Undercover Boss (2010) s02e13 Episode Script
UniFirst
Male announcer: America is struggling to shake off the recession.
Public distrust of wealthy CEOs remains high.
But more and more bosses are looking for radical ways to reconnect with their workforce in order to find out what's really going on in their companies.
Each week, we follow the boss of a major corporation as they go undercover in their own company.
This week The President and CEO of the UniFirst corporation, one of North America's largest producers of work wear and uniforms poses as a former shop owner looking to return to the work force.
Hi, Mike Daniels.
- How are you? - Nice to meet you.
The boss will trade in his luxury SUV and model train set For a sewing machine and industrial washer.
- Let it go.
- Oh! By working on the front line, he'll discover what needs improving in the business.
One of my biggest headaches is getting the knots out.
Yeah, got to be a better way.
And he'll discover the unsung heroes that make his business run.
I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't make mistakes and try to change 'em.
How will his coworkers react when they find out he's really the boss? And how will it change their lives? I went undercover, and I'd like to report back to you what I found.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
UniFirst Corporation provides work wear and uniforms for more than a million and a half workers across North America.
Its headquarters are in Wilmington, Massachusetts.
Overseeing the 10,000 employees at this billion-dollar corporation is one man.
I'm Ron Croatti, Chief Executive Officer and President of UniFirst corporation.
Hey, guys.
What's going on? UniFirst corporation is a leading provider of uniform services throughout the United States.
We do business for Walmart, Costco, Goodyear, General Electric.
We manufacture, sell, we process the garments, we clean them, press them, mend them, bring them back to you at a fair price.
UniFirst has been around for a long time, over 75 years.
The company was really started by my grandfather.
My grandmother was a presser.
He was the washer.
As immigrant Italians, their whole life was involved in this little business.
My grandfather was crushed by a washing machine.
The washing machines in those days, you had to basically go inside.
He was, uh, pulling the clothes out of the washer, and the washer started.
He got killed.
And, you know, their whole life was in this, and they wanted to keep it going for their own survival, and my dad stepped up with his leadership style and his salesmanship, and was able to build it up from a little, small business of one or two employees to about $60, $70 million.
When I started, I was probably about 12 or 14.
I would come down to the plant with him and go sweep up the mop room, or You know, and I'd get a buck or something, or he'd take me to a baseball game.
And he ran it until he had his heart attack, and he basically said, "son, I can't keep going," and he passed me the keys.
How you doing? Good.
I thought I'd check in for any last-minute suggestions.
Members of the family are important to a company.
They keep that culture, that team-manship.
And anything you find, I mean, you could fix, which is great.
Everything is fixable.
You know that.
Absolutely.
My sister, she's the Executive Vice President.
I'll see ya, sis.
So exciting.
So proud of you.
You have a good week.
And then my son, Michael, is one of the Regional Vice Presidents, and I'm grooming him, hopefully, to succeed me.
Okay.
Okay.
You ready? There you go.
Met Ron when I was working at the New Kensington location of UniFirst.
What do you want? What do you want, huh? I was an employee there.
That was about 35 years ago, so we've been together a very long time.
I have an escape at home.
I'm a big model train guy.
I can get lost in it from maybe 10:00 to 11:30 at night and unwind.
Done playing trains? Done playing trains.
Good.
Hey, Carol? Yeah.
Come here.
Which one of these-- you think these look better? Oh, my gosh.
Let me see.
I like that one.
I like that one.
That looks good.
Yeah.
That ain't too bad.
Could be a little lighter.
Yeah.
- It's gonna be lonely at night.
- Aw.
We just concluded our 2010 year.
It was our highest revenue year ever.
My goal is to have UniFirst be a $2 billion company by 2020.
So I'm going undercover to make sure that everything's running smoothly and we meet that goal.
Have a good trip, okay? Don't be nervous.
Okay? - Thanks, babe.
- All right.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Mike Daniels, former hobby store owner who has to return to work because of the recession.
My employees are gonna be told that I'm taking part in a reality show where two retired workers are competing for one open job at UniFirst.
I certainly am a nervous guy this morning.
I don't know what to expect.
Staying in character's gonna be important.
I think the disguise that I'm using and putting on, this is a look that's a little beyond my normal character, and even when I was a young guy I wasn't like this, so this is a little beyond me.
Well, today we're in Owensboro, Kentucky.
This is the hub of the company.
In this building, we have over 300 people.
We have to produce anywhere from a day out of here, and they have to get it out on a timely basis.
I'm supposed to meet Dee Dee please.
Okay.
Just a moment.
If you don't care to sign in.
Hi, Mike.
I'm--I'm Suzanne.
I'm the general manager.
I'm gonna get you to Dee Dee.
If you'll follow me, we'll get you all set up.
How's that? I'll follow you.
Today I'm gonna be working in the seal and sew department.
These people not only alter the pants, but they put the emblems and the personalization on.
I'm here to make sure that these people really do the quality job that our customers require.
I am here, Dee Dee.
All right.
This department is sew-seal.
The reason it's called sew-seal is because we sew the emblems on, and we heat seal I.
D.
Tags on here.
This is hot, okay? - I.
D.
Tags? - Uh-huh.
I'll show you.
Okay.
So go ahead and get your I.
D.
Tags out of there.
That lets them know the city and the state it goes to, and the actual person that it goes to in that company.
Okay.
The I.
D.
Tags have a self-adhesive stick on the back, so when the heat hits it on here, that's how they stick on there.
Boy, a lot of technical stuff here already.
I know.
So the I.
D.
Tag goes right above this line, so that when the person has it on, you don't see it.
All right, so you ready? Yep.
"B.
" This is a regular shirt, so it'll be on "B.
" Hit these both, same time, and it goes down.
All right.
How many of these you got to do an hour? Um, I try to get 100 on each one in an hour.
Wow.
Do you think we can do that today? We're gonna certainly try.
We can certainly try, okay? We are based on incentive over here, so the faster we work, the more we're gonna get paid.
You get paid on incentive? That's pretty good.
Yes, only if you're good, though.
If you're not good, then you got to go.
Okay? I'm gonna tear these down.
Come on.
We can go faster than that.
Now it's already on "b," so just hit the sides.
And it goes down.
Now go ahead and unbutton your next one.
Try it again.
Try it again.
Use your belly.
- I got that.
- You can use your belly.
There we go.
As we were heat sealing the labels, some of the garments were long, and they're weighted.
"A.
" Mm-hmm.
Use your belly.
There we go.
My stomach would help hold the garments in place.
It is 10:00.
We are so behind.
All right.
Here we go.
Okay.
Wow.
Now you think you can handle this? - No.
- Okay.
You're going Don't try to go fast like I do, because if you mess up, you have to pick all those stitches out.
Wait a minute.
Try to stay as close to the edge as possible.
But see, you don't want to hit it too hard.
If you pedal down too hard, yeah, see, your stitches are gonna be too small.
Don't want you screwing up my shirts.
I think we screwed that one up.
Yeah, I can tell.
It probably didn't overlap.
No, it didn't.
Mike sucked.
He has a heavy foot.
He would push the pedal too hard and not move his hands fast enough.
Think we destroyed a shirt here.
They're not gonna make any money here.
They're gonna start charging me for shirts.
- It's hard, isn't it? - Oh, wow.
Yeah.
My sewing skills are nonexistent.
I mean, that's a very difficult job.
Requires a lot of coordination.
Failure.
I've never worked in a factory before until I worked here, you know.
And what'd you do before? The fall of last year, I started going back to school and stuff, but it became really difficult when I wasn't able to get out in time for some of my classes, and I didn't have time to do my homework, with working, you know, and then having to go home, and I had children that I had to-- you know, that constantly need my attention.
You have children? - Yes, I have three.
- Young girl.
I know, that's what everyone-- you have three children? I'm shocked.
I know, and don't you say it.
