Undercover Boss (2010) s02e19 Episode Script
Synagro
Americans are worried about the economy.
Many of them wonder if our corporate and elected leaders have the answers to our problems.
In these tough times, some bosses are taking radical steps to discover how to improve their companies.
Each week, we follow the head of a major organization as they work undercover alongside their own staff.
this week, Undercover Boss's dirtiest mission yet.
- Oh, what is all this? - Yeah, that's, um, sludge.
The President and CEO of Synagro, America's largest waste treatment corporation, poses as a former chemical plant worker looking to change his ways.
- Formerly.
A recovering one.
The boss will trade in his motorcycle and personal aircraft for a bulldozer and rubber gloves.
- I should have gotten me one of them long-sleeved shirts.
By working on the front lines, he'll get an up-close look at his own company.
- That's really clumpy.
Never in my life did I think I would be grabbing sludge with my bare hands.
In fact, it made me pretty damn uncomfortable.
- Watch your step.
- This is when the fun begins, buddy.
Will he be able to handle being waist deep in his own business? - Yeah, I definitely want to see this.
- Reach more down in this thing.
- I had no idea what I was in store for.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
With over 860 employees and facilities operating in 34 states, Synagro is the largest waste treatment corporation in America today.
And at the head of this $350 million business is one man.
- I'm Bill Massa, the President and CEO of Synagro.
Synagro is the largest waste water treatment company today.
I've been the CEO of Synagro for a little less than one year.
I've had some interesting jobs in my career.
Never did I think I would wind up in the poop industry.
Synagro takes waste water from the city and treats it.
Waste water is what goes down the toilet.
Just imagine for a minute, if you would, what would happen if that material just kept piling up and piling up and piling up.
All those sewers have to go someplace, so we've taken that material and take the water out of it and get it down to a solid, treat it, and then find a beneficial use for it such as green energy, fertilizer, composting.
So a wide range of different things that can be done with it.
Like probably most everyone else, when I first found out what Synagro did, I was astonished.
I had no idea that that goes on.
But using human waste as fertilizer is something that's been going on for thousands of years.
In fact, George Washington used it at Mount Vernon.
And the more that we can recycle, the less of an impact we'll have on the planet going forward.
I was born in Brooklyn, New York.
I had a middle class upbringing.
I paid for my way through college through a Navy scholarship.
I was in nuclear submarines for seven years.
I've worked in everything from biotech and pharmaceuticals, the chemical industry, where I worked for about 15 years.
The environment wasn't at the top of their list.
It wasn't a big priority for them.
I spent the first 15 years of my career polluting the earth, and now, hopefully, in the next 15 years, cleaning it up.
A lot of bad things had happened in the previous administration.
A few years ago, an employee attempted to influence a local board to award a contract to Synagro in an effort to increase his commission, and they were just bad businesspeople.
I'm the new CEO.
I'm thrilled to be here and very excited about sort of what we've accomplished in six or eight months and what the future holds for us.
Do we have some sauce anywhere or we're not using sauce? - No, we're just gonna do tomatoes and basil.
- I am fortunate to have a great family.
I married my high school sweetheart.
We've been married for 29 going on 30 years.
I have two great kids.
You gonna throw some garlic on there? - Yeah, and some olive oil too.
When you're at a party and people want to know what kind of business Bill is in, it's really tough cocktail conversation.
- A toast.
- People turn away and not want to be friends with you.
- Synagro had been a fast-growing company, but the last five or six years, things have stagnated because of prior management.
- Don't get dirty.
- We've made a lot of progress, but just as you can't turn a submarine around instantly, you can't turn a company around instantly.
So I want to see what's working, what's not working, how our employees are handling the change, and how I can make a difference.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Paul Stonebridge, a former supervisor in a chemical plant.
My coworkers will be told that this is a reality show which takes people that have damaged the environment and trains them to work in environmentally friendly companies.
Today is the day that I get to do my first job.
I have never blown dry my hair.
As a new CEO, I've had very limited opportunity to get out into the field, so this is a tremendous opportunity for me to get some firsthand experience.
I think I'm prepared for today but we'll find out.
Perfect.
Today I'm at the wastewater treatment plant in Knoxville, Tennessee.
I'll be working undercover with one of our centrifuge operators.
- Hello? - Hi, I'm looking for Cindy.
- I'm Cindy.
- Hi, Cindy, I'm Paul.
- Hello, Paul.
It's nice to meet you.
- Very nice to meet you.
