Thoughts on Undercover Boss??

[Trip]

Well I loved Sylvia, her honesty was right out there..good for her..... Loved Michael...how did I miss him on board? Kevin seemed so overwhelmed, at everything..just like I would I did love O'Sheehans Bar on the Epic...great food...Looks like he was staying in the Solo Cabins.

Comments.....

[Marc]

I was a bit surprised that Kevin Sheehan seemed to have trouble with every jobs and seemed to complain that each of the jobs was hard. Still, it was good to see a bit of the Epic.

[venice]

I applaud him for his efforts and although it was stagedI believe he will now ask that extra question at his senior level meetings to address how a decision will affect his frontline employees

[skymaster]

I taped it, and haven't watched it yet, but I'll "chime in" and let you know what I thought later. Look forward to viewing it this afternoon.

"SKY"

[Donna]

I also dvr'd it and will watch it as soon as I can....

[rollerdonna]

Whether it was staged or not, I thought Kevin gained some valuable information from his frontline employees, and applaud his willingness to go undercover and try out the "grunt" jobs on board.
The ice rink fiasco was most interesting, and he did the right thing.
He also had an exemplary staff and rewarded them accordingly. I sure wish Michael and Jess had been on the entertainment team on Miracle, we might have had a better time!

donna

[Donna]

Ok, I just watched it and found it to be so entertaining, just too bad his cover got blown, but he made the best of it. I just wish more corporate people would do more of this kind of work before the implement changes, etc.

[ruthlessboss]

Originally Posted by Marc

I was a bit surprised that Kevin Sheehan seemed to have trouble with every jobs and seemed to complain that each of the jobs was hard. Still, it was good to see a bit of the Epic.

I don't know if it was actual complaining as much as he didn't realize the intensity of the jobs. Don't forget, he's used to pushing a pencil around and exercise involves sitting at board meetings!

[Kuki]

Originally Posted by Marc

I was a bit surprised that Kevin Sheehan seemed to have trouble with every jobs and seemed to complain that each of the jobs was hard. Still, it was good to see a bit of the Epic.

Having done and wrote a series of "day on the job" articles, I can tell you the work is hard. Try carrying a tray full of full dishes, or dirty dishes and cutlery up and down those escalators; it's tough! I also worked a butler, and that day I must have put 20 miles on, running from one end of the ship to another for various tasks. If like me you can't dance, it's nerve wracking just thinking of working one of those events.

I'd have liked to see him deal Blackjack in the casino as I did. I have the cards flying everywhere

He was limited in the jobs he could attempt because many departments are concessions.

That "ice skating" thing was a joke. Surprised no one noticed that before now. Sure that question was asked in the board room afterwards

[Snoozeman]

I too think most was staged. Interesting, but I think it shows how detached he is with many of the important day to day jobs his employees have. The ice skating fiasco is an example of a lack of information passing from the front line to the top. If NCL was a public company, I wouldn't own any of it.

Kuki--looks like a blog entry for you-you could again mention the day to day tasks using the show as an example.

[canuckity]

I enjoyed the program and was happy to see some of the Epic. What would have made it more interesting for me would have been Kevin spending some time on the Dawn since we have cruised on it three times. Also, interesting to note that there was no promotion for the blue collar worker- I forget his name- but the rewards for his family were very nice.

[Lakers Fan]

Staged with 100% certainty .

[venice]

I would love to be a fly on the wall at his next senior level staff meeting..I'm sure the manager that signed off for the ice skating rink has some "xplaining" to do

Kevin's adventure sends a very powerful message to his frontline employees on NCL's ships of how much he values their efforts ...he is saying his job (and every corporate type) role is to serve the customer (the frontline employee) who in turn, serves the paying guest and he wants to set the climate to reward efforts that are largely unseen by the management team on the ships

bet the NCL employees fleetwide are feeling pretty good today and his counterparts of his competitors will be doing the same thing in the near future

[venice]

one of the many reasons why Southwest Airlines is such a success is they have a culture where there senior leaders have come up thru the ranks and on a regular basis they work along side their frontline employees to keep the pulse

[Lakers Fan]

I think he wanted us the viewer to see him as an "everyman." He drove his own car as opposed to having a driver . He chose the maintenance crew as his first task.He came across as a genuine person .

[katlady]

Okay here is my opinion for what it worth.

The whole thing is staged. From the ships they picked, the way it was filmed, even the ice skating fiasco. Epic is NCL biggest ship they are watching it like a hawk. Of course they knew the ice skating thing wasn't working. But if the CEO goes in a makes the change to help out his workers isn't he a "nice guy." Bull pucky the ice skating "rink" is time consuming and doesn't generate revenue. NCL will move these employees to a more profitable activity like bingo. It was a done deal before the CEO walked onto that ship. It was only done on the Show for the PR boost.

Also Pride of America was the first ship on the show. It's interesting to note his jobs on this ship all involved a view of Hawaii. Also a "co worker" who enjoyed the job because of the wonderful places he got to visit like Hawaii. Again bull pucky NCL had 3 ships in Hawaii and had to remove two because they were not profitable. The 7 day Hawaiian cruises are expensive. These cruises have a bad reputation due to service issues with the all american crew. So why not show Hawaii on TV and try to get more and new cruisers on this ship. Hawaii is beautiful and 80 degrees year round. But at over $1000 per person it is not the best value in a vacation. This being a recession more people are looking at the price of thing then ever before.