Do not say, "you don't look like you have three kids," 'cause everybody says that, and I don't know what people look like that have three kids.
Like me.
I guess that's what people mean.
I guess.
But I am intere-- I'm trying to get back into going back to school, because-- To do what? I want to be a clinical therapist.
I know I have the gift of gab, but I'm also a good listener, and I try to give the best advice as possible, you know? And it's just a really difficult task, trying to juggle both of 'em, because, you know, if you're even, you know, like, a minute late or whatever, you'll get a tardy.
You're only allowed six tardies in a year.
And that includes if you go home early.
Even though they know that you've been here all day because you've scanned your work in and out, you still get a tardy.
You know, I've been here for two years, and so I know what it's like, you know, to feel like if you're gonna be tardy one more time you're gonna lose your job.
I don't understand why they do that.
I don't either.
Do you ever ask? Yeah.
And what do they tell you? Well, that that's their policy.
And, I mean, you know They should tell you why.
You're just kind of stuck with it.
You know, Dee Dee brought up the fact that the tardiness system was right on the dot.
And I think there are times Dropping off the babies to the babysitter, you can be three or four minutes late.
My kids are my life.
- It's all about family.
- Yeah.
You know, as a company, we want to be fair to the people.
That's a lot better.
You got to give a little leeway.
That's you.
You did that.
You did it.
Coming up, Mike has a mustache mishap.
My mustache is coming loose, because I'm sweating like a horse.
And, later, the boss causes the conveyor belt to be shut down.
Put that on backwards.
Oh, my-- Oh, now we're screwed up.
Ron Croatti, President and CEO of UniFirst corporation is a boss undercover in his own company.
His employees think he's part of a show where two retirees are in competition for a job at UniFirst.
You will be working in production with myself today.
His journey continues in Sumter, South Carolina.
Today I'm in Sumter, South Carolina.
This is a company that we purchased about four years ago, and when you acquire another company, it has a distinct personality.
It's gonna be different from your personality.
The first reason why I'm here is to see that the morale and our culture is in place.
We bring in a family culture and a great sales motivation to grow the business.
I'll be working in the shipping department.
If the garments get shipped to the wrong customer, it's a disaster.
It's very important that we get things back to the right guy at the right time.
Hi.
Good morning.
I'm Mike Daniels.
I'm here to see Squeeky.
Yes, sir.
Squeeky, please come to the front office.
I'm a little nervous coming in here.
You know, will they recognize me, or not recognize me? So, you know, I'm a little concerned going in here, but hopefully I can get to the bottom of what I want to see.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Squeeky, I'm Mike Daniels.
- How are you? - Nice to meet you.
You too.
Ready to work? - Ready to work.
- All right now.
Your uniform is in this locker.
Okay, very good.
Show me.
Okay, this is the flat good area.
Okay.
So we need to fold five aprons, put 'em in a little pile, of the same color.
Of the same color.
I'm watching you.
I got to grab it by the strings.
Right.
This side.
Is there an upside down or inside out? See how I got it? Flip it like that.
Wait a minute.
Is there a right side and a wrong side? No.
Fold it.
Put it on the table.
Put your string on the inside.
Fold.
Third.
In.
Down.
No, no, no, no.
No, Mike.
What'd I do wrong? Never folded an apron in my life.
When you flip it, you go in the way you flip.
'Cause you got to keep that side hidden.
All right.
Let's try another one.
Can you put some speed on it? Hmm? Are you ignoring me? No, I didn't hear you.
Oh.
I said, "can you put some speed on it?" Put some speed on it? Yeah.
I'm trying.
I guess you did okay for a beginner.
- For a beginner? - Yeah.
This is the sorter.
The sorter operation.
Okay.
Once the clothes come up, they go around, and then they end up over here.
And once we tie it and put the bag on it, it's ready for delivery.
It goes out the door on the trolley.
So what I need for you to do is come over here.
Hit your starter button.
And that gets the machine rolling.
So only thing you have to do is stand here and make sure your hanger goes in this feeder correctly, because sometimes That's all? That simple? For this spot, yeah.
So, Squeeky, how'd you get the name Squeeky? My grandfather gave it to me.
When I was little, I used to cry a lot, and he said it sounded like a little squeaking noise, so he named me Squeeky, and it's been following me.
- How many kids you got? - Just one.
Just one? How old? You go any place? Vacations or? No.
No? You don't go anywhere? Not really.
Back and forth to Greenville.
Because I'm getting ready to get married.
And my fiance is from over there.
Oh, now it's coming out.
The squeeze.
Okay, so now we're gonna work in the corner.
It's gonna be like we're preparing the clothes to go out the door.
Everything that looks like this got to have the bag on it.
And remember, where you pick it up from, you have to put it back.
So you got to move with it.
You having trouble? Trouble? Panic.
Mike cannot do it.
He couldn't walk and put the poly on the clothes at the same time.
You want me to stop the line for you? I don't--I don't know.
Oh, well, now we're screwed up.
He was working too slow.
We're not supposed to stop the line, and he had the line held up a minute or so.
Oh, Mike, Mike, Mike.
Bagging the clothes was very difficult.
You ready to go back to the sorter? Yeah, I'd rather go back to the sorter.
And how long have you been here, Squeeky? - 12 years.
- And how's that? I liked the previous company better.
Why's that? Because I felt more appreciated with the other company.
Because it seemed like they did more.
Do you have more health insurance or anything like that? There a difference? Well, we had health insurance with both companies.
So most of the people think there's a difference between the old company and the new company, or - Yeah.
- Yeah? I can pretty much say they would rather work for the other company than this one.
The former company was doing some things that she kind of thought were great, that we should still doing them, and I'm certainly gonna send down the H.
R.
Group to look into it.
You've got to be a little faster.
I might have to beat you up.
You're gonna have to beat me up.
Well, today was a really interesting day.
I worked with a girl called Squeeky.
She showed me what she does up there in shipping.
And she also expressed some concerns that the transition from the former company to us wasn't as successful as I thought.
We have programs in place, and I'm not sure they're really informed.
My father taught me "respect people," and that was his philosophy.
And if the people really aren't as happy or as aware of all the benefits and everything that we provide for them, they're gonna be a little insecure.
And I'd like to get that security into these people, to know that they are part of the family.
Today we're in Oklahoma City.
This plant is one of our newest plants, and we process about of laundry through here.
This is where all the dirty stuff comes in.
It's garments, it's mops, it's mats, aprons.
But the unloading process is the key to the whole quality of our product, and I'm here to work with a fella who's involved in unloading the vehicles.
They call him a sorter.
And he also works in the washroom.
Is Tony around? Tony? Yeah, how you doing? - I'm Mike.
- Hey, Mike.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
You're gonna be working back here with me today as a unloader.
Okay.
And we're gonna be doing some rags, so it's gonna be pretty fast paced.
Kind of intense.
All right, Tony, we're ready.
Okay, now what we got to do, our mission right now, is to get all these rags done, all those rags done, get 'em over there, get 'em sorted out, so these guys can wash 'em, okay? Sounds like a big mission.
Yeah, we got to hum, man.
We got to hum.
When you got wet mops and you got bar mops and you got aprons in the same bag, you got to dump it out and sort it out.
Dump that on the floor.
Now you want to sort.
I'll do this one, and I'll meet you there.
To be honest, at first, I thought we were doomed.
'Cause I didn't think he could handle it.
Your back tired at night? Nope.
I'm used to it.
Got a strong back.
I was like, "this guy's not gonna be able to bend down.
He's not gonna be able to do it.
" Got to be a better way to do this than this.
Yeah.
Would a table be good for this? I got a table.
It doesn't work.
They give you the tables because maybe that's what it says in the manual, but the guy that wrote the manual ain't doing the rags.
Boy, you're fast, Tony.
You got to be, man.
Everybody's got a step to do, and if you don't get yours done, they can't do theirs.
There you go.
Get rid of that cart, and we'll get another one.
