# How real or fake is Undercover boss? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708 "2012-01-16T17:32:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/61 "2012-03-11T15:37:24Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/62 "2012-03-11T17:42:38Z")
> [@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! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/63 "2012-03-11T20:48:03Z")
> [@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](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIUMcPUf9D). I had two jobs in Kansas City’s limestone caves, and it’s 70 degrees year round. ---
**Author:** ![touchngo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/fbc32d/32.png) [@touchngo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/touchngo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/64 "2012-08-11T05:54:44Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/65 "2012-08-12T12:36:52Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/66 "2012-08-12T19:24:47Z")
> [@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”. ---
**Author:** ![Lakawak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Lakawak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakawak)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/67 "2012-12-29T01:37:46Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ImagineReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e5b9ba/32.png) [@ImagineReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ImagineReason)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/68 "2017-03-05T08:46:48Z")
The CEO totally bought himself a mistress with one of the employees. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/69 "2017-03-06T01:57:32Z")
> [@ImagineReason](#): > > **No one mentioned the Lucky Strike bowling alley ep** Give it some time. It’s not even been five years yet. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708/70 "2017-03-06T09:28:28Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#): > > What always strikes me as being particularly manipulated is that the undercover person is brought on to do a new job and be trained, and the trainer is always shocked when they’re not performing up to regular employee speed and ability within a half hour. This has been literally every single one of my jobs I’ve ever worked. My first ever job training was literally a 30 minute instructional video with absolutely no hands-on training so my first time on the floor was my actual first-shift, then I had the pleasure of my supervisor tailing me the entire time and stopping me and chiding me every 5 minutes when I messed something up despite me having to learn on my feet. Every job after that was basically that exact same story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-real-or-fake-is-undercover-boss/609708.md?page=3)