- So you're the polluter.
- Formerly.
A recovering one.
- Okay.
First, the hard hat.
- Okay.
Cindy operates this entire plant by herself.
This is a large, complicated plant.
There are many operations here.
I want to understand what really goes on behind these walls to help make our company better.
This is my first time at this facility.
I'm sure I have a lot to learn.
- You have no idea what we're doing here, do you? - I have no idea.
- You have none.
Everything you flush down the toilet in knox county comes into this plant.
The whole idea is to separate the solids from the liquid.
We take it to the farms and use it as fertilizer, and one of the things we do is we pull samples because it has to be a certain quality before it can go to the field.
- I see.
Where's all the people that help you do all this stuff? - I'm it.
- You're what? Okay.
- We're late on the samples, so I hope you're in good shape.
- Pretty good shape, yeah.
- 'Cause we're gonna run.
- Okay, great.
- Let's go.
- Let's do it.
- You gotta keep up.
Oh, yeah.
This is called a sample bag, and - All right.
- Well, you are, anyway.
You're gonna scoop it up.
- Okay.
- From between the augers.
Do not put your hand below the level of the auger.
- That's good advice.
It's really clumpy.
- Are you messing with me? Handling sludge is icky.
Never in my life did I think I would be grabbing sludge with my bare hands.
In fact, it made me pretty damn uncomfortable.
I thought I'd be doing fun stuff today.
- Don't you love the smell? - A little more or is that good? - No, that'll be good.
This way.
Come on.
I really am running behind.
This is that big holding tank that we showed on the computer.
Now this here, pretty disgusting.
- Yeah.
- You're looking at hair.
- Hair.
All right.
- And we take this.
- Mm-hmm.
- And you're gonna drop it down in that tank.
It's not technical, but it's very efficient.
- Exactly.
Keep it simple.
- Yeah.
Pull it out, and you hold this.
Fill it up.
- All the way.
- And it's gonna get on your hand, and it's gonna go down the bottle.
I felt kind of bad 'cause we went upstairs later and he's like, "oh, you have gloves.
" And it's like, "yeah.
" All right.
- Who is this handsome guy over here? - Oh, that's Glen.
Yeah.
I think he was three sheets to the wind, but Is he a friend of yours? - Uh, yeah.
We're kind of engaged.
- Okay.
- All right.
Let's go bring the truck in.
- All right.
- Okay.
It seems like a good name.
Really? - Yep.
This is where I open the chutes.
- Yep.
After this material is dewatered by the centrifuge, we need to collect it and then ultimately load it into the trucks.
Then the material is taken and spread by our workers out in the field.
How many loads you gotta get? - Six.
- Six! - Do you ever sit? Or is that? - Occasionally.
- When I got here, I was very concerned about how one person could handle this entire plant.
- We have not cleaned that off.
- Cindy certainly seemed to have a very good handle on that, but I think she is a unique person, and I'm not sure anyone could do that.
- That's good.
- I certainly couldn't do it.
- This way.
I'm gonna load another truck.
Come on.
I need to step it up.
- Don't let me slow you down.
- I'm used to being by myself all day.
- All right.
Well, I'll go as fast as you do.
- So we gotta suck it up.
I'll let you turn this off and then turn the other ones on.
It's pretty darn simple.
- How much? - Seven.
- Seven? - His name is Naylon.
- Naylon? Oh, okay.
- Okay, stop three and four.
- Stop.
- And then you move it to one and two.
- So does the seven-year-old grandson live with y'all? - His mom, Glen's daughter, lives with us, and he lives with us.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna go move the truck.
I hate sweating under that hard hat.
I'm not supposed to wear it when I'm driving, but I hate to take it off because of the way I feel I look when I take it - it's okay.
It's fine.
- Let's go get you a drink.
- Thank you.
I was just interested about, uh, how you got here.
- Well, first I was a mother.
- A mother.
- I was a stay-home mother.
- A little while, yeah.
- And then, uh, well, my daughter, my youngest daughter became very ill.
- Hmm.
What was going on, if you don't mind me asking? - A brain tumor.
- Oh.
Hmm.
- And, uh, we went to St.
Jude's.
- Right.
As a parent, I can't imagine what Cindy must have been feeling when she found out her daughter was sick.
St.
Jude's is a wonderful place, huh? - Yeah.
- They do miracles there.
- They really do.
- That that was tough.
- But anyway, I said I wanted to go to St.
Jude's, and so I called and they said yes.