I do believe a few of the employees didn't know the CEO was coming on board like Sylvia. But I don't believe the show changed anything about how NCL is run. Or how the CEO sees his company. It was just a big commerical for the cruise line. That's my two cents worth.:-D Feel free to disagree with me; I'm fine with that.

[Mike M]

Here is what I wrote on the NCL board:

As David said in an earlier post, I was completely underwhelmed. The show, Undercover Boss, is really nothing more than a PR vehicle for companies and I bet they have a long waiting list of companies that want to be part of the show.

I have watched four or five episodes and the formula is getting old. This episode was probably one of the weakest. It was nothing like the old PBS series, "Back to the Floor" when Bob Dickinson performed crew jobs. This was a puff piece for NCL and geared toward getting people on their ship in Hawaii and on board the Epic. The liability waiver thing was as staged as it could be. I STRONGLY believe that they knew that the ice rink and liability waivers were going to be eliminated and revised and chose those two things to show that "they were changing things."

I did have an issue with the fact that the majority of people that Sheehan worked with were American's, when the vast majority of the fleet's crew are non-American's and that he did not stay in the crew quarters. The cabin he was in was an inside cabin.

The interesting thing was when the woman who worked with him on the ice rink (Karen) said: "People aren't coming back to Epic." It was a quick blurb but they left it in.

With the amount of message board, Facebook and Twitter activity on this subject I can tell NCL is happy that they got this sixty minute commercial and they're going to milk it dry.

Undercover Boss has been eliminated from my DVR recording schedule.

Take care,
Mike

[Wando]

Originally Posted by Mike M

Here is what I wrote on the NCL board:

As David said in an earlier post, I was completely underwhelmed. The show, Undercover Boss, is really nothing more than a PR vehicle for companies and I bet they have a long waiting list of companies that want to be part of the show.

I have watched four or five episodes and the formula is getting old. This episode was probably one of the weakest. It was nothing like the old PBS series, "Back to the Floor" when Bob Dickinson performed crew jobs. This was a puff piece for NCL and geared toward getting people on their ship in Hawaii and on board the Epic. The liability waiver thing was as staged as it could be. I STRONGLY believe that they knew that the ice rink and liability waivers were going to be eliminated and revised and chose those two things to show that "they were changing things."

I did have an issue with the fact that the majority of people that Sheehan worked with were American's, when the vast majority of the fleet's crew are non-American's and that he did not stay in the crew quarters. The cabin he was in was an inside cabin.

The interesting thing was when the woman who worked with him on the ice rink (Karen) said: "People aren't coming back to Epic." It was a quick blurb but they left it in.

With the amount of message board, Facebook and Twitter activity on this subject I can tell NCL is happy that they got this sixty minute commercial and they're going to milk it dry.

Undercover Boss has been eliminated from my DVR recording schedule.

Take care,
Mike

Actually that comment about people not coming back to the Epic, I'm wondering if she really meant they weren't coming back to the climbing or repelling wall due to the paperwork? Isn't it a bit too soon to judge whether people will be returning to the Epic since it has only been since July that she was in service and most people can only afford one maybe two cruises per year?

[MercedMike]

OMG -- you really think it was staged? You really think NCL regarded it as a publicity gimmick? You really think they designed many of the shots to showcase their ships? You really believe that it was guided by commercial considerations and not the desire to make a pure and true work of art?? How jaded and hardened by our modern society you must be ...

Nevertheless it had some interesting moments. The most unbelievable thing about it is that a professional CEO would make on the spot decisions as they portrayed him doing.

I feel sure that each employee he was assigned to had been hand picked at his request as one who was ready for promotion and deserved to be rewarded. It is hard to believe that dancing with Michael one night would result in a corporate decision to promote him.

I am also sure that reports on the ice skating rink had been forwarded to corporate HQ many times by the CD on board and that the decision to yank it was only awaiting his approval in any case.

I certainly DO believe, however, that he was actually surprised by the difficulty of the tasks he performed. They never gave him a job of pushing papers out of the public view or chairing meetings, which is of course his field of expertise. Unless he maintains his own yacht I feel sure he has not chipped much paint recently. And the man CERTAINLY can't dance!!

Worth watching, entertaining, good publicity for NCL. Dont' imagine I will ever watch it again.

[Paul Motter]

NCL Undercover Boss - what did you think?

There was already a long thread about this in the NCL board above.

[Aerogirl]

I too have watched this program from the start of the series. From Hooters, Arlington Racetrack, Jonnie Rockets and so forth. I would say this was my least favorite episode. Mike your description of “weak” was spot on. However I did like that he discontinued the ice rink. I do have a new respect for our assistant waiters as their job looks beyond crazy and hard. I think the concept of the show was a great idea but I thought this episode missed the mark.

[Snoozeman]

Originally Posted by Paul Motter

NCL Undercover Boss - what did you think?

There was already a long thread about this in the NCL board above.

Actually Paul, this one was before the one you started. I noticed it when you first did yours and almost combined them at the time, but they were in different areas so I didn't.

[Paul Motter]

Okay - well take out the word "already". I just wanted people to know there is another thread, and I think the opinions over there are little more vociferous.

[Snoozeman]

Originally Posted by Paul Motter

Okay - well take out the word "already". I just wanted people to know there is another thread, and I think the opinions over there are little more vociferous.

I think you attract that sometimes!