They tied it too.
- Yep.
- They tied it crazy.
- Yeah.
- Who does that? - The drivers.
- The drivers? Well, if they had to take 'em out, they wouldn't tie 'em the way they tie 'em.
See, I wish I could come up with a design for a new bag that didn't have to be tied.
One of my biggest headaches is getting the knots out.
Yeah.
Got to be a better way.
Sorting the various products that came in, the knots that are tied into those bags are an issue.
We got to come up with a better system.
How you looking? We're getting there.
Mike really needs to pick up the pace.
He really needs to pick up the pace.
'Cause got to realize, he'd be doing this by himself.
Knock these out and you're gonna feel good.
I'm gonna be going to sleep.
You're gonna go to sleep? No.
Then I got more work to do.
Tonight.
I'll sleep like a baby tonight.
My mustache is coming loose because I'm sweating like a horse.
Got a little nervous and had to come out for emergency repairs.
If he notices that the mustache comes off, this whole thing could be ruined.
That's really a tough job.
Yeah.
It really is.
You do very well at that.
As we were walking over to those washers, had a little hesitancy thinking way back to how my grandfather got killed in one of those washers.
Here's your job right here.
It's gonna spin, pull the bag out, and send that puppy home.
No, you want to hold this.
Hold--hold--hold on.
You want to hold this.
This rope.
So you want to hold the rope.
Okay.
Pull this yellow all the way down.
Pull it down.
Well, I was trying to show him how to load the washer.
Now pull it down.
Okay, keep holding it.
Keep holding it.
And, uh, it's not something you can just do one time and get it.
Remember, you got to hold it, 'cause it's gonna fall out once we let it go.
Let it spin.
Now step in there.
Let it go.
Whoa! Here's your job.
Right here.
Now pull it down.
Okay, keep holding it.
Keep holding it.
Whoa.
You all right? - Yup.
- Got to let it go.
He didn't quite let it go all the way and get his arm out of there, so his arm was starting to go around a little bit.
And then he's got another arm, so I wasn't too worried.
There's a little rhythm to it.
I left my arm in there too long.
You know, it was a little scary.
I'm gonna take five.
You want me to come with ya? Sure.
I just usually step out here.
Are you from Oklahoma? No, I'm originally from St.
Louis.
Let me bum one of those.
Yep.
What brought you down here? Well, me and my wife had got separated, and then brought my son down.
'Cause he was going to school in St.
Louis, and, man, he was getting in all kind of trouble.
Fighting teachers and making straight Fs.
So I convinced his mother to let him come and live with me.
How's he doing? Making Bs and Cs and That's what you want.
Star on the football team, and ain't been in no trouble since.
That's a smart move.
Yeah.
You know.
I hope it works out.
It'll work out.
Yeah, my son loves football.
That's why I work this shift, so I can get off, watch him play.
I think Tony's a very nice man.
During the regular season they play on Fridays, so I have to get off here.
Game starts at 7:00, and don't forget I come in here at 4:00 in the morning, so by the time I get to bed after his game, it's like 12:00 midnight or something.
Wow, that's a lot.
He's got that hard work ethic.
He likes what he does.
But he's focused on his family.
When your kid's growing up Don't want to miss that kind of stuff.
You don't get those back, Mike.
You know what I'm saying? I know.
He's really working for his son, and that bond has brought those two together.
He's sort of like my I don't know.
He's my inspiration, man.
The man is working and looking forward.
Started down one path, but I think he's on the right path now.
Today I'm gonna be working as a supervisor.
I'm really excited to be here.
This is our most technologically advanced plant.
This plant is just over a year old, and it's about a $10 to $12 million process to put in one of these facilities.
It's a forerunner for what we want to do in the future.
- Hi.
- Hi.
I'm Mike Daniels.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Julie.
I'm the floor supervisor.
It is important for me to come here to see the floor supervisor position is working out with the new technology and hopefully meeting the demands of the customer.
It's amazing.
All the conveyors and all the clothes.
It's just an amazing place.
This is one of our newest plants, so we are truly blessed.
As a floor supervisor, there's a lot of jobs.
You have to know everything.
So right now we're gonna go jump on a triple buck, and I'm gonna show you how that works.
Okay.
Sounds interesting.
This is the triple buck.
This is where they do all the shirts.
When you're over here, the main thing you're gonna be concentrating on right now is the quality.
You're looking for holes in the shirts, buttons missing, tags loose, whatever it is.
We don't want to send 'em out to the customer like that.
They pay for their stuff to be clean, and they pay for it to look a certain way.
So you're inspecting as you're pressing? - Yes.
- I understand.
Um, we have standards here, and we come here and work for eight hours, but we're working for the customer.
If we didn't have customers, we wouldn't have a job, right? - That's right.
- Right.
Okay, so the first parts of this is you're just gonna grab a hanger, and you're gonna stick it right in here.
You're gonna grab a shirt, and you're gonna make sure all the arms are out right.
And then you're gonna throw it on here like this.
You're gonna button the top button and you're gonna pull it down.
You're gonna straighten it out, and then you're gonna look in your little mirror, and you want to make sure everything back here is straight.
So after everything's straight, you're gonna press your two green buttons, and you're gonna send it around.
Now, when your shirt comes through, you just kind of want to glance at it and make sure there's no wrinkles.
If there's wrinkles, we're gonna pull it off and we're gonna go fix it.
- Should I try? - Go ahead.
Don't forget to put your hanger on.
- Uh-oh.
- Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Make sure everything's laying flat.
Make sure there's no creases or wrinkles.
Mike does not look like he does laundry at home.
Like, maybe he would have his wife do it for him or something.
This can't go through like that.
We cannot send this to the customer with creases on it.
At the end of the day, we have to fix it.
Mike needs to improve on paying attention to the shirts, making sure that they are a quality product.
You got to watch how they go in there, because if not, it's gonna press like it's laying.
What happened? No hanger.
I think we forgot a hanger.
Not an easy job, is it? There's a lot of detail to it, for sure.
Eventually, you know, once you get past the, you know, making sure it looks right and all that, then you got to pick up your pace.
So where did you start, Julie? Um, I started out on the floor.
Um, I was pretty persistent.
I knew where I wanted to be, and eventually the opportunity came.
After a few months, they decided to promote me to lead, and then when I was here at 11 months, they offered me the floor supervisor position.
Well, how far would you like to go? Eventually, I'd like to be up in corporate.
So I'm gonna take you over to our next area.
Okay.
Very good.
We're going to final shipping.
This is the last area that the clothes actually go through before it goes to the driver and goes out to the customer.
When I first started working here, we used to have to put all the stuff up on the trolleys, like, how it goes upstairs, and we'd have to take it all the way to the back and put 'em into the cages from there, and I just made the comment, you know, maybe we should build something here to where we could bring the cages to us, that way it would save some time, so that's what they did.
This handy dandy pole, welded some stuff together, and we made an extension onto this pole.
And it just fits directly in there and comes up.
And you connect it.
That way-- you thought of that? I thought of it, yes.
Good girl.
And it just makes it easier when you cage.
Oh, yeah.
Julie worked with the maintenance crew and developed an easy system that'll load out carts to go to the shuttle plants, and it saves basically a half hour a day.
And that's tremendous.
So where did you learn all these management skills and good ideas? Just part of wanting to make things better.
Think we all fall short sometimes.
But I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't make mistakes and try to change 'em.
So you from the area? Yes, I grew up here till I was 15.
Eventually I ended up in Missouri, and I lived there for two years, and got into a lot of trouble.
And so I came back here thinking that, you know, a geographical change would change my life, and unfortunately I took me with me.
Yeah.
So not much changed.
And then in 2007 I got pregnant, and that's--that's when I changed my life.
So what did you do when you went to Missouri? What'd you do? Just try to escape from your parents or--? - Childhood, I think.
- Childhood? Yeah, I had some things happen in my childhood that kind of pushed me more into bad things.