And left at, like, and drove 7 1/2 hours to be at St.
Jude's the next day.
- Right.
- So, uh, she went through radiation treatment.
We were there about six months.
We lived for free.
One of the checkups, when we went back, and it was clear, it was like all of a sudden it hits you, you can think about tomorrow.
- Yeah, huh? - You know? Then, all of a sudden, I'm walking around the place, just crying.
- Sure.
Tears of joy.
Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
They never Bill you.
They Billed my insurance.
But they never sent me a Bill.
- Is that right? - I don't know what we would have done without 'em.
- Yeah, that's amazing.
- Uh - And she's doing great now? - She's a trouper.
- Yeah.
Where does she get that from? - I don't know.
My mother.
- Your mother.
Okay.
- You ready to run? - Okay.
- Don't forget your glasses.
- Back to work? - Somebody's smoking a cigarette.
I smell it.
- Hmm.
- Actually, that's Ray and Mark.
- I can't believe that you're smoking cigarettes.
- I know, it's just - What are you doing? - I know.
I'm trying to quit.
- Given how much physical activity she has and her grandson and how much she has to live for, I was very surprised that she smokes.
- Yeah, that's good.
- Have you tried to quit? - I've cut way back.
- Yeah? - Glen gets on me really bad about smoking.
- Does he smoke? - Never.
- Uh-huh.
See? When I first arrived, I thought all I was gonna learn about was how the centrifuge worked and the process.
I learned so much more.
This is a tough job.
You need to have a lot of different skills.
You have to have your wits about you.
And I really hope we have a lot more people like Cindy out in the field.
- Whoo! I kind of like this.
- Yeah, lookit, you finally get a break, huh? - What you doing Monday? Coming up - Be careful.
The boss enters dangerous waters.
Oh.
And later, Bill encounters his biggest job yet.
- This is when the fun begins, buddy.
- Whoa! I had no idea what I was in store for.
Bill Massa, the President and CEO of Synagro is a boss undercover in his own company.
His employees think he's a former chemical plant worker trying to go green.
- So you're the polluter.
- Formerly.
A recovering one.
His journey continues in shawnee, Kansas.
- I'm at the mill creek water treatment plant.
Today we are here to clean out the lagoon.
Some municipalities use lagoons because, frankly, they have the storage space available.
Over a period of years, it gets filled up with treated biosolids.
We'll be pumping it down and then removing the solids that have collected at the bottom.
Hi, I'm looking for Melvin.
- Hi, how are you doing? I'm Melvin.
I've been waiting on you to get here.
- All right.
Sorry.
- You're the new guy supposed to be trained for Synagro? - I am.
- We'll walk over here into the dressing room.
- Okay.
I've never been to an operation like this.
By going undercover, I can understand much more clearly how it works, how we can do better, what's working, what's not working.
All right.
- All right.
Y'all ready to go? - Yes, sir.
Thank you.
- All right.
- Oh, what is all this? Wow.
- Yeah, that's, um, sludge.
- Sludge, okay.
- All right.
- And - I see.
Okay.
Okay.
Hula pump.
All right.
That's what's taking just the sludge out? And then what happens when they take the sludge out? Fertilizer.
And the farmers are okay with that? - Real good.
Okay.
- All right.
Yep.
Right.
Oh, there we go.
Wow, that's quick.
- Okay, okay.
That went too far.
- Oh, too far? Okay.
- That's what it did.
- I didn't break it, did I? - He pulled the lever down.
Don't pull it down, all the way down.
That that kills the motor.
- All right, thank you.
I was worried.
I thought I broke it.
Okay.
Are we gonna get to do some of that too? - Yeah, we gonna.
- All right.
- Be careful.
It can be kind of rough walking down there.
- All right.
- You gotta be careful when you, uh as a matter of fact, I'd like to show you something right here.
Okay.
- Oh! - Out of one of the be careful.
Okay, watch your step.
- All right.
I don't want to be slipping down here.
Gotcha.
All right.
- Okay, we gonna - Show me how it's done.
Yeah, yeah.
Nobody took a break yet.
Now do they now do they make you move so fast that you don't do it safely or? Yeah.
All right.
All right.
When I woke up this morning, I didn't know what I was gonna be doing.
This was not one of those things.
- That's not one of those things.
- Nope, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
- A man's gotta do what he's gotta do.
- Yeah.
- Okay, then.
That's reverse.
- You just keep working it.
- Keep working it.
- Is that okay? It's like black gold out here.
