Are fake hair and glasses enough to fool employees? Donning a disguise to escape recognition, wealthy corporate executives go undercover in hopes of gaining new insights into the underpinnings of their companies. Maintaining the facade regarding the camera crew, involves the explanation that two individuals are in competition for the same job. Lively, personable, and with some related association to the boss or hardship, are those employees lucky enough to have been chosen to work with the undercover boss. Undercover bosses jump right into mainly entry-level positions entertaining the audience with the their lack of skills, and in some cases impatience with the job tasks, but overall admiration for those employees who are in a sense crucial …show more content…
Private country club memberships, driving around in expensive cars, dressed in designer suits, and living in million dollar homes, adds to the distinction to the haves and the have nots. Scott Sibella, COO, President of MGM Grand in Las Vegas, “is shown playing golf, and parked outside his luxury home that includes a basketball court and swimming pool is a fiery red Maserati” (MGM Grand). The perks of being senior management include lavish offices, and traveling by company private jets that assures them that they will not mingle with the common folk. Belfor’s CEO, Sheldon Yellon, “climbs aboard his private jet, and as he prepares for his undercover mission, is shown trying to pick out clothes amongst his closetful of Italian designer suits, and shoes that would rival Imelda Marcos” (Belfor). CEO’s of major corporations isolate themselves by rarely having any direct contact with entry-level workers, and an employee at this level would not be able to contact them directly. The pay disparity between CEOs and workers, according to Roberto Ferdman of The Washington Post, “is much worse than you realize. Americans believe CEOs make roughly 30 times what the average worker makes in the U.S., when in actuality they are making more than 350 times the average worker” (Ferdman). Corporate executives are living the American dream often at the …show more content…
Corporate executives have little knowledge or understanding of the skills needed to do the job of underlings. Unfortunately, at times of layoffs or cutbacks, low-wage employees are often targeted first to be let go, and rarely do corporate executives get the axe. CEO’s not only receive a substantial salary, but are rewarded monetarily through stock options, incentives, or bonuses. Unsalaried employees who have been with the company ten, twenty, thirty years, what do they get? Perhaps a gold-plated engraved clock, gift certificate, or item valued on average for $50. Heartwarming scenes of the lucky chosen employees receiving rewards that will help them pay for school, advance within the company, and show the boss’s involvement in giving back to the community is bound to create the emotional feel good moment. This is the entire appeal of the show, because according to George Gerbner, “television is entertainment because it is predicated upon giving some kind of apparent reward all the time” (Petracca 119). The audience can escape into the illusion that corporate executives really do give a