I got pretty involved with drugs.
It's hard to come out of.
Yeah.
You know, I did it for many years.
I lost a lot of weight.
And, pretty much, because I started so young, I started when I was 16, and I didn't actually quit until I was 22.
So, um, that's all I knew.
How'd you-- how'd you come out of it? Rehab? Rehab.
Several times.
But it seems like it all worked out very well.
You got a precious little daughter.
She motivates me.
For sure.
She pushes me every day.
But, you know, we all struggle.
I think Julie is a tremendous person.
She basically has come a long ways in her personal life.
I live in a halfway house.
It's sober living.
Sometimes I'll go work another job, try to make some extra money, which kind of sucks, 'cause I'm not spending time with my daughter on the weekends, but to get where I need to be to get out of the situation I'm in, I mean, that's just what I have to do right now.
Everybody has a problem somewhere along the line, and to overcome it and step up makes you a better person.
It's about time to clock back in and get back to work.
Let's go back to work.
She's a great trainer.
She explains things well.
So I really think she's a real asset to the company.
Do you follow football or anything down here? Um, I have to go for o.
U.
In the last week, I've met some great individuals.
And each one of these people had the intestinal fortitude and the desire to really step up and take a new path to the future.
A family relies on one thing.
Communications.
It's not only the talking to each other, it's the expression of how you feel, the love, the emotion.
Those same principles come over to a company.
UniFirst is a 75-year-old company.
I've been running this business since 1986.
We need the input from the younger generation who are a little closer to the issues down in the field.
And what I love about these people is they come forward with good suggestions, and they got to get up to us.
They got the answers to solve our problems, and we just got to reach out to 'em, and the company will be much better off.
Coming up, Ron's employees think they're coming to company headquarters to cast their vote.
I got to choose one person over another person, and, to be honest, I'm pretty much emotionally drained.
But how will they react when he reveals the truth? I'm Ron Croatti, Chief Executive Officer and President of UniFirst corporation.
My week undercover is over.
I was amazed by the stories of the various people I dealt with in the last week, but they also brought to light some of the issues that we may have as an organization that centers around communications.
We really have to do a better job of communications to all our team partners.
Good morning, guys.
- Hey.
- Hey! Hi, sid.
How are ya? How you doing? I got to tell ya, it was a fantastic week.
Our frontline supervisor is a gal who came up with a great suggestion of extending the railing system to load the carts, and it saved and we really should be soliciting stuff like that from these people.
Down in a soil room, I must have spent five minutes untying a knot.
So we're gonna come up with, like, a plastic type deal that we can zip cut for the bags.
We observe people doing things.
You know, we've got to quit observing and do.
And we have opportunity out there to do more for our customers.
Mm-hmm.
And for our people.
My employees think they're coming to corporate headquarters to cast their vote.
They're really here so I can reveal my undercover experience.
They're ready for you now, Tony.
Okay.
Thank you.
I got to choose one person over another person, and I've never been in that position before.
My heart is beating really hard, and I feel like it's gonna come out of my chest.
You know me? I recognize your voice.
And who's that? Mike.
So you recognize me as Mike, huh? Yes.
And you didn't vote for me.
I'm Ron Croatti, Chief Executive Officer and President of UniFirst corporation.
Say what now? It's exciting.
It's exciting.
That a girl.
What do you think of that one? You got me.
I got you.
You got me.
Squeeky, you're tremendous.
You had patience with me, showing me what you do.
You work hard up there.
Yes.
I can see a path for you where you can become a supervisor if you want to do it.
Yes.
Yes.
You know, we talked about the difference from the prior company to when we bought it two years ago, and there were some differences.
Well, I compared, personally compared, all those differences.
You know, our benefits are roughly 33%.
Now, with the old company, they were 27.
Wow.
But I'm gonna send my sister down and her H.
R.
Team.
I want to make people's life easier.
So I want to make sure that everybody is aware of everything we do.
Okay.
We talked about you getting married, so I'm gonna send you to Hawaii for your honeymoon.
Wow.
I want you to have a great time on us.
Oh, wow.
I'm just in shock.
I want my hug.
I think his generosity is great.
It's sweet.
Because he don't have to do it.
Dee Dee, I'm very proud of you.
It's hard being a single, working mother of three.
I try.
Thank you.
I know you're torn between working extra hours for money and time with your family.
I heard you when you talked to me that you wanted to go back to school.
Mm-hmm.
I'm gonna give you $5,000 towards your school.
Oh.
That is And I--I want you to take advantage of it.
You have the ability.
Yes.
You're a smart girl.
Don't let me down now.
Go to school.
I won't.
The second thing I want to do for you, I'd like to ease some of your burden by paying your daycare costs for a year.
Oh.
That way you can maybe put a little more money on the side.
That's so helpful.
Thank you.
Oh, you're gonna make my cry.
He just made me the happiest person.
I mean, I go to work, you know, Them paying for my daycare, and paying for me to be able to go back to school-- you know, that's a huge help.
He really-- I--I still don't think that he really knows how much I'm grateful for that.
Julie, you're a very special person.
Some of the things we did together, they're gonna help a lot of people in the company.
Your suggestions were tremendous.
You know, you're that "y" generation.
You're the guys who are thinking all the time.
You know, we're kind of stuck in the mud a little bit, so we need those ideas out of you.
I mean, just that idea you had coming up with the rod to load those carts, I can't compliment you enough.
Thank you.
What we're gonna do for you, just for coming up with that idea and helping the whole company, we're gonna give you $5,000, just for that one thing.
That'll really help you.
I hope.
Thank you.
Very much.
You have a young daughter.
I want to do one more thing for you.
We're gonna pay your rent and utilities for the next year to help you out.
Thank you.
I go to work and I do my job.
That's just what I do.
I don't go in there expecting to get a pat on the back every day, so this, I mean, this is really big.
Really big to me.
Tony, you taught me a lot.
You're doing a job that hasn't changed in 40 years, and that's a mistake on our part.
And I'm gonna need you to help make that job a better job.
I need you.
Okay.
And there will be some people coming down to work with you.
Okay.
Tony, I know it's been difficult for you to travel and see your family members.
I want to help you out with that for special occasions, holidays, whenever you think you want to visit and be with your family.
I want to give you a check for $5,000.
Oh.
To use as you see fit for those times.
Tony, I know you and your son really bond over football, so I wanted to send you and your son to this year's Super Bowl game.
Whoa.
Man.
That is wonderful.
All expenses paid.
I don't know what to say but thank you.
Me and my son are going to the Super Bowl.
Can you believe that? That's That's priceless.
I've never seen my grandkids, 'cause they're in New Jersey, and I can't afford to go.
Now we'll be able to see each other.
It's amazing.
I am so excited to get out there and get this crew going.
You know, it really comes down to our culture, our family.
And the passion that I saw out in the field was great.
The President and CEO of UniFirst corporation, my Big Brother, Ron Croatti.
For the last week, I worked undercover.
I went undercover, and I'd like to report back to you what I found.
We're a family.
A family culture.
We have some people here with us that have been struggling, but they went on the right path in life.
So with that, I'd like to introduce some of the people that I worked with.
And let's take a quick look at our video.
Come on.
We can go faster than that.
You have to use your body sometimes.
Use your belly.
Use your belly.
Get 'em all out? Yes, sir.
I'll sleep like a baby tonight.
My mustache is coming loose, because I'm sweating like a horse.
We're a family.
A family It's my father's legacy.
And it's been 40 years since I've been down there, sweeping floors and folding shop towels, and I wanted to see if that culture was in place.
And I want to report to you that that culture is in place and doing very well.
Families have struggles, but they all work through their struggles.
I thank you very much.
When I see all my people together, I know we're a family.
We have great people with great ideas, and we got to get those ideas up the pipeline.
I think my father would be very proud of what we've accomplished.
He would be very proud of the company, where it's gone.
