Get ready folks: “Undercover Boss” premieres today. The episode features Waste Management COO Larry O’Donnell, who seems like a nice guy from the previews, and apparently empathizes with the employees he meets while “undercover.” But does his experience change anything for his workers? Linda Holmes of NPR is dubious, pointing out in her preview that in follow-up interviews conducted with the first “Undercover Boss”:
O’Donnell talked more about trying to get team leaders to give more positive feedback, but he still didn’t really wasn’t able to say, “We used to expect employees to do X, and now we don’t.” Or “We used to not provide such-and-such benefit, but now we do.” As he said, there was a specific facility where he corrected the manager about implementation of time-clock policy, but that wasn’t a change in policy; it was just implementation.
Not surprisingly, this “formatted documentary” (CBS’ term!) isn’t really about giving workers a voice. That’s why launched this campaign. Join us and tell Congress: Fix Our Jobs now!
Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, labor law reform, Undercover Boss, unions
CEOs, natural actors on a contrived setting. Now That’s REALITY!
I didn’t get to see the first episode of the show, but I always have to laugh at the premise,
the BOSS works UNDERCOVER.. in FRONT of a camera crew in staged settings.. YEAAAH, REALity TV….
“Undercover Boss”???? What a JOKE!!!! As if the employees of this corporation were not handpicked and selected to make it appear that Mr. O’Donnell is a secular saint, giving benediction to his employees, and really caring about them. Just another PR ploy to make us poor wage slaves feel as if the top honchos and robber barons of these corporations REALLY care about what we do to make them wealthy by our underpaid labor. Give us a break, please!!!!!!
I’v always said that the people at the top should try to do the job themselves, before trying to change it to make it better, for who?? You or Them, usually it is for Them, since they dont know the job at all.!!!! And after the change is made, and they think they did such a great job, ( they get the bonus, not us ) they wonder why things are worse then before???? Try to do the job first!!!!
I resemble Celia’s comment.
The whole show seems to be a cynical setup. Work in America has to change an awful lot, before workers feel good about what they do and how they are compensated, and this (obviously staged) show does zero for that end.
Workers are a fifth column of dissatisfaction that’s hardly been tapped yet, and the pittance of paltry concerns the show dealt with (on their flagship premier, yet) is worth zero to workers.
Real change will be MUCH more painful for the masters, than this fake offering.
I retired from the U.S. Department of Energy at a relatively senior level (with 27 years and Ph.D.). In this “Federal Civil Service” organization people were regularly promoted into management ranks based on factors like: after hours activities, minority status, if the contractor liked you, and your religion-all of which are illegal! At least 80% of the management team were not technically or emotionally fit for their jobs. In this organization, many were promoted because they served on Navy submarines along with the bosses. Usually, their spouses worked for the contractors for whom they (the feds) had procurement (contractual) oversight responsibilities. I guess I kind of expected this in the private sector but not in the “highly regulated” federal civil service. Many years ago when the federal Civil Service commission was invented, such things were virtually non-existant. Then it was restructed and neutralized.
Lesson learned: Laws can be good if they are enforced. For example our personnel office claimed they were “exempt”! In many cases trillions of taxpayer dollars are managed by ethically “challenged” senior civil servants and/or political appointees who have more conflicts of interest than could be identified and rooted out in a life time. I’m fairly certain no federal agency is immune. Those who try to obstruct such practices are quickly isolated and neutralized. The despicable and obscene COMPENSATION practices perpetrated in the private sector (most recently made known in the financial sector) must be controlled! The propaganda machine of the wealthy who say too the “poor” working people “you should be thankful you have a job”! Must be outlawed!!! This handful of individual billionaires in the U.S. and a couple of other countries have for the most part made their fortunes by dishonest, unethical, immoral, and for the most part illegal treatment of the poor and middleclass. Then they justify it in the name of “capitalizum”. If you dont believe in my style of capitalizum then you are unamerican!
President Obama got it right when he promised “transparency” in government. While an idealist in many ways he is also a realist! I don’t believe he has the ability to deliver on his dream. Why??? because congress, and entrenched civil servants, manipulated by the Billionaire Class do not what to see it.
If people “really” understood who was controlling them…..”then and only then” could additional legislation (and enforcement) really have any hope of changing things. Maybe, just maybe, governmental power could be returned to the people (at least in democracies). The use of “secret combinations” (people working together to secretly advance evil agendas) have been with man kind virtually from the beginning of the world. Exposure of their secret acts and conflicts-of-interest need to be made public!
Armed with that insight, the general public could press for “criminal statuates” to deal with them.
Ooops… does that sound a little like socialism??? It is my experience that very few things are completely “good” or “completely” bad! There is an element of both in everything. Perhaps a “little movement” to the left would be an “improvement” over where we are now.
I love this country…..I’ve fought to secure/maintain our freedoms. But, the current distribution of wealth is clearly unacceptable. My thesis is that knowledge alone of wrong doing by the big CEO’s or Billionaire Class is inadequate to effect change……their misdeeds must be made a matter of public and common knowledge to do so.
I agree with Celia, I wouldn’t expect any real changes, just more camera glamor. What would fix the problem is if people blew up the phones at the labor department and these companies CEO’s be held accountable for their complete and utter disregard for ethical practices and labor laws. Perhaps, if some of these “Fat Cats”, spent some well deserved time in a prison, it may just wake them up. Rather that than people really getting fed up and just showing up at their front door with torches and pitchforks. Just look at the Wal-Mart corporation, they are just a horror story of unethical business practices. I knew a woman there whom had her hand literally ripped off by the cardboard compactor, they fired her when she didn’t show up the next day! Another BIG part of the problem is the lack of man power and funding received by the U.S. Department of Labor. I talked to the director and he informed me that they are far under staffed and under funded. He himself is doing the jobs of six people! I think that is completely ridiculous! This situation makes people discouraged, as it takes the Department of Labor too long to respond. They also lack authority in some areas to really put their foot down. This country’s ability to control these companies is no longer adequate and requires to be redesigned.
“but he still didn’t really wasn’t able to say, ” another example of extremely weak editing of things posted on the Web. Though I’m seeing more of this type of writing even in such things as newspapers. Most unfortunate.
Not appropriate. I’m a boss who came to you in support of universal health care and in opposition to certain US Chamber advertising with respect to health care and climate change. But you have gone too far in this approach. How about asking workers to share their stories about why their jobs work for them, and how bosses are struggling to provide for their employees in these difficult times.
Stan Clauson, AICP, ASLA
STAN CLAUSON ASSOCIATES INC
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Why does it take a “formatted documentary” edited and shot to make the COO of a Fortune 200 company look like a hero to get Larry O’Donnell to even think about what’s going on with his employees. He says he didn’t realize that emphasizing productivity would mean people had to work at an inhuman pace with no breaks and pee in a can, time permitting? Doing something nice for a handful of employees while the cameras are rolling is not going to improve working conditions for the 30,000 workers that face harassment, intimidation, and unfair treatment every day.
Ditto!