What I'm Watching - Undercover Boss

Have you seen this show? I see it on Demand a lot (my source for TV when I'm bored). Anyway, it comes on CBS and I'm thinking the one time I actually caught it on TV it was on Sunday.

The premise is a CEO goes undercover in his own company to figure out what's good and what's bad. Basically it's like an hour long pr commercial (hopefully) for said company. The first one on Waste Management was interesting. I think it's getting a little old at this point for a few reasons:

1. Your CEO shaved off his beard and slicked back his hair and you expect me to believe no one recognized him. Have you ever googled the people that work for your company or I don't know gone on your company's website? A little hard to believe.

2. They always meet people with massive problems (failing kidneys, blind children, etc). I think the people are selectively picked (it didn't take rocket science to figure that out) - I don't think Joe CEO randomly runs into Cindy Down-On-Her-Luck.

3. The people are always quick to share what's wrong with the company. Again - really? It's not something I'd blurt out on someone's first day in front of camera crews.

I'm sure there are other reasons. The show is entertaining but call me spoiled and jaded half the time the CEO's "help" for these people is a little weak.

For example:

1. I saw White Castle's episode last night so it's sticking out. But the CEO started a wellness program because one of the employees had a hard time losing weight and thought she was going to have a heart attack and die. All nice and good but to me a wellness program sounds like a manual or a brochure you'll get twice a year and a email reminder once a year that you should exercise. Lame. (Although I don't know White Castle's program - maybe it's amazing, like free gym memberships, I don't know).

Here's another hard to believe element. The CEO of Hooters went undercover a few weeks ago. He didn't realize that some people thought Hooters was degrading to women.... Really?? You have girls walking around in tight clothes, short shorts and your restaurant is called Hooters - I don't think you're talking about the Owl. Let's be honest for a second and you knew full well that Hooters is degrading and you don't care but want to seem like a nice family guy so you're like "oh really?"

Or the 7/11 CEO who was surprised when a store clerk said there was no where to go in the company. I mean come on half these people are there to hold them over until they finish school, find something else, etc. I'm not sure many people say hmmm I really want to work at a 7/11 store my whole life. I don't think there's anything wrong with it if you do but I'm just thinking most people say I want to be a doctor or a lawyer...

I will say the show is entertaining. It's interesting to me that some of the CEO's come across as complete idiots and you have to wonder how the hell did they get that job. To be fair maybe they weren't trained well at entry level positions but... I'm just saying if I was CEO of XYZ Company - I'd make damn sure I sounded eloquent and looked intelligent on TV.

Also interesting - the behind the scene's (although scripted) look at the company's.

Final verdict - worth checking out if you have nothing else to do.