We used to joke that we could never get Doug on this show because he’d probably had a beer with everybody in the company at some point! When presented with a list of several hundred employees who might be impacted (we had roughly 4,000 employees), CEO Doug Garn literally knew every employee on the list and insisted on ways to lessen the impact.
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At Quest Software for example, we were exploring the possibility of some painful layoffs, not something people wanted to do. I’ve been fortunate enough to work for CEOs who are fully engaged with their employees. And this is something you want to spotlight on national TV? This is a textbook example of a company failing in almost every tenet of effective leadership communication. The rank and file must be so unfamiliar with the CEO that no one recognizes him or her through the cheezy disguise.
The entire premise for appearing on this show only works if the company of which the CEO is the steward, is a pretty awful place to work, or at the very least has awful communications from the CEO.
Nauseatingly bad TV, but worse, corporate leadership. And then it’s topped off with a truly pathetic “Queen for a Day” like segment where after an identity reveal, a couple of down-on-their-luck yet earnest employees are bestowed some life-changing gesture by the CEO, cameras rolling, everyone cries, hugs all around, CEO returns home a changed person and cut to closing credits and tease for next episode.Īwful.
Through the course of the show they have a multitude of epiphanies about how hard life is for their workers and changes that need to be made (had they only known!). They then are put in a disguise that if anyone knew them would fool no one. CEO then leaves his or her big house and adoring family to go check into – gasp – a low end hotel / motel where presumably they’ll be more in touch with how their employees live. If you’re like me, you’ve just rolled your eyes to the back of your head.Įach show follows a predictable pattern. If you haven’t seen the weekly CBS show Undercover Boss it is, as you would guess, a show about how CEOs (or similarly high level leaders) of companies disguise themselves to go out and interact with the rank and file of their company to learn more than they ever could from their corner office. So, I was originally going to title this post “If You’re a PR Person and You Get Your CEO on Undercover Boss, You Should be FIRED!” But then I thought, the sort of company that would think it a good idea to have its CEO on Undercover Boss probably deserves the PR they get and so it’s a good fit. One of the best things about my job, working at Persistent Systems, is I work for a CEO who can never, ever appear on the CBS show “Undercover Boss.” Whew! More on that below.
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