Does Undercover Boss have an Underlying Motive?

Perhaps you’ve caught this new show on CBS that takes corporate CEO’s and has them go “undercover” in their own companies to hear the perspective of workers and learn about the business “from below.” In Undercover Boss, the corporate execs take on a new name, perhaps adjust their appearance, and pose as a potential new worker within their own company. They go through the different departments of their company and are taken under wing by a low-wage worker who shows them the ropes.

After watching a couple of episodes, you quickly pick up the pattern of the show. Corporate exec goes “down” to the worker bees curious about how to make his [and yes "his" was intentional] company better. Dedicated and hardworking employees mentor the “undercover boss” and in the process a relationship is formed [right on cue with the sentimental music]. The “boss” learns that the job “down below” isn’t so easy and is portrayed as clumsily and inefficiently trying to keep up. Then, “boss” encounters one of his employees having some type of hardship and they “risk” blowing their cover by running off to the car and making a phone call to help them. Finally, the climax is reached with the “boss” bringing the worker bees up to Corporate Office and revealing his true identity. Shock then sentimental moments ensue with the “boss” promising to help the worker bees advance in the company and in their personal lives. A big corporate rally closes out the show with the “boss” telling a hall full of employees what he has done and promising to be more sensitive to the needs of workers. The workers cheer and the credits roll.

This show does wonders in profiling corporate executives as beneficent, unselfish, and altruistic humanitarians. Not only does it project executives in an immensely favorable light, but it also lauds corporations and propagates the “Boss-worker” paradigm. It shows workers – skilled, passionate, affable workers who may have some minor gripes about the company, but ultimately are portrayed as being appreciative almost to the point of reverential to the corporate entity by the end of the show.

My critiques of the show are many:

1. So far it is a glaring indictment on the lack of diversity within “Corporate America.” The boardroom meetings with the “boss” are overwhelming White and male. The worker bees are overwhelmingly Non-white and female.

2. The show perpetuates paternalism by showing the White, male executive saving the day for a “helpless” worker who apparently got into a bad predicament on their own with no influence from outside factors. (I’m thinking of the female worker in the first episode whose house was about to be foreclosed on because she wasn’t making enough to pay her mortgage and the “undercover boss” in a charitable act paid it with no real analysis of how unjust wages from his company probably impact thousands more on his payroll.)

3. Given all of the heat that corporate executives have received (and rightly so) in relation to this so-called “global economic crisis” and recession, this is a perfect show to clean up the corporate image. Because of the greed of many corporate executives, many people are struggling right now to make ends meet. (Where is the show about greedy executives and unjust corporations? Oh, I forgot. That’s the show we’re living in!)

This “television sitcom” just might amount to being a well-financed public relations campaign launched to support the status quo and existing power structure at a time when many people are considering other ways of “being” in the world. (More people are looking at co-operatives like the Cleveland Food Co-op, Red Emmas Bookstore in Baltimore, and mutual aid initiatives like Common Security Clubs.) Presented as being serendipitous, I posit that “Undercover Boss” is really intentional and strategic. It is in direct opposition to the people’s history of corporations presented by the late Howard Zinn in his book, A People’s History of the United States and intrinsically undermines the efforts of Human Rights groups like United Workers in Baltimore and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida – both being labor-rights organizations led by poor workers.

Watch the show if you want, but as you’re watching hear the words of Gil Scott Heron as he reminds us that The Revolution will NOT be televised!

Be clear that you’re watching a dramatic press release scripted to the hilt to support the current power dynamic in this country. The Supreme Court recently gave Corporations the right to continue unjustly influencing national politics, but now to a greater degree and CBS – with this show – has given Corporations greater ability to influence your mind. So far it’s a great year to be a Corporation.

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Tags: CBS, Gil Scott Heron, Howard Zinn, People's History, television, Undercover Boss