Todd Ricketts: Undercover Boss

So that means we’re getting Cliff Lee?

How did you get to go, Al?

Anyone know if it’s available streaming online anywhere?

the employees all worked hard at their job and were pretty serious about doing it right. I was surprised. Also surprised that two were working on college degrees. I may not ever view the employees at Wrigley the same.

My friend and I were surprised at the long neck Old Style Todd enjoyed after a day at work. Label facing TV and all. That was hard core Cubs Fan at it’s best.

We agree with Al. Sure, it’s slickly produced “reality” TV, but it’s an interesting look behind the scenes with some terrific portraits of the employees at Wrigley. Yes, the Ricketts Family cares about revenues and we’re not always going to agree with their decisions (and time will tell if they can build a consistent winner), but we’re impressed so far with their dedication to improving the organization at all levels and don’t understand the critics who say “they don’t care.”

SPOILER ALERT

If you haven’t watched the show, and plan to, you might not want to read this post yet.

If you have watched, you know that Todd threw away his last four hot dogs, paying for them himself. When his trainer, Rocco, confronted him, Todd lied outright and often. In the reveal at the end, he admitted he had thrown out the hot dogs, but said he had paid for them himself.

Now, it is probably true that Todd had agreed with CBS not to do anything to reveal his “boss” status during the shooting. He had to make a split-second decision: do I admit what I did, possibly leading Rocco to figure out that I’m not some out-of-work roofer, but someone posing for the cameras? Does that ruin the experience for the viewers and the workers? Or do I lie about what I did, because eventually I will tell the truth?

A few notes from a professor of management (me). First, Todd was in this situation because of his own behavior. As compared to the parking lot incident, in which one of his college roommates recognized him, and almost spilled the beans, it was entirely Todd’s decision to ditch the hot dogs. If he were really intent on maintaining the fiction, he could have continued to sell the hot dogs, and not put himself in a position to lie. Second, Todd conveyed the attitude, even at the end, that what he did was OK because he paid for the hot dogs. It’s true he didn’t cost Rocco any money, but he did lie. He did not apologize for lying. Third, Todd was playing a role. In many reality TV situations, people will do things and say things that they claim they would never do in “real life” but were willing to do because “everyone knows its a game.”

My point here is that, just as in a game, managers and employees often play certain roles. It’s OK to punch your friend’s time card because you know he works hard all the time, and if you don’t stick up for each other against management, who will? It’s OK to not greet your employees by name, because they don’t expect it from the boss, and it helps to keep some professional distance. It’s OK to fudge the truth because the other person doesn’t need to know every detail, and explaining it would take too long. If they really respected you, they would let you do your job and them do theirs, and stop being so nosy. In the end, as long as the person in the other role gets what they want (a bathroom cleaned, a paycheck), why worry about a little lie?

But let’s extend this to other situations. Suppose the boss’s lie was to a vendor, a player agent, a corporate season-ticket buyer? The boss wanted to feel in control, to “save face” when caught in telling something that wasn’t true. How would that affect the other party’s willingness to do business with that boss again? Relationships between managers and workers (even if you call them “associates” or something else) are just as important, and built on mutual respect and accurate (if not full) information.

The best thing to do when caught in a lie is to admit it. Everybody lies. That’s not a reason to pretend you never lie. It’s a reason to believe that people will forgive you if you say, “You know, what I just said wasn’t right. I was thinking that I couldn’t tell you the whole truth there, but I do want to be honest with you. It’s a little embarrassing, and I hope you understand. Here’s the real story.”

The worst interpretation is that Todd Ricketts has a tendency to shirk work, lie about it, and try to throw money at the problem to satisfy other people. The problem with that tendency is that you never really get other people on your team, willing to go the extra mile with you (let alone for you).

The best interpretation is that Todd was in an unfamiliar situation, in which he was already “living a lie” about his identity, so he felt it justified to tell one more to keep up the fiction. He gave of his own resources to be sure no one else got hurt. The lesson here is that if you maintain open, honest relationships with your co-workers, you are less likely to find yourself in a situation in which you feel compelled to lie about something specific.

