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Hate the whole premise of the show.
Here, you whined long enough and loud enough about your problems that we're going to give you a prize. Your coworkers who have similar issues that they keep to themselves get squat.
Initially I thought this would be a great show where companies would recognize and reward the efforts of all the employees, or at the very least they would identify and correct problems and policies that negatively affected employees. Instead this is just a gimmick to make the CEOs look like they give a **** and about as real as the Easter bunny.
Like a couple of others said before; how could this catch an employee off guard anymore? It's not like people haven't at least heard of it and how it operates. The first season I gave them credit, but after that, people have to be somewhat wary with a camera crew following someone around the job.
I watched the first season then stopped because I just couldn't get my mind off the employees who didn't make it onto tv or get a "prize" from the Boss. I wonder how many disgruntled employees this show has made.
I wonder that too! Out of the thousands of possible employees to use on the show... you do wonder how many are really happy for that guy/gal. Clearly some research goes on in selecting people, as they usually are "deserving/needy" in some way, and then they usually throw in the wild card employee who will either
get the second chance or get canned. So sometimes the "black sheep" still gets rewarded...that must gall people I would think.
The other thing I wonder is that people really fall for the "guy in a contest" story to explain the cameras? This show has been around several years -- wouldn't the employee have a thought that this might
actually be Undercover Boss? And aren't they at all suspicious of some of these ridiculous wigs/disguises the boss wears???
I'll post here what I just posted on another thread about this show:
I cant believe this show is still on. Moreover, no one's going to convince me that most of those employees haven't spotted the
imposter. It's the same schtick every week:
1) Employees are told to expect a new worker who's either going to be "starring in a reality show" or "opening his own franchise." At the end, they're each driven to a faraway location "to decide whether he gets the job. They're not onto this yet?
2) The undercover bosses don a physical disguise that looks like it came from the Dollar Tree kiddie department. They all end up looking like Yanni (or Jesus).
3) The undercover boss "trains" for all of about 15 minutes before it's break time, during which the employee proceeds to tell the UB his life story, focusing on his $60K in student loans and that he rides a bike to work because, gosh darn it all anyway, he just cannot afford a car. Shortly thereafter, another employee shares the fact that she's a single mom of 4 kids who've never been on a vacation (Hello, Disneyland). Yet another can't wait to divulge to the stranger that she's about to be evicted because the family's in arrears on rent (Hello, either downpayment on house or one year's rent)--and, boy, things would be so much better if she could afford to go to nursing school, but she can't because she accumulated $30K in consumer debt when someone got sick, and on and on.
The viewers, including me, are the suckers for watching.
Location: West of the Catalinas East of the Tortolitas
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I still like the show. There have been lots of employees who've "outed" the boss, or wondered if it was the UB show, and the bosses have fessed up. As for the "needy" employees, I don't think the UB comes in contact with that many people in his visits to the various branches of the stores. S/he usually works with one person for two or three days, then moves on, and it's the employees s/he's been one-on-one with that are the recipient of his/her gifts. I also read where the other employees who aren't in one-on-one situations with the boss do get compensation for their air time, so there may not be that many disgruntled employees.
I still like the show. There have been lots of employees who've "outed" the boss, or wondered if it was the UB show, and the bosses have fessed up. As for the "needy" employees, I don't think the UB comes in contact with that many people in his visits to the various branches of the stores. S/he usually works with one person for two or three days, then moves on, and it's the employees s/he's been one-on-one with that are the recipient of his/her gifts. I also read where the other employees who aren't in one-on-one situations with the boss do get compensation for their air time, so there may not be that many disgruntled employees.
Not just talking about the employees at the location the boss visits, but the hundreds/thousands of employees at other locations. I'm sure that at any chain there are a good many people who have 'problems' that are just as deserving of help as the one or two people that get featured on the show. Instead of showering those few people with somewhat expensive items wouldn't it benefit more people if instead they gave an across the board raise, or donated to an emergency fund that all employees could apply for, offered affordable insurance, or invested in equipment or practices that made peoples jobs less stressful? But something like that would cost a company far more than the few grand that they throw around on television so that they can "look like they care". The whole show is just a feel good publicity stunt for these companies.
Not just talking about the employees at the location the boss visits, but the hundreds/thousands of employees at other locations. I'm sure that at any chain there are a good many people who have 'problems' that are just as deserving of help as the one or two people that get featured on the show. Instead of showering those few people with somewhat expensive items wouldn't it benefit more people if instead they gave an across the board raise, or donated to an emergency fund that all employees could apply for, offered affordable insurance, or invested in equipment or practices that made peoples jobs less stressful? But something like that would cost a company far more than the few grand that they throw around on television so that they can "look like they care". The whole show is just a feel good publicity stunt for these companies.
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(or Jesus).