- Yeah.
- Well, that's money, right? - That's money.
- How am I doing so far? Not not as good as Melvin, but, uh - Oh, you you you gettin' good as me.
I'm not I'm not that good.
- I got a good teacher.
That's all.
- What's it like working out here for a few hours at a time with no breaks? That must get get - Is there any water around this place? - Oh, man, yeah, we get you a get a bottle of water.
- All right.
It'll be all right.
I mean, there's plenty of water down here, but - no, this this water, no.
- Not drinking water.
- Here we go.
- Thank you.
- It ain't real real cold.
- Oh, that's all right.
Is it wet? Is it wet? - Yeah, it's wet.
- It's wet? All right.
- It'll wet your throat.
- All right, I need it.
- Yeah.
- Mmm.
- Me too.
You know, sometime we go on different jobs and what you need might not be there.
I keep my cool and I buy my water for myself, 'cause I know I might go on a job and I might not have no water.
- That sounds like a good idea.
- Yeah.
- Huh.
- And we had to go a coup about a mile up the road.
- Huh.
When Melvin told me at some of the job sites, there aren't even port-a-potties, I find that to be unacceptable.
These are difficult jobs out in the hot sun.
I want to be sure that when our employees are out in the field, they have what they need, and we need to fix that.
- What you think about it so far? - I like it, I like it.
- Yeah.
- You ain't smellin' nothin' but money.
- You said you're from Georgia, but you're - I'm from Mississippi.
- Mississippi, okay.
- But I workin' I workin' in Georgia.
- You work in Georgia, okay.
- Yeah.
- So you're up, away from your family.
And you, uh, that must be hard.
- Is it, like, half the time you're gone from home? Wow.
How does the family feel about you? - It's good for us and it's bad for us.
- Bad for us, right, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
- What kind of benefits do they got? Vision? - But, you know, they need vision.
- Yeah.
- Especially when I gotta travel, reading that mail.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Melvin had a great attitude about some of these challenges that he faces, but he needs to be able to focus on the job at hand.
Not only is it important for our employees to have good vision from a personal perspective, but also for job safety.
As the new CEO, clearly some issues still remain.
So when I get back, I'm gonna take a good, hard look at some of these issues to help make Melvin's job just a little bit easier.
So what do you do for fun when you get to be home a little bit? - Me and my wife, we go out to eat dinner.
We go out, uh, shopping.
- You do some shopping too? Or she does all the shopping? - She do all the shopping.
- I was gonna say, I - I just be going - You goin' to supervise.
- Yeah.
I'm going to supervise.
- Exactly.
Coming up, the boss finds a new pet.
And later, Bill finally gets his feet wet.
- How low do you have to get this down to? - Spotless.
- Spotless? Oh, jeez.
Bill Massa, the President and CEO of Synagro is a boss undercover in his own company.
- Oh, what is all this? - That's, uh, sludge.
His employees think he's a former chemical plant worker trying to go green.
- This is like black gold out here.
Well, that's money, right? His journey continues in Baltimore, Maryland.
- Today I'm at the back river wastewater treatment plant.
Here, we produce pellets.
Pellets are more versatile than cake and liquid.
They travel easier.
They can be stored for a period of time.
But that equipment needs to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and yet we still have to clean and maintain it.
I need to understand how we're able to do that and yet continue to expand our operation.
Hello? - Hello.
- Hi, I'm looking for krista.
- Krista's right down at the end of the hall on the right.
- On the end of the hall on the right.
Thank you.
Okay.
Hi, I'm looking for krista.
- Hi.
- Krista, hi.
I'm Paul Stonebridge.
Nice to meet you.
- You too.
- I'm here to learn.
- Okay.
- Today I'm going undercover with a pelletizer operator.
I am curious and excited to find out what goes on beyond those walls.
- Um, just to give you an idea of what we do around here - Please, yeah.
- We P.
M.
this equipment, which is preventative maintenance.
- Okay.
- These are our centrifuge feed pumps.
The better we take care of it, the better it runs.
What the centrifuge does is, it mixes the sludge with polymer and it makes it into a cake.
And then from there, go through the dryer, which dries it and makes it a pellet to give you your final product.
We're gonna use these today.
- Huh? We're gonna do some spackling or? - Well, you'll see what you're gonna be scraping at.
- Okay.
This is a big plant in here.
- Yeah.
- It's cool.
- We gotta clean all this up.
- What is this? - It's just buildup.
