The Hand That Feeds You Is Also Free Food

(Images from CBS TV show "Undercover Boss" and the movie, "They Live." Photoshopped to symbolic perfection.)

There's an annoying show that's been on recently called Undercover Boss.

The premise is this: a disguised CEO spends a little time working as a grunt in his huge company. He learns all the horrible things his workers endure daily. At the end of the show, the CEO vows to make changes to the company. He reveals his true identity to the grunts and gives them something wonderful like a vacation, a bonus or a promotion. Everyone cries with joy.

What's wrong with that?

I'm not sure, but something about it leaves me feeling icky. Why? Do I expect an overworked employee to spit in the face of a boss who just gave them a week's paid vacation? Of course not.

Are my feelings a manifestation of my obvious anti-social tendencies? Could be, because I get equally irritated at a similar (but smaller scale) tradition at my day job. When the bigwigs have their meetings, they order out for food. Once they're done, the leftovers are put out in the break room for us associates to enjoy. Greasy potato chip crumbs and drying tuna sandwiches, all for free!

Why the attitude? It's a gift! That's true, but what sounds like "Here's some free food," can just as easily be heard as "Put what remains out for the peasants." My gut reaction is split. I want to say "Thank you," and "I'm not eating your damn scraps," all at once.

So when it comes to feeling queasy about Undercover Boss, I admit I may be part of the problem. Now let's consider how the show might be the problem.

What makes the dynamic of Undercover Boss jerk tears is the deus ex machina ending. The CEO descends from on high to bestow wondrous gifts upon a lucky worker. The worker cries because he knows, we all know, how miraculous this is. That worker would never have been able to afford the gift on their own, being paid the wages that the CEO pays them. So once again, ambivalence: the Undercover Boss is the problem, even while part of a temporary solution.

This conflict reminds me of the same arguments I heard at a different day job, prior to us voting in a union. Those on the anti-union side said things like "Can't you just be thankful you have a job?"

The answers are the same for Undercover Boss. I am thankful. The issue is that if I want something I have to ask for it from those in power. I can't petition for it. I can't work for it. Well I can, but that would require more time than anyone has. I maintain that's key to the plight of the poor: having nothing they can only trade time for money. It's an uneven trade because time is utterly irreplaceable. Money, hard as it is to get, can be gathered. You can make money, you can't make time.

I don't want workers always looking to the rooftop suite, hoping that someday the light shines down on them. I want them able to afford their own vacation. If the CEO got to know all his employees, he'd learn that every single one of them is struggling in the same way as the few he got to know personally. He'd be inspired (or required by the script of "Reality TV") to give them gifts too.

Undercover Boss is saying little new except maybe that all CEOs aren't evil people. Okay, maybe they're not on a personal level. But the system of vast inequality remains in place. That inequality makes the show's emotional scenes possible. So it's not just my instinctive pride that makes this show hurl-worthy, it's the fact that in 2001, only 1% of the population controlled 38% of the wealth (link) and since then that statistic appears to have gotten worse.

So maybe I will cry, but not for the reasons the show intends.

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Larry Nocella writes The Semi-True Adventures of Lar blog at LarryNocella.com. He's the author of the novel Where Did This Come From? The world's first CarbonFree(R) novel according to Carbonfund.org. The book is available on Amazon.com as a paperback and Kindle eBook. It is also available for other eBook readers.