Gunther
In Chill Mode
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2009
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I just watched the first episode of Undercover Boss and felt compelled to type up this review. If you don't know what Undercover Boss is, it's a reality-based show in which the CEO of a major company goes undercover in his own company to see what issues are affecting the common workers, and to see how things are really done at their own company.
In this episode, the COO of Waste Management, Inc. went undercover in his own company to perform low-level jobs to "get in touch" with his company and to get a first hand look at how his own operations policies were being carried out. In order to explain the cameras, they tell the employees that they are shooting a documentary on the company.
Let me warn you that I'm not really sure where I'm going with this review, but I know it's going to take me awhile to get there - so my apologies for the length of this post. For perspective, my personal background is that I've been a middle-manager in corporate America for the last 13 years. Before that, I held lots of labor-intensive jobs dating back to when I was 14 years old. In other words, I've been around. Even though I've never held an executive position, I have worked side-by-side with executives in different companies. I've sat in corporate operations meetings, and I've also washed their dishes at the restaurant they frequent. I've sat in on union negotiations for management and I've also dug ditches in the rain. So, I think I have a pretty good idea of how our great country operates from a corporate perspective as well as from a labor perspective, or in other words, from the top down.
First off, like almost all reality-based shows I watch, I couldn't stop watching it. I'm a sucker for them, which is why I try not to watch many.
The premise is promising, and the show was compelling. They showed a lot of real life people performing tasks like cleaning port-'o-lets, picking up garbage, and working at a trash sorting assembly line.
As expected, the COO could not perform the tasks very well, and he even got fired from one of them because he couldn't keep up (which was kind of funny). In addition, he got an opportunity to see the end result of his operations policies put into action - which was usually not what he expected to see. He also got to know many employees on a personal basis and was touched by their stories and the ways that they found to cope with (his) sometimes austere productivity policies.
In the end, all of these employees were brought to the corporate headquarters in limosines, where they were given the big surprise - that new employee that they trained how to sort garbage and scrub toilets with the documentary crew was really their Big Boss. Needless to say, they were all very surprised.
After lots of hugs and tears, the Big Boss made some speaches about how he was going to address his operations to make them more family friendly, more woman friendly, more flexible to health needs, etc., etc.. One of the employees got a nice promotion. Two others were given the opportunity to sit in on corporate task forces to review HR policies. It was all feel-good stuff with the COO coming off like the big hero in the end. They even had follow-up paragraphs to tell what happened with each character in the end.
You might sense a little sarcasm in my tone, even though I've been trying to hide it. You may ask, "What's the problem? A COO gets dirty, meets his people and reviews his policies. At least he's not ripping off the pensions of little old ladies like that theif at Enron." You're right! I agree. This was on many levels a heartfelt and sympathetic review of the American workforce, basically geared toward getting in touch with the common man. However . . .
There was one scene right before the COO brought the employees to the corporate headquarters that made me stop feeling all goody-goody about the whole thing. The scene involved the COO, freshly shaven and suited up, sitting with his senior-management team in a boardroom, giving them the what-for for letting his policies go to pot. He then stood up and left the room without giving these managers the benefit of any input (unlike how he had treated the guy cleaning the port-'o-let).
Then there was a scene in which he called one middle-manager from the field into his office and singled him out for a timeclock punching-in policy that he disagreed with. This poor guy, who came off looking like a heartless jerk, had to sit on the hot seat on camera and get derided for a policy that it was unclear that he was responsible for. It all came off as grandstanding.
So, in the end, I think I had a different experience watching this show than most people might. I felt good for the low-level employees who had an opportunity to have their frustrations heard. But, I felt damn sorry for all of the managers under this jerk.
First off, most CEOs or COOs that I have ever met are ego-centric jerks and tyrants. They tend to hire yes-men who are good at avoiding responsibility and will not show an ounce of originality in the boardroom for fear of appearing to not be a "team player". The CEO will sit at the head of the table and pit manager against manager, playing politics to his whim, all the while looking at the bottom line with an eye to his own bonus and stock options. They expect long, stressfull hours from their executive management, and that trickles down to the middle managers who do most of the actual management work.
Middle management is a thankless task in most companies. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, let me lay it out for you. First, you have at least three bosses, and they all hate each other. It is a juggling act and a full time job just keeping all of them happy. Then, you have the people who report to you who you have to keep motivated, productive and "happy". I put "happy" in quotes because you're not really keeping them happy, you're really keeping them out of trouble so your bosses don't have to deal with them. By this I mean that you are making sure that the company is never sued for any reason; that the employees are not pulling knives on each other in the bathroom (I'm being facetious, but you get my meaning); that the vending machines are properly stocked with coffee, junk food, and gum; that the equipment is running in proper order despite your shoddy (read: cheap) supplier agreements that were installed as cost-cutting measures; etc., etc..