You know, just from the machine running.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
Yes.
It's always interesting, watching the new guy.
- Yep.
She kept saying, "we just gotta get this cleaned out, "because that's the way the equipment runs the most efficient.
" So that means you gotta go into the nooks and crannies and pull out big, gigantic hairballs that were like the size of softballs.
What do I do with this? A big, sticky, slimy mess.
It was it was pretty gross.
What do we do now, boss? - We're gonna clean this out of the way.
We want these open, out of our way.
So this one was making very bad cake.
- Yeah? - Because of what was laying on top of it.
I like dirty work.
Once you know what you're working with - Right.
- It's not really that horrible.
And it's got a good purpose.
I use it.
- How do you use it? - I use it in my gardens and I use it when I plant trees.
The stuff works great.
- I think that's pretty clean.
- That looks wonderful.
We're gonna move on to screen cleaning.
The wet cake goes through the dryer and a screener separates it into what is product and what goes back into what we call the recycle bin.
- I see.
- So it's very dusty.
- Okay.
- Lots and lots of buildup.
We just pull these doors down.
Okay.
- Okay.
- Have at it.
Now, you're gonna want to catch them.
In here, you might find a lot of hair.
- Oh, yeah, great.
- It's important that we keep the screeners clean because if not, we're gonna make bad product.
- Right.
Gotcha.
I should have gotten me one of them long-sleeved shirts.
- Yeah.
- The equipment in this plant is worth tens of millions of dollars.
- Krista clearly understands the concept of preventative maintenance, taking care of things as you go as opposed to spending millions of dollars to replace it later on.
That's bigger than the dog I'm getting.
Yeah, my boys are getting bigger.
I kind of need something to cuddle with on the couch.
How big are your boys? - 12 and 13.
They're good boys.
They're a lot of fun.
Into their sports.
- Those are great ages.
All right, we're making progress here, boss.
- There you go.
We're gonna go ahead and take a break.
- Oh, good.
Thank you.
- There'll be another another shift coming in.
That's looking pretty good.
- Are there other women that work here or are you the only one? - No.
I'm it.
Nothing in this plant intimidates me or or - clearly, yeah.
- It's not too bad, all in all.
So do you have any questions? - Oh, do I have questions.
Ah.
Do you, um, do you have, like, recycling and? - No.
- Oh, wow.
- A fundamental attribute of Synagro is recycling.
We're all about recycling.
We take in material and recycle it.
However, as I've gone around to a number of facilities in Synagro, I've noticed that we do not have recycling programs at many of them.
- It's a matter of it being, I guess, part of the budget.
- Very interesting.
That's something that we need to change.
- Okay.
- So, what's the, uh, what are the shifts like? - We work 6:00 to 6:00 and 6:00 to 6:00.
- Hmm.
- So we work 24/7.
All holidays.
- Huh.
- We never shut down.
- Okay.
Wow.
How does your family feel about you working here and, uh - They're very helpful.
- Oh.
So is your husband? - We're separated.
- You're separated.
I see.
That must be really tough with just by yourself and - it's tough.
T-bird, he stays with his dad.
- Okay.
So the kids come home after school or, uh? - Yeah, yeah.
- Do they have any, uh, thing they want to know what they want to do or they, uh? - Um, they want to be professional football players.
- Oh, do they? Are they, like? - My sons.
- Ah, okay.
What positions do they play? - Zack plays defense.
T-bird's tiny.
He's more, uh - T-bird is the - the smaller one.
- The smaller one, oh.
- He likes offense.
They've been having him in defense.
They're fun to watch.
I'm a very big ravens fan.
- Are you? - Yeah.
- Well, I mean, they could be the, you know, front line of the ravens.
Krista has two boys.
She clearly loves them a lot.
- I just got a tattoo on my lower back with their names on them.
- You did? - Uh-huh.
They love it.
- Do they? That's cool, that's cool.
- They love it.
It's probably a little dusty right now.
- Yeah, a little dusty.
That's cool.
She works very hard.
She brings a lot of passion to the job.
So for krista, in this place at this time, it seems to be right.
- My boys think it's funny.
Mommy works at the poopy palace.
- Okay, nice.
But clearly, we need to look at our facilities and institute recycling programs.
We still have a lot of work to do, and that's certainly gonna be one of our focuses.
- It's bad.
- Oh, good.
Whoo! Today I'm here in beautiful, chilly sparta, Wisconsin.
There are different means for storing treated biosolids.
In this facility, they store their material in a tank.
