I was forced to watch Undercover Boss and that is some creepy, benevolent dictator shit...

[Gravitycollapse]

Let's disregard, momentarily at least, how problematic it is that the president of the Utah Jazz chose to dress up like a bearded fat person and then act lazy and out of shape.

Just consider how his interactions with employees are a massive violation of privacy and trust, both as the head of a business as well as a human being. Then realize how he "gifts" 20 or 30 thousand dollars to a few of his victims at the end of the show and we're all expected to shed tears for his sacrifice, resolve and humanity. His enterprise is worth 525 million dollars, for God's sake.

I tried not to complain about it as I was with my family and they already see me as a political oddball. But, seriously, who comes up this crap?

[ohheckyeah]

1. I hate that show...

it's nothing but propaganda.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

2. Forced?

What happened? Someone go all Clockwork Orange on you?

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[MADem]

3. Noblesse Oblige, ain't it? In such a smarmy and condescending way, too~!

All it needs are ignorant, bent-over serfs clutching their caps and tugging at their forelocks, small dirty-faced children saying "Please sir may I have another," and servants on their knees sobbing over the few farthings that the lord has tossed their way.

It's very formulaic and it gets stale in a hurry. One cannot help but notice the difference between the lives of the serfs...ooops, I mean employees, and the lives of the rich bastards, who are usually shown with their families trying on their "disguises" (worst frigging disguises in the world, too--the first Godzilla rubber suit looked more realistic than some of those plastic wigs/staches) in intensely luxurious homes with fine furnishings, expensive cars, pools, million dollar landscaping, etc.

[laundry_queen]

5. I agree with your assessment

As for the OP - that's a good episode you saw. I cannot tell you how many episodes where all they get is a gift card to their favorite restaurant, or a cheap 3-day trip they've never been able to afford because of their crappy wages or some promise for a loan so they can open up a new franchise of their own. Really selfish petty 'bootstrap' bs. You can tell some of them don't want to give toooo much, because, well, that might make the workers LAZY or something. As they retire to their estate, maids, cooks, gardeners, drivers and so on.

[GoCubsGo]

25. Yup.

The only episode I ever watched was the one with Tom Ricketts, owner of the Cubs. All this faux, "I didn't realize I was treating these people like shit. Here let me make things better." It was nauseating, especially when one realizes that there were probably many dozens of other employees who had it just as bad, but aren't going to see any change. Ricketts only did the show to try to make himself look good ahead of his attempts at extorting tax payer dollars for Wrigley Field renovations. I have little doubt he doesn't give a shit about the peons that work at his ball park. I just want to puke every time I realize this crooked, phoney shitbag owns my beloved Cubs.

[SCUBANOW]

4. I did not see the episode your talking about but I do like the show.

[shaayecanaan]

6. That bit at the end...

where the plebs file in before the boss and he says: "uh, I was really, uh, moved by your story about how you lost 4 kids in Iraq and then your house got repossessed so you had to come work for minimum wage, so I bought you a laptop". Bring back the guillotine, I say.

[Niceguy1]

7. its a good show

And I like the idea the good employees are recognized and rewarded.

[LibDemAlways]

8. Lately I can't even watch talk shows. A bunch of

overpaid spoiled actor types yucking it up and hyping movies for which they've already pocketed millions. And the peons in the audience clap approval like trained seals.

Have to agree that Undercover Boss is repulsive, too. A rich guy who pays his employees squat tosses crumbs at a few of them, and they're expected to shed tears of gratitude in return. Total BS.

[Exposethefrauds]

9. Please elaborate on how you were forced to watch a TV show

What prevented you from leaving the area where the TV was on?

Were you tied up, locked up in a cell or room you could not leave, held captive at gun or knife point?

[Blue_Tires]

16. It happens all the time

You ever visit family or friends with very different TV tastes than you? And you can't be "that guy" who visits for the first time in awhile and instantly requests your host change the channel of their favorite show...

[Populist_Prole]

19. I know what you mean

It's those captive audience situations that are really the only time I really "watch" prime-time shows or fox/cnn news. It is those few times that being exposed to that crap that underscore my feeling that 99 percent of TV is garbage.

[Exposethefrauds]

33. No it does not happen to me all the time. If the friend or family would rather watch TV

and I do not I will leave and go do something else and visit when they would rather not watch TV.

[Blue_Tires]

34. I didn't say it happens to YOU all the time...

But it isn't an unheard-of occurrence for me and everyone I've ever known...

[Gravitycollapse]

37. I bet you're really fun around the holidays with that attitude.

Loving your family means striking compromise when ideologies come into conflict. It doesn't mean giving into the other side. It means choosing your battles wisely rather than being an asshole to your loved ones at every turn.

[liberalhistorian]

28. Way to miss the whole

point about what the OP is saying. Sheesh.

[Gravitycollapse]

36. I ignored this post but you didn't get the hint...

Now your other post is hidden. As others have said, being forced to watch something is not a literal reference. People use language in interesting ways all the time without imposing a literal meaning.

I had to watch the show because I was at my family's house. See, I like my family and, unlike the self-absorbed pricks of the world, I don't feel like instituting some sort of ethical battle over a stupid TV show. I'd rather just let them watch what they want.

[Blanks]

10. I wonder why the employees never wonder...

Why the camera crew are looking at them. The company hired shlumpy and there's always a camera crew following him around - filming your reactions.

Seems fishy to me.

I've been forced to watch it to...

...well sort of - it was on and the remote wasn't close.