Then, you have to worry about your productivity numbers - you know - actually performing the job you were hired for. And believe me, if one of your three bosses doesn't like your productivity numbers (and none of them will), you will have to juggle them while you juggle your personal integrity and pride, trying not to lie or do anything illegal, but to show that you did your job in the company's interest. This last part always got me most, because if you weren't performing the job set before you, one of your three bosses would toss you out on your can, so you know the job is getting done the right way, but now you have to quantify it in a manner that fits the politics of all of your higher-ups.
In addition, no matter how good your staff is, you always have at least one employee who is on the verge of being fired who you have to keep your left eye on, and one employee on the verge of suicide from personal problems who you have to keep your right eye on. You'll also always have one employee who is sucking up to you mercilessly, and one employee who is absolutely positive that you are out to get them. Sometimes, you will have to spend half of your day just keeping harmony in the office, and recording all of the tidbits in a personnel file for proper documentation purposes.
Oh, and did I mention the best part of being a middle manager? You have no one to tell your troubles to. You can't vent to those below you because word will get back to your superiors, you can't vent to your fellow managers because you can't completely trust them, and you can't vent to your three bosses because they don't give a shit and will likely toss you on your can if you can't appear to handle your own business.
It's this last part that really got me at the end of the program. I watched a roomfull of executive managers get derided like they were teenagers. Then I watched a field manager singled out and called in to the COO's office where he was put on the hot seat (which is just completely wrong - this should have been handled with the field manager's supervisor). The COO, of course, was made out to be the hero of the whole thing. Pitiful!
Which brings me to my final rant: if you want people to be responsible, caring and productive members of your management team, you have to be big enough to let them tell you when you are wrong. You have to let them have input into the operation. You can't have them scurrying around like rats worried about losing their jobs all the time. It's actually pretty simple. Don't hire yes-men. Don't hold yourself up to be a supreme being. Try setting a good example and getting to know your managers on a personal level. That will encourage them to do the same for the people they supervise.
OK, rant over. I give the show a 5/10. And I can't wait for the next episode so I can get all worked up again.
In this episode, the COO of Waste Management, Inc. went undercover in his own company to perform low-level jobs to "get in touch" with his company and to get a first hand look at how his own operations policies were being carried out. In order to explain the cameras, they tell the employees that they are shooting a documentary on the company.
Let me warn you that I'm not really sure where I'm going with this review, but I know it's going to take me awhile to get there - so my apologies for the length of this post. For perspective, my personal background is that I've been a middle-manager in corporate America for the last 13 years. Before that, I held lots of labor-intensive jobs dating back to when I was 14 years old. In other words, I've been around. Even though I've never held an executive position, I have worked side-by-side with executives in different companies. I've sat in corporate operations meetings, and I've also washed their dishes at the restaurant they frequent. I've sat in on union negotiations for management and I've also dug ditches in the rain. So, I think I have a pretty good idea of how our great country operates from a corporate perspective as well as from a labor perspective, or in other words, from the top down.
First off, like almost all reality-based shows I watch, I couldn't stop watching it. I'm a sucker for them, which is why I try not to watch many.
The premise is promising, and the show was compelling. They showed a lot of real life people performing tasks like cleaning port-'o-lets, picking up garbage, and working at a trash sorting assembly line.As expected, the COO could not perform the tasks very well, and he even got fired from one of them because he couldn't keep up (which was kind of funny). In addition, he got an opportunity to see the end result of his operations policies put into action - which was usually not what he expected to see. He also got to know many employees on a personal basis and was touched by their stories and the ways that they found to cope with (his) sometimes austere productivity policies.
In the end, all of these employees were brought to the corporate headquarters in limosines, where they were given the big surprise - that new employee that they trained how to sort garbage and scrub toilets with the documentary crew was really their Big Boss. Needless to say, they were all very surprised.
After lots of hugs and tears, the Big Boss made some speaches about how he was going to address his operations to make them more family friendly, more woman friendly, more flexible to health needs, etc., etc.. One of the employees got a nice promotion. Two others were given the opportunity to sit in on corporate task forces to review HR policies. It was all feel-good stuff with the COO coming off like the big hero in the end. They even had follow-up paragraphs to tell what happened with each character in the end.
