot when she was a drone too. I mean, a manager at a convenience store doesn't have an MBA, she probably worked her way up from cashier or something!

[gaffa]

Originally Posted by aceplace57

Couldn't the main distribution warehouse be anywhere in the world? A guy working for $1 an hour could pull product and fill & box up orders just as easily as a $9 an hour American in Kansas. Fed Ex has world wide service. Your order would get delivered to your door maybe 1 day later. You'd never know your internet order was filled by a starving kid in Sri Lanka.

They need to consider underground warehouse space. I had two jobs in Kansas City's limestone caves, and it's 70 degrees year round.

[touchngo]

HC-One's director went round care centres and talked about wage rises and staff incentives. This show will only be realistic if a follow up is done.
The senior management knew before the show was aired that there was no money for wage rises and incentives and were sworn to secrecy. This was a major part of the show.
Apparently the owner paid £0.5 million to carry a torch for the olympics. Might be his own money but still seems like double standards to me.

[Lust4Life]

Recently watched a Brit episode, where the C.E.O. of Stenna Ferries pretended to be an out of work Norweigan hotel manager being followed by the cameras as he went back into employment.

It was so totally bleeding obvious that everyone knew who he was by not just their body language, but by what they said to him.

On his first stint his manager personally followed him around on his tasks, even when he was mopping a deck, and was unusually patient when the UCB managed to break two mopheads in a matter of minutes, and was too slow.

The manager was also very subservient in his manner, and "happened to mention", that the staff rest area needed desperately refurbishing .

Likewise when he was working as a K.P., the Chefs "happened to mention ", that the layout of the Galley was impracticable and poorly designed, but nobody chased him when he was incredibly inept and slow.

We had the usual stob story about a single mother working long hours etc.etc, though why a supervisor felt the need to poor out her problems to a new untrained member of staff on camera wasn't explained .

Totally fake throughout.

[Chessic Sense]

Originally Posted by kushiel

Man, it's amazing how she just forgot when she was a drone too. I mean, a manager at a convenience store doesn't have an MBA, she probably worked her way up from cashier or something!

She's probably a personal outlier that actually liked being the cashier, and that's why she's now the manager. So maybe she didn't "just forget".

[Lakawak]

Oh please...like EVERY reality show, it is heavily staged. Sorry, but every single CEO is not a completely incompetent imbecile who can't do a simply minimum wage job. Yet on this show, EVERYONE is. And every company doesn't have all these sob stories like a guy working 4 jobs to provide for his grandmother and his sister's baby all while trying to go to college to be a teacher. Yet EVERY employee on this show is like that.

It is simple...if it is a reality show, it is HEAVILY staged. Because reality is not interesting TV. If it wasn't staged/faked, you would have a lot of shows of the boss performing his minimum wage job adequately for a new employee (nothing to laugh at) and a lot of supervisors who say very little to their employee on any given day.