Undercover Boss - Roto-Rooter episode

By Tony Deblauwe

Let me begin my review by saying I am a satisfied customer of Roto-Rooter. I used their service once a long time ago and everything went smooth – the call, the service crew, the timing, etc. These characteristics were well portrayed in the UB episode.

Now – what about the President and COO Rick Arquilla?

I never saw so much weeping at the drop of a hat from executive management.
I kept thinking – is he truly THAT disconnected from people in the rank and file that take these jobs, or should he have investigated his personal issues in more detail before agreeing to do this show?

I know for many people the human side of UB – no matter what form it takes – is the heart and soul of program. The thinking is - it shouldn’t matter if the leader walks away with things he can change for EVERYONE in the company versus just the folks he meets undercover. I disagree completely in this case. In the opening scene, Arquilla talks about the slow economy but mentions that New Orleans is a new a market that is growing rapidly. He specifically wanted to go undercover and understand why. So he had a purpose to find economic/marketing nuggets that he could use for the larger national operation.

 Instead, the entire show was about Arquilla connecting just with workers in different areas of the organization: residential plumbing, sewer maintenance, customer service, and manufacturing. I definitely learned more about the many aspects of Roto-Rooter’s operation as a consumer, but I didn’t see where any of Arquilla’s experiences translated into the broader changes he originally set out to find.

The best part was the dispatch center. He mentioned he was directly involved in the design of the system which is color-coded based on field status. He tells the manager he is training with that he’s color blind. Immediately I thought – ok, you have a system that can’t address the needs of people with an impairment and by itself seems a little tricky to understand – what’s he going to do to improve the system to make the interface more user friendly and accommodating to adults with disabilities? The answer: nothing. Apparently he didn’t see this as an opportunity to vastly improve point of contact with customers and make the lives of employees easier.

In the reveal, the “token gifts” element was all he had to offer:
-Investigating a bumbled disability claim

-Giving mortgage assistance and paying for special needs care of a child

-Asking an employee working through recovery to go speak to other employees
-A new van so the employee could better manage shuttling kids to basketball practice

-A garage so a few employees can restore muscle cars
So if I’m a Roto-Rooter employee who has any personal issue but wasn’t lucky enough to have the President meet me undercover – what do I get? Can I make a special trip to headquarters, meet Arquilla, get him to cry because of my struggles, and walk away with cash or an off-road vehicle for my therapy?

Again – let me be clear – every single person in the show deserved the help and I am happy they got it. This has nothing to do with the compassion imparted as part of this experience.  My gripe is that UB is about improving the perception that leaders have grown disconnected from their people. By going undercover you learn about your people sure, but you also take away larger operational changes as a result of meeting with a few high performing folks.

Joel Manby of Herschend Family Entertainment did it right. He helped some individual employees, but he largely got the takeaways he needed to foster policy change. I hope that behind the scenes Roto-Rooter takes the same approach as Herschend in understanding the profile of their folks and adopting policies that help employees over the long run.