‘Undercover Boss’ Shuts Down His Own Restaurant

I love the show "Undercover Boss", mainly because you see just how much these big shot business people DON'T KNOW about their business.  This season one of the "bosses" is Rick Silva, the head of Checkers and Rally’s drive-in restaurants and he was featured on the latest episode. Like other sneaky bosses before him, the CEO disguised himself, and pretended he was just a lowly employee, but this was the first case of a boss breaking his cover, and shutting down the workplace on the spot. 

During his undercover stint, Silva became bothered by the restaurant’s managers treatment of a fry cook named Todd. Not only did the manager, known only as “Stevens,” berate Todd harshly, but he threatened to take the employee outside and beat him if he didn’t work harder.

Shocked by Stevens’ tone, Silva asked to speak with him outside. First, Stevens explained that he had to scream at his staff or they wouldn’t listen. Then he began to question why Silva had the right to question him on how he handles his workers.

Silva tried to remain in character, but when Stevens continued to press him on his credentials he finally snapped

Silva said,

I have been in the restaurant business for over 20 years. And I’ve been in the fast food business for over 20 years. I’m CEO for this company.

Stevens was understandably crestfallen by this revelation. Silva was so angry about what he had seen that he shut the restaurant down on the spot. But don’t worry, it was reopened the next day with a new manager, so nobody lost their job. In fact, Silva even retained Stevens, who was ordered to undergo more job training. You can watch this entire ‘Undercover Boss’ episode for free on CBS’s website.