'Undercover Boss' Season 11: Ray rewards hardworking employees of TGI Fridays with promotions and money
CBS' hit show 'Undercover Boss' is back with Season 11. The hit reality show features a senior-level executive or owner of a company going undercover as an entry-level employee. They spend a week doing various entry-level operations in different departments, and meeting the employees, learning their professional and personal challenges.
At the end of the week, the executives reveal their identity to the employees and evaluate the performance of the staffers they interacted with, while they were undercover. The hardworking employees are rewarded for their efforts either in the form of a promotion, or pay hike, while the remaining employees are either given training or in some extreme cases, are terminated.
The premiere episode featured Ray Blanchette, CEO of TGI Fridays transforming himself as an entry-level employee named Keith and visiting various franchises of his restaurants. He began by visiting the Maryland outlet, where he was training under an employee named Brittany. While training him on mixing drinks, Brittany casually remarked about her desire to visit the international TGI Fridays, and also complained about how the corporate head office takes forever to address any repair works or maintenance issues that arise in the outlets. Ray was taken aback on learning about it but was pleased with Brittany's performance and work ethics.
He next met up with an assistant manager named Michelle, at New York. Michelle's hard work and dedication made a striking impression on Ray, but he felt that she could do with a little bit of more help in terms of organizing the place and learning the ropes of effective leadership. When Michelle tells Ray that she lost her mother a week ago, he sympathized with her.
Later, he met Abdul, who handled the kitchen at one of the TGI Fridays outlets. Abdul's optimism and high energy-levels had Ray fully impressed. When Abdul shared how TGI Fridays helped him get on his feet, and stay away from the streets, Ray couldn't help but wonder if Abdul ever thought about getting into management positions. Ray's last stop was in Texas, where he met Susanne. Susanne, who is a young waitress, trained Ray on how to wait tables. While talking to him she expressed how the outlet didn't have much traffic during lunchtime, so she made fliers with discount coupons, and went out and placed them on cars to bring in some customers. Ray was left feeling impressed with her initiative.
Finally, when it was time for the big reveal, Ray told them all that he was the CEO of TGI Fridays and rewarded each of them for their excellent work ethics. He gave Brittany $25K and also a chance to travel to Istanbul and help set up TGI Fridays there. To Abdul, Ray gave him a promotion to a managerial position and commended him for hard-work. Michelle received $20,000 and also help from the quality control team of TGI Fridays to better manage the restaurant. Finally, Susanne was rewarded with a year's rent to her apartment, and her nephew's daycare expenses, alongside some cash to help her with her mounting stress.
'Undercover Boss' Season 11 airs every Friday at 9/8c only on CBS.