Undercover Boss Article

I like watching the show "Undercover Boss" to experience the sort of "behind the scenes" of the business and also how managers handle situations.

One frustrating thing that I find is when the CEO says "I have never been to our factory" or "After being CEO for 15 years, I am working the front line for the first time ever". Really? So you are making decisions about processes and procedures and you have never even worked in that area.

My belief is that every CEO should be out there visiting their locations, job shadowing some of the employees and most importantly listening to their employees. I can understand when changes are made why employees say "people that are making these changes have no idea".

During the pandemic, I was seated at a restaurant next to a couple who were discussing their work.  They were school bus drivers, talking about the fact that a committee had been formed to decide how the bus company should move forward with COVID restrictions, safety precautions, rerouting schedules, etc.  Both employees were discussing that the committee was comprised of executives and their boss, none of which had ever driven a bus and most likely had never been on a bus, yet they were making decisions about the buses.
 
The two continued to throw out some outstanding ideas on how to move forward.  They also knew of some of the decisions that had been previously made and discussed some very valid points on how those ideas would not work.  On example that made me laugh was the fact that a bus would arrive at 12:10 p.m. to a new school, after dropping off the first round of kinds.  They had exactly two minutes (120 seconds) to sanitize every single seat and every touchable place on the bus before the next round of students boarded.  

Between the two bus drivers, they brainstormed three great ideas on how to sanitize the buses and meet the schedule.  Sadly, management will never hear their ideas – because they never asked the right people.  
 
If you are a CEO (or even a manager), be sure that you have a pulse of the company by actually experiencing it. It will help your customer service and also your overall employee morale.

Dawn Mushill
CEO
Customer Service and Beyond