Others store it in the lagoon.
Today we'll be entering a 2.
2 million gallon tank to clean it, so I hope I'm ready for this.
Hi, I'm Paul.
I'm looking for Rich.
- Rich.
- Rich.
How you doing? - How you doing? - Good to meet you.
- We'll get you some clothes.
- All right.
Uh-oh, it looks like we're gonna be doing some serious work today.
- Some dirty stuff.
This you can have for later.
- What have you got planned for me that I'm gonna need that for? - We're gonna do some fishing.
All right, excellent.
- We're at a wastewater treatment plant.
We're cleaning a holding tank, it's called.
That big tank there.
- So what are we gonna be doing when we're down there? Are we gonna be? - We just start breaking up the solids and sludge.
- Around there.
- And, uh - and that's slowing up the pumping? - Yep.
- There's too much solids collecting down there? - Yeah.
Let's do her.
- Let's do it.
- Let's rock.
- Watch the stairs.
We've got hoses on the stairs.
- Yep.
- So watch your step.
- This is when the fun begins, buddy.
- Never before have I gone into a biosolid storage tank, so it certainly makes me nervous.
I had no idea what I was in store for.
- This is our final step before we enter the tank.
- Yeah, I definitely want to see this.
We're going down into this thing? - We are gonna go down into it.
- Oh, my God.
So who wants to be first? - Want me to go down there? - Yeah, show me how to do it.
All right, just going fishing.
That's all I gotta think about.
Not that I'm going in a two-million-gallon sludge tank.
- That's right.
- Okay.
- Paul's connected.
- The first step's a doozy.
- There will be a strong ammonia smell.
If at any time you feel overwhelmed or anything like that, just let us know and we'll get you out of there.
This place is big.
All right, I'm in it.
Nice! It's really thick out there.
Jeez! - Yeah.
Like a swamp and a pond maybe? - Oh, it's more than a yeah.
- Like quicksand.
- Really, really thick quicksand.
Yeah, it's really heavy.
The first foot or so was water, but then, pretty quickly, it was it was thick, sticky oatmeal.
Uhh! - This is our big hose.
- Okay.
- I like to call that big Bertha.
- Big Bertha, all right.
- So it's a 2 1/2 inch hose.
- Yep.
- So she got a little pressure.
I'll just show you the How you work it is, you try to get it over your shoulder, and you want to shoot by your feet.
- Really? Okay.
- To help break it up.
- Okay.
- I'll shoot around.
You'll feel it breaking up.
It'll help loosen everything up.
And you walk around the tank like that and you do just sort of, figure eights, you know.
- Okay.
- Back and forth.
It's a big boy hose.
- The water was probably about three feet deep when we got in there, but the sludge was a good foot and a half, two feet underneath it.
- Turn it on nice and slow.
You'll feel her start kicking.
And once you get it by your feet, then you can walk around.
- Whoa! - Don't tip over.
- You don't want to tip over here.
I was worried about losing my balance.
And falling into that would not have been pretty.
- You know, stick it in there, break up all the solids, and the pump will, you know, pump it out.
- It's it's solid down there.
- It it definitely is.
- It's really tough to walk in.
- There ain't no running in here, either.
- No.
No splashing, too, I heard.
- No, no.
No splashing in the pool.
- The smell is not not good.
Uhh! - How does that feel on your shoulder? - Ah, it gets to you after a while, you know what I'm sayin'? Now, what do you think of holding that for about six hours, eight hours a day? Man! I'm naturally gonna laugh at him because I've ran that hose.
I'm a big guy, so, you know, it don't kick me around as much.
And the worst part about it when you're starting to sweat, you can't wipe your face.
- Yeah, I was thinking about that.
- Being a, uh, you know, a new guy, it's sort of fun to watch.
- How long does a guy stay down in here doing this? When I get out of the tank, I'll give you a hug, and then we'll be done.
- How low do you have to get this down to? - Spotless.
- Spotless? Oh, jeez.
- You're gonna you're gonna see cement.
- How long do you think that's gonna take? - Well, you know, hopefully a couple weeks.
- A couple weeks? - I think I need a raise.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- How is the, uh, how is the pay? - The pay ain't bad.
- Yeah? - You know, we work a lot of hours, though.
- Uh-huh.
- And, uh, you know, some guys are at a set location.
- Uh-huh.
- For me to work, I gotta travel.
- Uh-huh.
- Last winter, I worked down in Atlanta.