Overall, I wasn’t bothered by the fact that Todd couldn’t handle a squeegee well or didn’t have the right personality to hawk concessions. I was only bothered a little by the lie about the hot dogs, given the situation. I was most bothered by the revelation that the new owners had not already started asking their employees for ideas, and that they had overlooked simple things (like the crew locker room) that could have been addressed for very little money before the season even began. The “Undercover Boss” scenario cuts out middle management on purpose. Maybe the head of maintenance, the head of concessions, the head of parking already knew of the employees’ ideas and complaints, and it just hadn’t reached the junior member of the ownership team. But the show seemed to convey that there is little “bottom-up” innovation in the Cubs’ organization. And in a day when even the guy that cleans the bathrooms has a cell phone, there is no excuse for not opening multiple lines of communication between employees and management. Being a “family business” is great: recognizing that every employee potentially has a good idea is even better.

I found this to be an interesting look at the business side of running a team. I remember seeing Ricketts selling the hot dogs (and in retrospect, wishing I bought one from him). I asked my regular beer vendor who he was and what was going on, he told me that was a new guy Mark and they were filming a reality show.

I know after sitting behind a desk for all these years, I would not have been able to keep up with the washing toilets or selling hot dogs, so it was not a real surprize to see Todd do poorly at this when he tried out the jobs, but to see the pro’s do their jobs, that was an eye opener.

 It takes a lot of work to run a team. Yes, we are all concerned about the on the field product, and I believe this last year was a learning year for the Ricketts to see how a team runs. Next year will be the real test to see what they do as far as the player personel.

THe RIcketts did what they could do to improve on what they had an idea about doing. Lets work on the physical plant. Spiff that up. Improve there. They did that. With 1 year down, now they have an idea how the player side of the business works and they can get down to business therezz.

I find it interesting that people keep comparing the RIcketts to Rocky Wirtz and why didn’t he Ricketts come in and clean house like Wirtz. Well, the RIcketts are newcomers to running a sports team. Rocky was involved with the running of the Blackhawks for years before he took over. He had an idea of what he could do and what he couldn’t do. ALso, he didn’t just spend 800,000 to purchase the team so he was not limited on what he could spend. Also, with the hard cap of Hockey, Wirtz was not stuck paying millions upon millions of dollars in bad contracts. Where the RIcketts came in, they were novices in running a team. They had to rely on who was there to help teach them the inside game. They had to keep paying the giant contracts that were handed out in the Tribune days on top of what they just paid out for the team. LIke I said, this last year was a learning year. The team needs to rebalance thier books. Yes, payroll is probably going down. WHy? Because they can’t keep putting out the big bucks for payroll and also pay out the debt.

That’s all show’s like Undercover Boss are. They place bosses in situations to see how difficult their employees work and how they themselves could not do the job on day one. What fun would it be if the boss could do that job right off the bat?

The Boss gets an epiphany of how difficult their employees work, for how long with the Cubs, and their personal backgrounds. And the Boss can come up with a suggestion or two to improve working conditions.

And then they meet face-to-face and the employee raises his eyebrows and also gets a perk.

And Todd is “forced” to live on Sheffield avenue across the street from Wrigley Field for a week? Hey, how many non-baseball persoonel do you know that can afford to live at Sheffield and Addison?

It was a cute show and it allowed the Ricketts to show a more human side of themselves. And the Cubs and Toyota popped a commercial into it.

I don’t think anyone should anything more into it.

Kumbaya

I cannot believe how crappy this show, on the whole, is.
When it first started I thought the concept would be bosses getting to know their business better and building on success. Instead it turned out to be employee lottery. Whichever employee had the best sob story got a trip or money or whatever.

Todd looked more lively than Tom…. I got the feeling that despite the excuse that Tom was more well known, there was no way Tom was going to do that. I mean really Tom and Todd look very much alike….

It would have been fun to hear one employee bitching about having their trailer taken away so they could pay Soriano to jog down to first base on a grounder. But I assume the Cubs have final say on what gets broadcast.

My guess is he didn’t want try Hendry’s job. it would be too hard getting out from all the damage that has already been done!

I wonder why that trailer was taken away?

Was because they are cheap?

I found it interesting and an inside look at behind the scenes at Wrigley.

