For some reason, as cynical as I am, I enjoy watching this show about CEO’s and other bigwigs disguising themselves and going out among the company unwashed. Fact or fiction, it is amusing to see how incompetent the big guys are in the field

The first season was pretty dry. At the end they called in the 4-5 employees that were featured and gave them a pat on the back and told them what a bright future was ahead for them. Occasionally, they would do some little thing like fix the john in the employee restroom so they could stop crossing the street to use the restroom at McDonald’s.

In the second season they started giving donations to charities in the employee’s name and would sometimes send them on a nice vacation.

In the third season, (of course it varies a little from company to company), it is like winning the lottery. They do things like pay off the employee’s mortgage, pay for 2-3 children’s college education, and give them cash gifts of up to 50K.

Hard to believe a show like this has lasted 3 seasons on a major network. It is also rerun often on TLC and has spawned a “Undercover Boss Abroad” spin-off