Uh, I was on 12 different jobs this summer.
- Mm-hmm.
- Like, this job is four hours away from my home.
And it's tough.
I mean, it gets tough.
Just like every other job.
This looks pretty good.
It's at waist-level, though.
- Yeah.
- We can call it a day down here.
You want to try and pull that fire hose up? - You have family back home or? - Yep.
A close-knit family.
- Do you? - No kids yet.
- No kids? - I'm getting old, though.
Getting old.
- Are you? Hold old are you now? - Well, 27.
- 27! - Well, and I got six more days until my birthday.
- All right.
- Yeah.
- Are you doing anything special for your birthday? - I don't have nothing planned, 'cause I didn't know if I'd be out here or where.
- Well, you got another job lined up after this one or? - Where do I go next? Hopefully a job back home.
- Back home? Yeah.
- A guy can pray, right? - Yeah.
Does Synagro have a job back home? Or they have any operations around there? - No Synagro jobs are back home.
- Yeah.
- You know, the main thing is the travel.
And I average probably - 200? - You know, this traveling gets old, and, uh - Right, so you're gonna give up this for, uh, for something close to home, huh? - Yeah, I think so.
- Hopefully there'll be some way that we can keep Rich as a Synagro employee.
He's a good guy.
He's a hard worker.
I know what Rich is going through I have had to relocate for jobs several times over my career.
- When I was in the Navy, I happened to have missed my younger son's birth, and it was really one of the things that helped me to make the decision to leave the Navy.
Life is about choices, and it sounds like Rich is about to make a very tough one.
Whoo! Fresh air.
I learned a bunch of things today.
This is a tough, dirty, physical job.
- I'll try to clean you up a little bit.
- I got a chance to get firsthand experience in tank cleaning.
It's something we do a lot of, and now I have a much better appreciation for the challenges.
Are you gonna drink some beers after this or what's, uh? - I don't know.
There might be a 12-pack drained after working with that hose.
- Man.
Coming up, Bill's employees think they're coming to company headquarters to evaluate his performance.
- He was pretty good for a trainee.
I really don't see why he wouldn't be a good fit.
But how will they react when he reveals the truth? - I'm not really Paul.
- All of the employees that I've worked with this past week have been called to headquarters to review my performance.
- Would you like to have a seat, please? - Thank you.
- They have no idea why they're really here.
- He was pretty good for a trainee.
I really don't see why he wouldn't be a good fit.
- How are you doing today? - I'm fine, thank you.
- They're ready for you now.
- Okay.
Thank you.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- How are you doing? - Good, how are you? - Do you remember me? - Paul! - Paul, that's right.
- Paul, yeah, Paul.
- I am not really Paul.
I am Bill Massa, the CEO of Synagro.
- Oh, man.
- Oh, my gosh.
- You're the ce CEO? - I'm the CEO.
Chief executive officer, yeah.
- Pretty cool.
- It's a pleasure to meet you.
- Krista, as I got to know you over the course of the day, it was clear to me that you were really focused on keeping things well-maintained to make a good product for our customers.
That was really neat.
Is that the way you think about it every day or? - Yes, yes, it actually is.
And that's definitely my home away from home so - And I appreciate that.
Uh, I listened to you talk about your two sons.
That was that was that was neat.
That was really touching.
- My boys are my everything, so - I got the sense that you're a pretty good ravens fan.
- Oh, yeah.
- What I'm going to do for you and your sons is get you three tickets to all of the ravens' home games next season.
- Oh, wow.
- Okay? I hope they get to the super bowl, because if they get to the super bowl, we're gonna pay for a trip for you and your two sons to see them.
- Wow.
- We'll get you tickets for that.
- That is so incredible.
I can't wait to tell my boys.
I definitely think it's gonna blow their minds.
I think they are just gonna be beside themselves.
- Melvin, you took real good care of me when I was out there.
You taught me a lot.
- I'm glad I did.
- Yeah, you did.
In fact, one of the things that you mentioned, sometimes on some of the jobs, the bathroom and the water is not always available.
So I've already talked to the leadership team, and we're going to make sure that it is available at all of our job sites.
- Okay.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
- You also mentioned it would be nice if we had a vision plan as part of our health care.
And in fact, because of our conversation, we are going to add a vision plan for the medical benefits next year.
- Oh, man, that ah, this is all coming together now.
It's all coming together.
- Would that help? - It'll help a lot.
- Finally, you spend a lot of time away from your wife, and I appreciate the sacrifices.