I guess he would be overwhelmed.
That's probably the best word I could use.
Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.
Public distrust of wealthy CEOs remains high.
But more and more bosses are looking for radical ways to reconnect with their workforce in order to find out what's really going on in their companies.
Each week, we follow the boss of a major corporation as they go undercover in their own company.
This week The President and CEO of the UniFirst corporation, one of North America's largest producers of work wear and uniforms poses as a former shop owner looking to return to the work force.
Hi, Mike Daniels.
- How are you? - Nice to meet you.
The boss will trade in his luxury SUV and model train set For a sewing machine and industrial washer.
- Let it go.
- Oh! By working on the front line, he'll discover what needs improving in the business.
One of my biggest headaches is getting the knots out.
Yeah, got to be a better way.
And he'll discover the unsung heroes that make his business run.
I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't make mistakes and try to change 'em.
How will his coworkers react when they find out he's really the boss? And how will it change their lives? I went undercover, and I'd like to report back to you what I found.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
UniFirst Corporation provides work wear and uniforms for more than a million and a half workers across North America.
Its headquarters are in Wilmington, Massachusetts.
Overseeing the 10,000 employees at this billion-dollar corporation is one man.
I'm Ron Croatti, Chief Executive Officer and President of UniFirst corporation.
Hey, guys.
What's going on? UniFirst corporation is a leading provider of uniform services throughout the United States.
We do business for Walmart, Costco, Goodyear, General Electric.
We manufacture, sell, we process the garments, we clean them, press them, mend them, bring them back to you at a fair price.
UniFirst has been around for a long time, over 75 years.
The company was really started by my grandfather.
My grandmother was a presser.
He was the washer.
As immigrant Italians, their whole life was involved in this little business.
My grandfather was crushed by a washing machine.
The washing machines in those days, you had to basically go inside.
He was, uh, pulling the clothes out of the washer, and the washer started.
He got killed.
And, you know, their whole life was in this, and they wanted to keep it going for their own survival, and my dad stepped up with his leadership style and his salesmanship, and was able to build it up from a little, small business of one or two employees to about $60, $70 million.
When I started, I was probably about 12 or 14.
I would come down to the plant with him and go sweep up the mop room, or You know, and I'd get a buck or something, or he'd take me to a baseball game.
And he ran it until he had his heart attack, and he basically said, "son, I can't keep going," and he passed me the keys.
How you doing? Good.
I thought I'd check in for any last-minute suggestions.
Members of the family are important to a company.
They keep that culture, that team-manship.
And anything you find, I mean, you could fix, which is great.
Everything is fixable.
You know that.
Absolutely.
My sister, she's the Executive Vice President.
I'll see ya, sis.
So exciting.
So proud of you.
You have a good week.
And then my son, Michael, is one of the Regional Vice Presidents, and I'm grooming him, hopefully, to succeed me.
Okay.
Okay.
You ready? There you go.
Met Ron when I was working at the New Kensington location of UniFirst.
What do you want? What do you want, huh? I was an employee there.
That was about 35 years ago, so we've been together a very long time.
I have an escape at home.
I'm a big model train guy.
I can get lost in it from maybe 10:00 to 11:30 at night and unwind.
Done playing trains? Done playing trains.
Good.
Hey, Carol? Yeah.
Come here.
Which one of these-- you think these look better? Oh, my gosh.
Let me see.
I like that one.
I like that one.
That looks good.
Yeah.
That ain't too bad.
Could be a little lighter.
Yeah.
- It's gonna be lonely at night.
- Aw.
We just concluded our 2010 year.
It was our highest revenue year ever.
My goal is to have UniFirst be a $2 billion company by 2020.
So I'm going undercover to make sure that everything's running smoothly and we meet that goal.
Have a good trip, okay? Don't be nervous.
Okay? - Thanks, babe.
- All right.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Mike Daniels, former hobby store owner who has to return to work because of the recession.
My employees are gonna be told that I'm taking part in a reality show where two retired workers are competing for one open job at UniFirst.
I certainly am a nervous guy this morning.
I don't know what to expect.
Staying in character's gonna be important.
I think the disguise that I'm using and putting on, this is a look that's a little beyond my normal character, and even when I was a young guy I wasn't like this, so this is a little beyond me.
Well, today we're in Owensboro, Kentucky.
This is the hub of the company.
In this building, we have over 300 people.
We have to produce anywhere from a day out of here, and they have to get it out on a timely basis.
I'm supposed to meet Dee Dee please.
Okay.
Just a moment.
If you don't care to sign in.
Hi, Mike.
I'm--I'm Suzanne.
I'm the general manager.
I'm gonna get you to Dee Dee.
If you'll follow me, we'll get you all set up.
How's that? I'll follow you.
Today I'm gonna be working in the seal and sew department.
These people not only alter the pants, but they put the emblems and the personalization on.
I'm here to make sure that these people really do the quality job that our customers require.
I am here, Dee Dee.
All right.
This department is sew-seal.
The reason it's called sew-seal is because we sew the emblems on, and we heat seal I.
D.
Tags on here.
This is hot, okay? - I.
D.
Tags? - Uh-huh.
I'll show you.
Okay.
So go ahead and get your I.
D.
Tags out of there.
That lets them know the city and the state it goes to, and the actual person that it goes to in that company.
Okay.
The I.
D.
Tags have a self-adhesive stick on the back, so when the heat hits it on here, that's how they stick on there.
Boy, a lot of technical stuff here already.
I know.
So the I.
D.
Tag goes right above this line, so that when the person has it on, you don't see it.
All right, so you ready? Yep.
"B.
" This is a regular shirt, so it'll be on "B.
" Hit these both, same time, and it goes down.
All right.
How many of these you got to do an hour? Um, I try to get 100 on each one in an hour.
Wow.
Do you think we can do that today? We're gonna certainly try.
We can certainly try, okay? We are based on incentive over here, so the faster we work, the more we're gonna get paid.
You get paid on incentive? That's pretty good.
Yes, only if you're good, though.
If you're not good, then you got to go.
Okay? I'm gonna tear these down.
Come on.
We can go faster than that.
Now it's already on "b," so just hit the sides.
And it goes down.
Now go ahead and unbutton your next one.
Try it again.
Try it again.
Use your belly.
- I got that.
- You can use your belly.
There we go.
As we were heat sealing the labels, some of the garments were long, and they're weighted.
"A.
" Mm-hmm.
Use your belly.
There we go.
My stomach would help hold the garments in place.
It is 10:00.
We are so behind.
All right.
Here we go.
Okay.
Wow.
Now you think you can handle this? - No.
- Okay.
You're going Don't try to go fast like I do, because if you mess up, you have to pick all those stitches out.
Wait a minute.
Try to stay as close to the edge as possible.
But see, you don't want to hit it too hard.
If you pedal down too hard, yeah, see, your stitches are gonna be too small.
Don't want you screwing up my shirts.
I think we screwed that one up.
Yeah, I can tell.
It probably didn't overlap.
No, it didn't.
Mike sucked.
He has a heavy foot.
He would push the pedal too hard and not move his hands fast enough.
Think we destroyed a shirt here.
They're not gonna make any money here.
They're gonna start charging me for shirts.
- It's hard, isn't it? - Oh, wow.
Yeah.
My sewing skills are nonexistent.
I mean, that's a very difficult job.
Requires a lot of coordination.
Failure.
I've never worked in a factory before until I worked here, you know.
And what'd you do before? The fall of last year, I started going back to school and stuff, but it became really difficult when I wasn't able to get out in time for some of my classes, and I didn't have time to do my homework, with working, you know, and then having to go home, and I had children that I had to-- you know, that constantly need my attention.
You have children? - Yes, I have three.
- Young girl.
I know, that's what everyone-- you have three children? I'm shocked.
I know, and don't you say it.
Do not say, "you don't look like you have three kids," 'cause everybody says that, and I don't know what people look like that have three kids.
