Undercover Boss: Where Reality TV Intersects with the Workplace
Summary
Undercover Boss, is a reality television series that places the CEO’s or Presidents of businesses in entry-level positions to work alongside unwary lower-level employees. These clients usually contact us in reaction to recent incidents, such as discovering an Operations Manager has been embezzling tens of thousands of dollars through phony vendors, or because an employee working while impaired by crystal methamphetamine caused a workplace accident resulting in a death or injury. When conducting a Workplace Evaluation, one of our main objectives is to assist our client in identifying the strengths and weaknesses in management’s current implementation and governance of employee policies and job assignments. This episode also served as a great example of why Workplace Evaluations are best left to professionals: Jim McCann, CEO and founder of 1-800-Flowers, was deemed too high-profile to work undercover, due to his appearances in television commercials for 1-800-Flowers. To prevent that, we work with our clients to assess workforce demographics and to select an Operative best suited to “fit in” to obtain the most accurate picture of daily activities in a specific department or position.