Corporate honchos mingle with peons in phony ‘Undercover Boss’

Published 3:20 pm Thursday, February 4, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. — CBS’s “Undercover Boss” is the ultimate in false uplift reality shows. Call it “Extreme Makeover: Corporate Edition.”

Premiering tonight after the Super Bowl (approximately 7 p.m.), this faux feel-good series sends corporate titans “undercover” to work the lowliest jobs in their companies.

In the premiere, Waste Management Inc. President Larry O’Donnell III poses as a garbage collector, works in a recycling facility and picks up trash around a landfill. Company employees are told he’s a new employee being followed by a documentary film crew.

Any camera crew present is liable to have an employee on his or her best behavior, so the notion that these bosses see normal behavior is immediately suspect.

When an employee invites O’Donnell, who is essentially a stranger she’s just met, over for dinner after working together for one day, viewers will be excused if they scream, “Oh, come on!”

O’Donnell does seem to gain some insights into how his company runs and the impact of his decisions. The woman who trains him at the recycling facility jumps up during lunch and runs down a hallway to punch a time clock, much to O’Donnell’s dismay. Turns out there was a miscommunication and, at the end of the episode, O’Donnell calls in a plant manager to set things right.

The end of the show creates the most eye-rolling as O’Donnell calls all the employees he’s met into corporate headquarters, and reveals his true identity and rewards some with promotions, raises and appreciation for their hard work.

“I’m gonna be a different manager because now I have a whole new appreciation for the impact some of my decisions can have on you folks,” O’Donnell tells his employees.

Although it seems like more than a few employees benefited from O’Donnell’s participation, if it got company managers to rethink policies that did not allow bathroom breaks for trash collectors, the show seems largely designed to paint companies in a mostly positive light. Sure, they make a few mistakes, but thanks to “Undercover Boss” everything will be rectified.

At a CBS press conference last month, “Boss” executive producer Stephen Lambert said companies are not paid and do not get a say in editing. But the show’s producers and the companies have an understanding that this is a mutually beneficial endeavor that’s not designed to make companies, including Hooters, 7-Eleven and White Castle in upcoming episodes, look bad. No one gets fired because of what’s captured by the cameras.