Like me.
I guess that's what people mean.
I guess.
But I am intere-- I'm trying to get back into going back to school, because-- To do what? I want to be a clinical therapist.
I know I have the gift of gab, but I'm also a good listener, and I try to give the best advice as possible, you know? And it's just a really difficult task, trying to juggle both of 'em, because, you know, if you're even, you know, like, a minute late or whatever, you'll get a tardy.
You're only allowed six tardies in a year.
And that includes if you go home early.
Even though they know that you've been here all day because you've scanned your work in and out, you still get a tardy.
You know, I've been here for two years, and so I know what it's like, you know, to feel like if you're gonna be tardy one more time you're gonna lose your job.
I don't understand why they do that.
I don't either.
Do you ever ask? Yeah.
And what do they tell you? Well, that that's their policy.
And, I mean, you know They should tell you why.
You're just kind of stuck with it.
You know, Dee Dee brought up the fact that the tardiness system was right on the dot.
And I think there are times Dropping off the babies to the babysitter, you can be three or four minutes late.
My kids are my life.
- It's all about family.
- Yeah.
You know, as a company, we want to be fair to the people.
That's a lot better.
You got to give a little leeway.
That's you.
You did that.
You did it.
Coming up, Mike has a mustache mishap.
My mustache is coming loose, because I'm sweating like a horse.
And, later, the boss causes the conveyor belt to be shut down.
Put that on backwards.
Oh, my-- Oh, now we're screwed up.
Ron Croatti, President and CEO of UniFirst corporation is a boss undercover in his own company.
His employees think he's part of a show where two retirees are in competition for a job at UniFirst.
You will be working in production with myself today.
His journey continues in Sumter, South Carolina.
Today I'm in Sumter, South Carolina.
This is a company that we purchased about four years ago, and when you acquire another company, it has a distinct personality.
It's gonna be different from your personality.
The first reason why I'm here is to see that the morale and our culture is in place.
We bring in a family culture and a great sales motivation to grow the business.
I'll be working in the shipping department.
If the garments get shipped to the wrong customer, it's a disaster.
It's very important that we get things back to the right guy at the right time.
Hi.
Good morning.
I'm Mike Daniels.
I'm here to see Squeeky.
Yes, sir.
Squeeky, please come to the front office.
I'm a little nervous coming in here.
You know, will they recognize me, or not recognize me? So, you know, I'm a little concerned going in here, but hopefully I can get to the bottom of what I want to see.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Squeeky, I'm Mike Daniels.
- How are you? - Nice to meet you.
You too.
Ready to work? - Ready to work.
- All right now.
Your uniform is in this locker.
Okay, very good.
Show me.
Okay, this is the flat good area.
Okay.
So we need to fold five aprons, put 'em in a little pile, of the same color.
Of the same color.
I'm watching you.
I got to grab it by the strings.
Right.
This side.
Is there an upside down or inside out? See how I got it? Flip it like that.
Wait a minute.
Is there a right side and a wrong side? No.
Fold it.
Put it on the table.
Put your string on the inside.
Fold.
Third.
In.
Down.
No, no, no, no.
No, Mike.
What'd I do wrong? Never folded an apron in my life.
When you flip it, you go in the way you flip.
'Cause you got to keep that side hidden.
All right.
Let's try another one.
Can you put some speed on it? Hmm? Are you ignoring me? No, I didn't hear you.
Oh.
I said, "can you put some speed on it?" Put some speed on it? Yeah.
I'm trying.
I guess you did okay for a beginner.
- For a beginner? - Yeah.
This is the sorter.
The sorter operation.
Okay.
Once the clothes come up, they go around, and then they end up over here.
And once we tie it and put the bag on it, it's ready for delivery.
It goes out the door on the trolley.
So what I need for you to do is come over here.
Hit your starter button.
And that gets the machine rolling.
So only thing you have to do is stand here and make sure your hanger goes in this feeder correctly, because sometimes That's all? That simple? For this spot, yeah.
So, Squeeky, how'd you get the name Squeeky? My grandfather gave it to me.
When I was little, I used to cry a lot, and he said it sounded like a little squeaking noise, so he named me Squeeky, and it's been following me.
- How many kids you got? - Just one.
Just one? How old? You go any place? Vacations or? No.
No? You don't go anywhere? Not really.
Back and forth to Greenville.
Because I'm getting ready to get married.
And my fiance is from over there.
Oh, now it's coming out.
The squeeze.
Okay, so now we're gonna work in the corner.
It's gonna be like we're preparing the clothes to go out the door.
Everything that looks like this got to have the bag on it.
And remember, where you pick it up from, you have to put it back.
So you got to move with it.
You having trouble? Trouble? Panic.
Mike cannot do it.
He couldn't walk and put the poly on the clothes at the same time.
You want me to stop the line for you? I don't--I don't know.
Oh, well, now we're screwed up.
He was working too slow.
We're not supposed to stop the line, and he had the line held up a minute or so.
Oh, Mike, Mike, Mike.
Bagging the clothes was very difficult.
You ready to go back to the sorter? Yeah, I'd rather go back to the sorter.
And how long have you been here, Squeeky? - 12 years.
- And how's that? I liked the previous company better.
Why's that? Because I felt more appreciated with the other company.
Because it seemed like they did more.
Do you have more health insurance or anything like that? There a difference? Well, we had health insurance with both companies.
So most of the people think there's a difference between the old company and the new company, or - Yeah.
- Yeah? I can pretty much say they would rather work for the other company than this one.
The former company was doing some things that she kind of thought were great, that we should still doing them, and I'm certainly gonna send down the H.
R.
Group to look into it.
You've got to be a little faster.
I might have to beat you up.
You're gonna have to beat me up.
Well, today was a really interesting day.
I worked with a girl called Squeeky.
She showed me what she does up there in shipping.
And she also expressed some concerns that the transition from the former company to us wasn't as successful as I thought.
We have programs in place, and I'm not sure they're really informed.
My father taught me "respect people," and that was his philosophy.
And if the people really aren't as happy or as aware of all the benefits and everything that we provide for them, they're gonna be a little insecure.
And I'd like to get that security into these people, to know that they are part of the family.
Today we're in Oklahoma City.
This plant is one of our newest plants, and we process about of laundry through here.
This is where all the dirty stuff comes in.
It's garments, it's mops, it's mats, aprons.
But the unloading process is the key to the whole quality of our product, and I'm here to work with a fella who's involved in unloading the vehicles.
They call him a sorter.
And he also works in the washroom.
Is Tony around? Tony? Yeah, how you doing? - I'm Mike.
- Hey, Mike.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
You're gonna be working back here with me today as a unloader.
Okay.
And we're gonna be doing some rags, so it's gonna be pretty fast paced.
Kind of intense.
All right, Tony, we're ready.
Okay, now what we got to do, our mission right now, is to get all these rags done, all those rags done, get 'em over there, get 'em sorted out, so these guys can wash 'em, okay? Sounds like a big mission.
Yeah, we got to hum, man.
We got to hum.
When you got wet mops and you got bar mops and you got aprons in the same bag, you got to dump it out and sort it out.
Dump that on the floor.
Now you want to sort.
I'll do this one, and I'll meet you there.
To be honest, at first, I thought we were doomed.
'Cause I didn't think he could handle it.
Your back tired at night? Nope.
I'm used to it.
Got a strong back.
I was like, "this guy's not gonna be able to bend down.
He's not gonna be able to do it.
" Got to be a better way to do this than this.
Yeah.
Would a table be good for this? I got a table.
It doesn't work.
They give you the tables because maybe that's what it says in the manual, but the guy that wrote the manual ain't doing the rags.
Boy, you're fast, Tony.
You got to be, man.
Everybody's got a step to do, and if you don't get yours done, they can't do theirs.
There you go.
Get rid of that cart, and we'll get another one.
They tied it too.
- Yep.
- They tied it crazy.
