First I want to thank everyone who commented or read my “Undercover Boss – Why?” blog. We had about 300 hits to the article!

We learned to no surprise that:

• Employees have a great deal of frustration.
• Employees don’t feel appreciated
• Employees want to work in a Team environment
• Employees are tired of the Golden Tower running things that it knows nothing about.
• Too many CEO’s have no knowledge of the day to day operations of their own companies

I belong to a number of groups on LinkedIn. The overwhelming majority of the comments were in support of the fact that too many Top Level Execs are out of touch with reality. I found it both interesting as well as disturbing that some of the top level folks still seem blind to their out of touch status. The philosophy of, “As long as I am making money and big bonuses all is right with the world,” still exists.

Here are some comments from the folks that actually do the jobs:

Kevin Bolles, “One of the most frustrating aspects of the job is corporate implementations that are completely irrelevant or ineffective, simply because employee’s opinions and/or ideas were not considered, or tested first before being rolled out. I believe that top executives need to roll up their sleeves and work alongside their people as a team; not just pointing out what they feel is in their best interest.”

Kelly Ketelboeter, “It doesn’t take much to have a positive impact on your employees. Show that you care by spending time with them. Ask questions, get to know them and understand how they make difference in your company.”

Margaret McMahan, “The Undercover Boss shows just how out of touch and uncaring top level can be or become, without a direct link to all avenues of the business units.”

Michael Barone, “It seems that as some people climb the corporate ladder they forget what they did to get there. They forget that a company is not built on money, power or advertising but built on people, those people are your face to the public.”

So what do we do now? I must say I appreciate the show for getting people to talk, to see the separation of boss and employee. But as I said, what do we do now, where do we go from here? I certainly am not promoting a revolt type situation. I am however, promoting using our voice to express our concern for the way workers are treated. To make certain Top Level Execs, as represented in the show, understand:

• that if we all worked together
• if there was open and honest dialog
• if they showed employees just basic courtesy and appreciation
• that we would all work that much harder for them and for the company
• we would enjoy doing so!

It is also essential that we show our appreciation for our Leaders who do understand, appreciate and acknowledge what their employees do for them and for the company on a daily basis. If we want to try to change the way things are being done today in too many companies, we must encourage and appreciate the behaviors that our Great Leaders exhibit!