[LibDemAlways]

14. They supposedly tell the employees

that they are making a training film featuring a new employee - the boss in disguise. That line may have worked at first, but I'm sure by now the employees either catch on quickly or know all along. It's obvious the show does a ton of research in advance and hones in on people with good back stories.

[elehhhhna]

18. now they tell em it's a contest and only one of the contestan ts win a job

or something.

Only an idiot wouldn't know better tho'. They use employees with sad backstories for each segment.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. In this economy, who doesn't have a sad backstory?

It can't be too hard to find people who could really use a lot better paying job or are seriously in debt or both.

[justice1]

22. It's all set up

I have a friend that works at Oriental Trading, a few episodes had already aired, so they figured out what was going on. Only people specifically chosen, were allowed to talk. It's nothing but an hour long infomercial for lousy companies.

[Blanks]

24. It's probably in the "rewarded employee's" best interest...

To just tell their sob story and pretend they don't see the camera.

[joshcryer]

11. Diamond Resorts

[Shankapotomus]

12. It's basically one long infomercial

disguised as a reality show.

[Blanks]

20. Poorly disguised. eom

[uponit7771]

23. +1

[Shankapotomus]

13. P.S.

I wouldn't be surprised if each company was even paying to be featured on the show.

[treestar]

15. It is like the Latin American dictators

Peron used to meet with people and give them things like refrigerators. Being very nice. So people liked him even though it's not very effective to help a few people here and there. But it gives him good press.

These people catch their employees doing a good job and reward them, but then it's not quite fair to other employees he didn't happen to interact with who could be doing a good job, too. Sometimes the rewards seem to be over the top.

[SalviaBlue]

17. Thanks for confirming that my instincts were right.

Just the commercials for the show creeped me out. I plan on never watching.

[onethatcares]

21. it's all a bunch of horse puckey,

no disrespect to horse puckey meant.

have they done one for duck dynasty yet?.

cripey, they're all bushshit. but the one about the west virginia hillbillies chasing monsters in the dark is great.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

26. No kidding. I saw that once, an episode with some pest company.

('Ortho? Terminix? Some company that went around to people's homes.)

The guy came in, found out that his people worked hard and were paid crap, and had life expenses far beyond what their pay would let them afford, so he gifted them about the same amount you mention, in the 20-30k range, once, rather than saying to himself 'Gee, maybe we should pay our employees better, and our stockholders not quite so well'. So yeah, great for the one or two people he helped, but how about the thousands of other employees, no doubt in roughly similar situations. I don't expect they all got 25k Christmas bonuses.

The show strikes me as poorly done propaganda for management and capitalism. With that old 'your problems can be solved by charity, not the government' crapola that RW'ers love so much.

[liberalhistorian]

29. I remember watching it once

when it was one of the high mucky-mucks for a certain upscale "healthier" fast food restaurant that has two names, the initials of which are B and M, and it was truly sickening. One employee who was being treated like shit, and being paid shit wages for the privilege, finally had enough and lost it and didn't quite serve the customers to the hidden boss's satisfaction and didn't quite display an attitude of sufficient enough servitude and gratitude. So he was taken out back to the woodshed by the "boss" who revealed her true identity to him, quietly of course (and swearing him to secrecy) and given a lecture on how he needed to improve said gratitude for said servitude and he would need to do that for all other jobs, it didn't matter what he thought about how things were being run or how he was treated, etc., etc. In other words, he needed to be a good little doggie and sit down and shut up. She made clear he understood what an "opportunity" he'd passed up. She then talked to the manager and made clear she expected the kid to be gone, fired, by the time she arrived there the next morning. All the while never, ever addressing the poor kid's very legitimate concerns.

For the other employees that she did "reward", the expectation that they give 150% to the job that treated and paid them so poorly was really sickening. One guy had been given a "second chance" after getting out of jail and was "thrilled" to be doing his best for the company; she kept repeatedly asking him "and you're very grateful to them, right"? Gah.

It's all about pumping up greedy company fat cats, improving their image, and making it seem as if they give a flying fuck about employees and fair working conditions when they really don't. It's also all about molding compliant, toady, syncophantic workers who will sit down and shut up and take whatever crumbs that are thrown to them. Disgusting.

[rhett o rick]

30. That show is fake. nm

[hatrack]

31. It's not just that it's phony fucked-up bullshit - that's just TV being TV . . .

It's the degree to which this particular show amounts to a spoonful of smarmy, condescending, shallow and self-serving glycerine, daubed on the bullshit to make it seem fresh and shiny-looking.

Even in a nauseating world of "reality television" - the greatest oxymoron in history, BTW - this show is a true digital emetic.

[Sunlei]

35. used to be good, the first season now the entire world knows un.cover boss and its a set-up & silly

[nilesobek]

38. I was "shadowed," while at work at

my graveyard cashier job by a member of upper management. (probably, she was just mid to low level management with a haughty attitude).

She did not reveal herself until nearly the end of my shift. Because there are fifty cameras and audio surveillance there I cannot even scratch my ass without being filmed. Its like a minor league acting gig.

I was instantly suspicious of my "shadow." There were lots of mundane questions about coffee urns, ice cream machines and what not. I was thinking to myself, "who is this really?"

It all worked out good because I'm doing a good job over there but its a little disconcerting to be monitored in such a way. There's a creepy factor there.

I agree with the OP. Those victims of Undercover Boss should get 20-30k just for the acting job to appear on tv.