- Yeah.
- Who does that? - The drivers.
- The drivers? Well, if they had to take 'em out, they wouldn't tie 'em the way they tie 'em.
See, I wish I could come up with a design for a new bag that didn't have to be tied.
One of my biggest headaches is getting the knots out.
Yeah.
Got to be a better way.
Sorting the various products that came in, the knots that are tied into those bags are an issue.
We got to come up with a better system.
How you looking? We're getting there.
Mike really needs to pick up the pace.
He really needs to pick up the pace.
'Cause got to realize, he'd be doing this by himself.
Knock these out and you're gonna feel good.
I'm gonna be going to sleep.
You're gonna go to sleep? No.
Then I got more work to do.
Tonight.
I'll sleep like a baby tonight.
My mustache is coming loose because I'm sweating like a horse.
Got a little nervous and had to come out for emergency repairs.
If he notices that the mustache comes off, this whole thing could be ruined.
That's really a tough job.
Yeah.
It really is.
You do very well at that.
As we were walking over to those washers, had a little hesitancy thinking way back to how my grandfather got killed in one of those washers.
Here's your job right here.
It's gonna spin, pull the bag out, and send that puppy home.
No, you want to hold this.
Hold--hold--hold on.
You want to hold this.
This rope.
So you want to hold the rope.
Okay.
Pull this yellow all the way down.
Pull it down.
Well, I was trying to show him how to load the washer.
Now pull it down.
Okay, keep holding it.
Keep holding it.
And, uh, it's not something you can just do one time and get it.
Remember, you got to hold it, 'cause it's gonna fall out once we let it go.
Let it spin.
Now step in there.
Let it go.
Whoa! Here's your job.
Right here.
Now pull it down.
Okay, keep holding it.
Keep holding it.
Whoa.
You all right? - Yup.
- Got to let it go.
He didn't quite let it go all the way and get his arm out of there, so his arm was starting to go around a little bit.
And then he's got another arm, so I wasn't too worried.
There's a little rhythm to it.
I left my arm in there too long.
You know, it was a little scary.
I'm gonna take five.
You want me to come with ya? Sure.
I just usually step out here.
Are you from Oklahoma? No, I'm originally from St.
Louis.
Let me bum one of those.
Yep.
What brought you down here? Well, me and my wife had got separated, and then brought my son down.
'Cause he was going to school in St.
Louis, and, man, he was getting in all kind of trouble.
Fighting teachers and making straight Fs.
So I convinced his mother to let him come and live with me.
How's he doing? Making Bs and Cs and That's what you want.
Star on the football team, and ain't been in no trouble since.
That's a smart move.
Yeah.
You know.
I hope it works out.
It'll work out.
Yeah, my son loves football.
That's why I work this shift, so I can get off, watch him play.
I think Tony's a very nice man.
During the regular season they play on Fridays, so I have to get off here.
Game starts at 7:00, and don't forget I come in here at 4:00 in the morning, so by the time I get to bed after his game, it's like 12:00 midnight or something.
Wow, that's a lot.
He's got that hard work ethic.
He likes what he does.
But he's focused on his family.
When your kid's growing up Don't want to miss that kind of stuff.
You don't get those back, Mike.
You know what I'm saying? I know.
He's really working for his son, and that bond has brought those two together.
He's sort of like my I don't know.
He's my inspiration, man.
The man is working and looking forward.
Started down one path, but I think he's on the right path now.
Today I'm gonna be working as a supervisor.
I'm really excited to be here.
This is our most technologically advanced plant.
This plant is just over a year old, and it's about a $10 to $12 million process to put in one of these facilities.
It's a forerunner for what we want to do in the future.
- Hi.
- Hi.
I'm Mike Daniels.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Julie.
I'm the floor supervisor.
It is important for me to come here to see the floor supervisor position is working out with the new technology and hopefully meeting the demands of the customer.
It's amazing.
All the conveyors and all the clothes.
It's just an amazing place.
This is one of our newest plants, so we are truly blessed.
As a floor supervisor, there's a lot of jobs.
You have to know everything.
So right now we're gonna go jump on a triple buck, and I'm gonna show you how that works.
Okay.
Sounds interesting.
This is the triple buck.
This is where they do all the shirts.
When you're over here, the main thing you're gonna be concentrating on right now is the quality.
You're looking for holes in the shirts, buttons missing, tags loose, whatever it is.
We don't want to send 'em out to the customer like that.
They pay for their stuff to be clean, and they pay for it to look a certain way.
So you're inspecting as you're pressing? - Yes.
- I understand.
Um, we have standards here, and we come here and work for eight hours, but we're working for the customer.
If we didn't have customers, we wouldn't have a job, right? - That's right.
- Right.
Okay, so the first parts of this is you're just gonna grab a hanger, and you're gonna stick it right in here.
You're gonna grab a shirt, and you're gonna make sure all the arms are out right.
And then you're gonna throw it on here like this.
You're gonna button the top button and you're gonna pull it down.
You're gonna straighten it out, and then you're gonna look in your little mirror, and you want to make sure everything back here is straight.
So after everything's straight, you're gonna press your two green buttons, and you're gonna send it around.
Now, when your shirt comes through, you just kind of want to glance at it and make sure there's no wrinkles.
If there's wrinkles, we're gonna pull it off and we're gonna go fix it.
- Should I try? - Go ahead.
Don't forget to put your hanger on.
- Uh-oh.
- Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Make sure everything's laying flat.
Make sure there's no creases or wrinkles.
Mike does not look like he does laundry at home.
Like, maybe he would have his wife do it for him or something.
This can't go through like that.
We cannot send this to the customer with creases on it.
At the end of the day, we have to fix it.
Mike needs to improve on paying attention to the shirts, making sure that they are a quality product.
You got to watch how they go in there, because if not, it's gonna press like it's laying.
What happened? No hanger.
I think we forgot a hanger.
Not an easy job, is it? There's a lot of detail to it, for sure.
Eventually, you know, once you get past the, you know, making sure it looks right and all that, then you got to pick up your pace.
So where did you start, Julie? Um, I started out on the floor.
Um, I was pretty persistent.
I knew where I wanted to be, and eventually the opportunity came.
After a few months, they decided to promote me to lead, and then when I was here at 11 months, they offered me the floor supervisor position.
Well, how far would you like to go? Eventually, I'd like to be up in corporate.
So I'm gonna take you over to our next area.
Okay.
Very good.
We're going to final shipping.
This is the last area that the clothes actually go through before it goes to the driver and goes out to the customer.
When I first started working here, we used to have to put all the stuff up on the trolleys, like, how it goes upstairs, and we'd have to take it all the way to the back and put 'em into the cages from there, and I just made the comment, you know, maybe we should build something here to where we could bring the cages to us, that way it would save some time, so that's what they did.
This handy dandy pole, welded some stuff together, and we made an extension onto this pole.
And it just fits directly in there and comes up.
And you connect it.
That way-- you thought of that? I thought of it, yes.
Good girl.
And it just makes it easier when you cage.
Oh, yeah.
Julie worked with the maintenance crew and developed an easy system that'll load out carts to go to the shuttle plants, and it saves basically a half hour a day.
And that's tremendous.
So where did you learn all these management skills and good ideas? Just part of wanting to make things better.
Think we all fall short sometimes.
But I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't make mistakes and try to change 'em.
So you from the area? Yes, I grew up here till I was 15.
Eventually I ended up in Missouri, and I lived there for two years, and got into a lot of trouble.
And so I came back here thinking that, you know, a geographical change would change my life, and unfortunately I took me with me.
Yeah.
So not much changed.
And then in 2007 I got pregnant, and that's--that's when I changed my life.
So what did you do when you went to Missouri? What'd you do? Just try to escape from your parents or--? - Childhood, I think.
- Childhood? Yeah, I had some things happen in my childhood that kind of pushed me more into bad things.
I got pretty involved with drugs.