Cleaning bathrooms is not easy. A very good friend of mine’s mother owns an office building cleaning company. Through the years I have worked PT for them and even today have helped out a bit in a pinch. It’s not easy.

As far as some being surprised employees are going to college while working for the Cubs. I worked at Wrigley while in college. Its an idea job for a student. Most of the time you’re working the most school is out for the summer.

I thought Todd did a good job. Now we’ll wait and see what happens with the team in the off season.

Looks a lot like Ali G…

We know Tom is the face and goes to the meetings and stuff. But I want to know what his brothers and sister do.

The show got me excited about the seasons to come from the Ricketts family regime:D

as far as what I feel about the Ricketts, I know they need time to change things around, I just wish there was one thing that has been done by them so far that would give me more confidence about giving us a winning team or heading towards the WS. If anyone has his/her own reason for your own feeling of confidence, please let me know :)

A camera filming restroom cleaning had to seem suspicious to the employee — and even more suspicious when those cameras followed the same new-hire to the scoreboard where the guy that fired him a few days earlier from restroom detail also worked.

compared to most other CEO types, Mr Ricketts came off looking weasel-y. I’m sure he’s a decent enough of a guy, but that was not not a shining promotional for Cub-dom last night in my view.

I’m glad it’s Tom and not Todd who’s in charge. I will say that as far as “taking care” of the featured employees at the end—he went beyond the call.

I also give them credit for leaving in the thrown away hot dog sweat down scene ..my guess is that CBS had final say so, otherwise that would have been left out. He flat out lied through his teeth to a hot dog vendor boldly and repeatedly. Not a good image for the Cub org.

Laura grows a beard and sells Frosty Malts with Irving’s great great grandson.

The fact that Todd threw away the hotdogs instead of just eating them! ;-)

Ok, maybe not all four, but any grown man (and some women I know) should be able to wolf down at least a couple of dogs in the time it takes to throw them away. And if it’s against the Vendor Code to consume your own wares, then he could have easily just given them away.

Or does it seem like the Ricketts are obsessed with bathrooms?

Their impression was…sure Todd, go ahead and go on Undercover Boss. Spend as much time as you like. Don’t hurry back.

have a Business Management degree and I used to cut grass in my neighborhood!! Can I get an internship too??

Another case of reality tv having little to do with reality, and in this case self promotion.

Please

Todd came across as a decent guy. If anything, this reassures me about the new ownership, despite the fact that Hendry still has a job. It must be overwhelming to all of a sudden own something as gigantic as a major league baseball team. Between their recent comments about wanting to produce a perennial winner by focusing more on the farm, and the comments made throughout the show, I think their hearts and minds are both in the right place. Now we just have to wait and see how it all shakes out.

I watch this show more often than not and its certainly interesting. Some episodes are great, others fall flat. This one ranks up there as a meh episode. It was cool seeing some of the behind the scenes and Todd was pretty typical of most of the execs who are on the show. Most of them really struggle with the labor focused tasks that they are given. Whether it was the CEO of Frontier Airlines really struggling to clean up an airplane or the CEO of a Great Wolf Resorts having a hard time keeping up with the lead Lifeguard, the undercover boss invariably learns the obvious less on that their employees work hard. Its unfortunate that this is what it takes, but its not surprising seeing the separation between upper level management and their employees. Ricketts was no different.

I also agree with the feeling that this show has become like a lottery ticket for the three or four employees that the Undercover Boss ends up working with. While its great to see people rewarded, there are hundreds, if not thousands of hard workers for each company deserving, and with the camera present, we’re unlikely to learn that any of these people are real bastards or lazy.

Again, I was left with a “meh” feeling after seeing Ricketts. Seems like a decent guy…the Old Style product placement struck me as totally contrived… and hopefully he’s learned a few things that will help Cubs employees and the “fan experience”.

I like Todd Ricketts and the other Ricketts. I think they’re sincere about getting this team to win and my only criticism is that I wouldn’t have used the name “Mark Dawson.” I think “Richard Dawson” would have been better.

I have heard that the Ricketts are doing things for other employees than just the ones who were on the show, including taking a second family to spring training.