Wednesday 18 July 2012

Undercover Boss.


Flicking through the freeview channels at midnight on Friday morning  whilst tucked up in my cosy hotel bed, I found one of the most interesting programmes I've watched in a while.

On Channel 4, I saw my first episode of new documentary undercover boss. A documentary where the executives of some of Britains companies go undercover to work in their own shops, clubs, etc. However, the people they work with during their time there, are completely unaware that their latest recruit is actually their boss from head office.


This weeks episode followed the CEO of Luminar Leisure, Peter Marks. Luminar Leisure own many nightclubs across the UK, the biggest of these being the 'Oceana' chain, with clubs in places such as Leeds & Swansea. The company, who found themselves facing financial difficulties last October also own establishments including  The Sugarmill in Hull & Lincolns Ritzy/Pulse.

Peter was disguised as accountant Mark Skinner, who was partaking in a documentary  which sees people try their hand at jobs outside of their field.

On his journey Peter worked alongside a medic, maintenance man, promotions man & cleaner. Gathering their views on what would help to make their place of work more successful as he went.

It was shocking to see the states in which some people were leaving these clubs,resulting in head office keeping the medically trained people who patrol some clubs. This decision was reached after a shift with medic Mel, whose aim was to try & save the NHS time & money by not only treating those with minor injuries, but preventing others from occurring. 

At the end, all was unveiled, with those he'd worked alongside visiting the head office in Milton Keynes. Only two of the three employees recognised the CEO as being the man who'd spent shifts with them just weeks beforehand. In this final section, Peter paid for the cleaner who'd never taken a day off work in 8 years to go on holiday with her husband as a reward for her hard work & commitment to the club. He also paid for the plumbing course being taken by the maintenance man in another establishment, as he'd earlier stated that he was using his own wages to fund the course. 

The programme was very interesting to watch & gave the CEO a good insight into what some employees further down  the company have to deal with on a daily basis. It'd probably do many large companies some good to see how their businesses are run at the bottom & just how hard some members of staff work to keep things running smoothly.

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