After the Super Bowl Undercover Boss premiered on CBS. The show puts a Chief Executive Officer of a large company in the shoes of its employees. It was inspiring to watch how Waste Managements’ CEO posed as an entry-level worker, which explained the cameras being in tow.
I think every boss should work undercover for a taste of what they’re dishing out. Not that every boss is a bonehead, but everyone has been in a situation where you wondered if management left his or her heart in a lock box.
In today’s world, educated intellectuals and bean counters run everything and in the case of some industries these intellectuals have driven the business into the ground. Look at communications, when families and small business ran newspapers, radio and television networks, they existed on a comfortable profit margin. In some cases, barely profitable, but for many ma & pa businesses enough to survive.
Ten years ago intellectual zombies (bean counters) and consultants figured out consolidation, mergers and acquisitions and then proceeded to suck the life-blood out of a particular industry.
Over these years older costly writers and reporters were tossed out like an old newspaper. In comes the new younger, cheaper and prettier, it doesn’t matter that they have no world experience or gravitas, instead just look at the numbers.
There was a time in America when people moved up from the ranks, the quintessential “rags to riches” story. Chances were that the person in charge knew where the mailroom was and how to operate the Pitney-Bowes machine, not anymore.
The new show ignited an idea, what about local political leaders going undercover to see what people do and see the direct impact of their decisions.
For future Undercover Boss shows perhaps the following “bosses” would be excellent; these are the jobs they would hold:
Bob Congel – Works under cover as a contractor on one of his projects. He has to stay in the State Fair Motel and live off profits he’s due from the construction work his company’s completed. (That he hasn’t yet received).
Joannie Mahoney – Work as a non-essential Onondaga County employee.
Mayor Stephanie Miner – Fill in as the Superintendant of the Syracuse City School District. (That soon- to- be- heard screaming coming from her office is reality setting in.)
Ken Jackson, Editor of Urban CNY – DPW or Code Enforcement worker (I gotta rib on myself once in a while).
Former NYS Senate Leader- Joe Bruno – As an inmate for corruption.
Gov. Patterson – (fill in the blank, is there’s a scandal coming?)
What do you think? Wouldn’t you like to see your boss do your job? Let me know – reach me at urbanCNY.com.
Ken Jackson is a resident of the city of Syracuse and the editor of UrbanCNY News and urbancny.com