It's hard to come out of.
Yeah.
You know, I did it for many years.
I lost a lot of weight.
And, pretty much, because I started so young, I started when I was 16, and I didn't actually quit until I was 22.
So, um, that's all I knew.
How'd you-- how'd you come out of it? Rehab? Rehab.
Several times.
But it seems like it all worked out very well.
You got a precious little daughter.
She motivates me.
For sure.
She pushes me every day.
But, you know, we all struggle.
I think Julie is a tremendous person.
She basically has come a long ways in her personal life.
I live in a halfway house.
It's sober living.
Sometimes I'll go work another job, try to make some extra money, which kind of sucks, 'cause I'm not spending time with my daughter on the weekends, but to get where I need to be to get out of the situation I'm in, I mean, that's just what I have to do right now.
Everybody has a problem somewhere along the line, and to overcome it and step up makes you a better person.
It's about time to clock back in and get back to work.
Let's go back to work.
She's a great trainer.
She explains things well.
So I really think she's a real asset to the company.
Do you follow football or anything down here? Um, I have to go for o.
U.
In the last week, I've met some great individuals.
And each one of these people had the intestinal fortitude and the desire to really step up and take a new path to the future.
A family relies on one thing.
Communications.
It's not only the talking to each other, it's the expression of how you feel, the love, the emotion.
Those same principles come over to a company.
UniFirst is a 75-year-old company.
I've been running this business since 1986.
We need the input from the younger generation who are a little closer to the issues down in the field.
And what I love about these people is they come forward with good suggestions, and they got to get up to us.
They got the answers to solve our problems, and we just got to reach out to 'em, and the company will be much better off.
Coming up, Ron's employees think they're coming to company headquarters to cast their vote.
I got to choose one person over another person, and, to be honest, I'm pretty much emotionally drained.
But how will they react when he reveals the truth? I'm Ron Croatti, Chief Executive Officer and President of UniFirst corporation.
My week undercover is over.
I was amazed by the stories of the various people I dealt with in the last week, but they also brought to light some of the issues that we may have as an organization that centers around communications.
We really have to do a better job of communications to all our team partners.
Good morning, guys.
- Hey.
- Hey! Hi, sid.
How are ya? How you doing? I got to tell ya, it was a fantastic week.
Our frontline supervisor is a gal who came up with a great suggestion of extending the railing system to load the carts, and it saved and we really should be soliciting stuff like that from these people.
Down in a soil room, I must have spent five minutes untying a knot.
So we're gonna come up with, like, a plastic type deal that we can zip cut for the bags.
We observe people doing things.
You know, we've got to quit observing and do.
And we have opportunity out there to do more for our customers.
Mm-hmm.
And for our people.
My employees think they're coming to corporate headquarters to cast their vote.
They're really here so I can reveal my undercover experience.
They're ready for you now, Tony.
Okay.
Thank you.
I got to choose one person over another person, and I've never been in that position before.
My heart is beating really hard, and I feel like it's gonna come out of my chest.
You know me? I recognize your voice.
And who's that? Mike.
So you recognize me as Mike, huh? Yes.
And you didn't vote for me.
I'm Ron Croatti, Chief Executive Officer and President of UniFirst corporation.
Say what now? It's exciting.
It's exciting.
That a girl.
What do you think of that one? You got me.
I got you.
You got me.
Squeeky, you're tremendous.
You had patience with me, showing me what you do.
You work hard up there.
Yes.
I can see a path for you where you can become a supervisor if you want to do it.
Yes.
Yes.
You know, we talked about the difference from the prior company to when we bought it two years ago, and there were some differences.
Well, I compared, personally compared, all those differences.
You know, our benefits are roughly 33%.
Now, with the old company, they were 27.
Wow.
But I'm gonna send my sister down and her H.
R.
Team.
I want to make people's life easier.
So I want to make sure that everybody is aware of everything we do.
Okay.
We talked about you getting married, so I'm gonna send you to Hawaii for your honeymoon.
Wow.
I want you to have a great time on us.
Oh, wow.
I'm just in shock.
I want my hug.
I think his generosity is great.
It's sweet.
Because he don't have to do it.
Dee Dee, I'm very proud of you.
It's hard being a single, working mother of three.
I try.
Thank you.
I know you're torn between working extra hours for money and time with your family.
I heard you when you talked to me that you wanted to go back to school.
Mm-hmm.
I'm gonna give you $5,000 towards your school.
Oh.
That is And I--I want you to take advantage of it.
You have the ability.
Yes.
You're a smart girl.
Don't let me down now.
Go to school.
I won't.
The second thing I want to do for you, I'd like to ease some of your burden by paying your daycare costs for a year.
Oh.
That way you can maybe put a little more money on the side.
That's so helpful.
Thank you.
Oh, you're gonna make my cry.
He just made me the happiest person.
I mean, I go to work, you know, Them paying for my daycare, and paying for me to be able to go back to school-- you know, that's a huge help.
He really-- I--I still don't think that he really knows how much I'm grateful for that.
Julie, you're a very special person.
Some of the things we did together, they're gonna help a lot of people in the company.
Your suggestions were tremendous.
You know, you're that "y" generation.
You're the guys who are thinking all the time.
You know, we're kind of stuck in the mud a little bit, so we need those ideas out of you.
I mean, just that idea you had coming up with the rod to load those carts, I can't compliment you enough.
Thank you.
What we're gonna do for you, just for coming up with that idea and helping the whole company, we're gonna give you $5,000, just for that one thing.
That'll really help you.
I hope.
Thank you.
Very much.
You have a young daughter.
I want to do one more thing for you.
We're gonna pay your rent and utilities for the next year to help you out.
Thank you.
I go to work and I do my job.
That's just what I do.
I don't go in there expecting to get a pat on the back every day, so this, I mean, this is really big.
Really big to me.
Tony, you taught me a lot.
You're doing a job that hasn't changed in 40 years, and that's a mistake on our part.
And I'm gonna need you to help make that job a better job.
I need you.
Okay.
And there will be some people coming down to work with you.
Okay.
Tony, I know it's been difficult for you to travel and see your family members.
I want to help you out with that for special occasions, holidays, whenever you think you want to visit and be with your family.
I want to give you a check for $5,000.
Oh.
To use as you see fit for those times.
Tony, I know you and your son really bond over football, so I wanted to send you and your son to this year's Super Bowl game.
Whoa.
Man.
That is wonderful.
All expenses paid.
I don't know what to say but thank you.
Me and my son are going to the Super Bowl.
Can you believe that? That's That's priceless.
I've never seen my grandkids, 'cause they're in New Jersey, and I can't afford to go.
Now we'll be able to see each other.
It's amazing.
I am so excited to get out there and get this crew going.
You know, it really comes down to our culture, our family.
And the passion that I saw out in the field was great.
The President and CEO of UniFirst corporation, my Big Brother, Ron Croatti.
For the last week, I worked undercover.
I went undercover, and I'd like to report back to you what I found.
We're a family.
A family culture.
We have some people here with us that have been struggling, but they went on the right path in life.
So with that, I'd like to introduce some of the people that I worked with.
And let's take a quick look at our video.
Come on.
We can go faster than that.
You have to use your body sometimes.
Use your belly.
Use your belly.
Get 'em all out? Yes, sir.
I'll sleep like a baby tonight.
My mustache is coming loose, because I'm sweating like a horse.
We're a family.
A family It's my father's legacy.
And it's been 40 years since I've been down there, sweeping floors and folding shop towels, and I wanted to see if that culture was in place.
And I want to report to you that that culture is in place and doing very well.
Families have struggles, but they all work through their struggles.
I thank you very much.
When I see all my people together, I know we're a family.
We have great people with great ideas, and we got to get those ideas up the pipeline.
I think my father would be very proud of what we've accomplished.
He would be very proud of the company, where it's gone.
I guess he would be overwhelmed.
That's probably the best word I could use.
Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.