Clueless at the Top

Have you ever watched the show, “Undercover Boss”?

I have and it’s quite interesting. Although considering how many people like myself are unemployed, I can certainly understand why CEOs are not our favorite class of people nowadays.

The premise of the show is that a CEO of a major corporation puts on a disguise and works with the underclass of the organization for a week.

During their journey, they are shocked, shocked to find that these people actually work very hard for what are probably pretty crappy salaries. They also seemed surprised to find that these peons are intelligent are caring.

Of course, the CEOs come off as caring as well. But then I don’t think any company president would go on a TV show that made him or her look like a jerk.

Overall, the CEOs seem benevolent but clueless. Yes, there are times when they have to smack down an employee (they are the boss, after all) for doing something pretty outrageous. I have no problem with that. Other times, the employee lacked good intra-personal skills and just required some counseling from HR about how to get along with co-workers.

Yet from the few times I have watched it, I get the impression that the employees are simply following orders that have come down from the corporate office. When the CEO sees the procedures being implementing improperly, he takes it out on the employee. Why is that so when that person is simply following company mandates?

Admittedly, in some instances, the CEO realizes this and decides to change the policies. If there is any academic lesson that comes out of this show is that CEOs should get an idea of how their programs are being implementing at the ground level. What may seem like a great idea in the board room may not be so great when put in actual practice. Perhaps the procedure needs to be changed, not the employee.

In several of the shows I watched, the CEO has actually gone to an employee’s home and met that person’s family who are barely making ends meet. Or an employee tells them they have a disabled child.

Knowing that, I would ask a CEO this: After you have seen how these people are struggling and now that you know them personally—they are not just a name on a sheet of paper—how could you lay off anyone?