You might sense a little sarcasm in my tone, even though I've been trying to hide it. You may ask, "What's the problem? A COO gets dirty, meets his people and reviews his policies. At least he's not ripping off the pensions of little old ladies like that theif at Enron." You're right! I agree. This was on many levels a heartfelt and sympathetic review of the American workforce, basically geared toward getting in touch with the common man. However . . .
There was one scene right before the COO brought the employees to the corporate headquarters that made me stop feeling all goody-goody about the whole thing. The scene involved the COO, freshly shaven and suited up, sitting with his senior-management team in a boardroom, giving them the what-for for letting his policies go to pot. He then stood up and left the room without giving these managers the benefit of any input (unlike how he had treated the guy cleaning the port-'o-let).
Then there was a scene in which he called one middle-manager from the field into his office and singled him out for a timeclock punching-in policy that he disagreed with. This poor guy, who came off looking like a heartless jerk, had to sit on the hot seat on camera and get derided for a policy that it was unclear that he was responsible for. It all came off as grandstanding.
So, in the end, I think I had a different experience watching this show than most people might. I felt good for the low-level employees who had an opportunity to have their frustrations heard. But, I felt damn sorry for all of the managers under this jerk.
First off, most CEOs or COOs that I have ever met are ego-centric jerks and tyrants. They tend to hire yes-men who are good at avoiding responsibility and will not show an ounce of originality in the boardroom for fear of appearing to not be a "team player". The CEO will sit at the head of the table and pit manager against manager, playing politics to his whim, all the while looking at the bottom line with an eye to his own bonus and stock options. They expect long, stressfull hours from their executive management, and that trickles down to the middle managers who do most of the actual management work.
Middle management is a thankless task in most companies. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, let me lay it out for you. First, you have at least three bosses, and they all hate each other. It is a juggling act and a full time job just keeping all of them happy. Then, you have the people who report to you who you have to keep motivated, productive and "happy". I put "happy" in quotes because you're not really keeping them happy, you're really keeping them out of trouble so your bosses don't have to deal with them. By this I mean that you are making sure that the company is never sued for any reason; that the employees are not pulling knives on each other in the bathroom (I'm being facetious, but you get my meaning); that the vending machines are properly stocked with coffee, junk food, and gum; that the equipment is running in proper order despite your shoddy (read: cheap) supplier agreements that were installed as cost-cutting measures; etc., etc..
Then, you have to worry about your productivity numbers - you know - actually performing the job you were hired for. And believe me, if one of your three bosses doesn't like your productivity numbers (and none of them will), you will have to juggle them while you juggle your personal integrity and pride, trying not to lie or do anything illegal, but to show that you did your job in the company's interest. This last part always got me most, because if you weren't performing the job set before you, one of your three bosses would toss you out on your can, so you know the job is getting done the right way, but now you have to quantify it in a manner that fits the politics of all of your higher-ups.
In addition, no matter how good your staff is, you always have at least one employee who is on the verge of being fired who you have to keep your left eye on, and one employee on the verge of suicide from personal problems who you have to keep your right eye on. You'll also always have one employee who is sucking up to you mercilessly, and one employee who is absolutely positive that you are out to get them. Sometimes, you will have to spend half of your day just keeping harmony in the office, and recording all of the tidbits in a personnel file for proper documentation purposes.
Oh, and did I mention the best part of being a middle manager? You have no one to tell your troubles to. You can't vent to those below you because word will get back to your superiors, you can't vent to your fellow managers because you can't completely trust them, and you can't vent to your three bosses because they don't give a shit and will likely toss you on your can if you can't appear to handle your own business.
It's this last part that really got me at the end of the program. I watched a roomfull of executive managers get derided like they were teenagers. Then I watched a field manager singled out and called in to the COO's office where he was put on the hot seat (which is just completely wrong - this should have been handled with the field manager's supervisor). The COO, of course, was made out to be the hero of the whole thing. Pitiful!
Which brings me to my final rant: if you want people to be responsible, caring and productive members of your management team, you have to be big enough to let them tell you when you are wrong. You have to let them have input into the operation. You can't have them scurrying around like rats worried about losing their jobs all the time. It's actually pretty simple. Don't hire yes-men. Don't hold yourself up to be a supreme being. Try setting a good example and getting to know your managers on a personal level. That will encourage them to do the same for the people they supervise.
OK, rant over. I give the show a 5/10. And I can't wait for the next episode so I can get all worked up again.
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