Undercover Douche Bag

Undercover Boss's first boss Larry O'Donnell (Photo: CBS)

Ok Ok Ok, so yeah, I know the official title of this new CBS reality show is Undercover Boss, but geez welcome to reality my friends.  If ever a show were to come along and open up the eyes of the American public to what makes the corporate world tick, this will be it.

The show is based on a simple premise in which the producers scrounge up some attention seeking corporate bosses looking for some free publicity and let them spend a week working in the trenches of their companies anonymously.  The first episode which premiered directly after Superbowl 44 while somewhat entertaining really only amounts to CBS publicizing a a few companies who hop on the bandwagon hoping to win over a few customers without spending a cent on advertising!  A deeper look at the show brings forward some questions though which may strike some as curiously frustrating.

We spend an hour or so watching this fellow who is the Chief Operations Officer for Waste Management, Larry O’Donnell.  He’s obviously blessed financially also having a wonderful wife, son and daughter.  The shining star in this fellows eye is his daughter.  His daughter suffered brain damage when basically a doctor failed to follow procedure.  He obviously cares for his daughter Linley.  His wife is stunning and his son plays golf. His son’s golf budget is probably more then the average family of three’s grocery budget.  But Hey, whatever, this is great TV that us Americans have grown to love…  Eh?  Anyways, another thing which strikes a sour chord is the actual douche bag himself.  This guy is obviously socially awkward with hardly a clue how to interact with the real people who work in the trenches of his company.  He acts stiff in both his movements and his obviously carefully chosen words.  You would think someone who is obviously choosing his words while being mindful of the legal implications could at come up with some good quality banter.  However this douche is boring, annoying, and reminiscent of that semi smart kid that used to hang out with the bullies in high school to ensure they at least got their diplomas.  However now he’s making decisions that affect the lives of his employees and the direction of his company.

The show follows Larry around while he goes undercover using the name Randy Lawrence and poses as a new employee being instructed upon the job by various low level managers.  At times it feels like these folks knew this guy Randy was something more then an entry level employee.  Who could have guessed with a production crew following him around and his stuffy mannerisms?  Larry did have a few graceful moments, sharing dinner with a young lady, Jaclyn, who obviously busted her butt for his company basically running a whole facility by herself.  He rode around on a garbage truck, picked up litter, and played around in a porta potty.  Many times these various activities bordered on getting interesting but for the most part it was obvious that Larry was more worried about his image as COO being on TV then about getting dirty with the troops.  Ahh well.  Glaringly obvious that this show is not much more then free advertising and that this first boss just shows America that it really doesn’t take much to run the largest garbage company in America.

All this time I was thinking it took something special to run a multi-billion dollar company.  Obviously  I have been mistaken and realize now it must all come down to just being in the right place at the right time.  Perhaps he was just playing dumb for the cameras…  Perhaps…

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