So the company is going to pay for a vacation hotel, airfare, food, everything else for you and your wife.
The only condition is that it has to be a place your wife wants to go to.
- Uh Man, I tell you - I think that's better for you and me.
- Yeah, better for her me and her.
Man, that was that is something else.
My wife, she might break into tears when I tell her this.
I'm just blown away.
I can't hardly get my words right.
- Rich, I was disappointed to hear you talk about thinking of leaving the company.
- You know, a guy gets home on the weekend.
You're home for two days, and Sunday afternoon, after the first football game, you're already counting down the hours when you gotta leave on the road again.
- I respect that a lot, because I was in the Navy for seven years.
I had a really good career going on, and I had the same thing for you a fork in the road.
And it was, I'm either gonna go left and stay in the Navy for 20 years and not see my family, or I was gonna go right and start all over again, and that's why I'm particularly sensitive about this issue.
- Right.
- However, the job is the job, and I would love if all of our customers were located right next to all of our employees.
- But we know that ain't possible.
- That isn't possible.
It isn't the way it works.
I know it's not much, but to help ease the pain of being away from your family so much, I'm going to have our I.
T.
Department work with you and your family to make sure that you have the computers and the software that you need to stay in touch better.
- That would be good.
That would be good.
- I don't want to lose a good, solid employee like you.
So please, please, give it some some serious thought.
- Oh, I definitely will - we work really hard to find people like you.
- It's all it's all coming in.
You know, just soaking it in a little bit.
- It's a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
One of the things that we talked about was your birthday party.
I want to make this a spectacular birthday for you, so the company is going to pay for a nice, big party for you and your friends and your family to get together.
We'll pay for the food and the band or the dj or whatever you need.
- This'll be a special 28th birthday.
- Yeah, there you go.
- I hope you guys, uh, like to drink beer.
- Yeah, there you go.
Absolutely.
- Well, it's awesome to have a party.
Who doesn't want to have a party with their friends and family? You're crazy if you don't.
- Cindy, I was so impressed with your energy level, you passion and enthusiasm and positive attitude.
- Thank you.
- There are a couple things that I want to talk to you about.
This is a very physical job.
You know, up and down a thousand steps a day and moving around.
So one of the things I'm concerned about is your smoking, okay? - Yes.
- My mother was a long-term smoker and she quit a bunch of years ago.
And the experience that I went through with her - I've been trying.
- I know.
Well, I'm gonna help you to try.
- You're gonna help me? - Okay? As of 2011, Synagro's medical plan will pay for 100% of the products and services to help our employees stop smoking, okay? - Oh.
- So it's very important to me, you are, and I really hope you take advantage of it.
- I promise you, I'll do it.
- Okay.
You mentioned something about a grandson? - Naylon, yes.
- Exactly.
So you talked about how important family is to you.
- It is.
- So in order to insure your grandson gets off to a strong start, we are going to set up a $5,000 education fund for him.
- For Naylon? - We are.
So it's a very small token of my appreciation for how hard you work.
- Oh, that's just oh, my God.
I am just breathless.
- I was really moved by the story you told me about your daughter.
And, uh, you talked about St.
Jude's and how much they helped.
To help show St.
Jude's how much you appreciate them, the company is going to make a $10,000 donation in your name to St.
Jude's.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
My pleasure.
- Thank you.
Things like this don't happen to me.
They've never happened to me before.
Wow.
This is great.
This is so great.
- It's been an awesome adventure.
We have a lot to do, and I am really looking forward to it.
- I'd like to introduce to you Mr.
Bill Massa.
- Thank you.
Hi, I'm Bill Massa.
For the last week, I've been undercover in our company.
Surprise! During the last week, I have done some incredible jobs.
I'd like to share with you some of the highlights of that experience.
Yeah, I definitely want to see this.
We're going down into this thing? Oh, my God.
- And it's gonna get on your hand.
- Handling sludge is icky.
In fact, it made me pretty damn uncomfortable.
It has been an amazing experience.
I have learned so much.
I feel much closer to our employees.
Thank you all very much for the enormous progress we've made in the last year.
I feel very good about the path that we're on, and I am so proud to be able to call myself CEO of Synagro.
I left a good job to come to a company that handles sludge.
Many people thought I was crazy.
I believed in this company a year ago, and I have an even greater appreciation for the opportunities that we have.
I learned as much in the last week as I have in the last year.
I'm very excited about moving forward.
Many of them wonder if our corporate and elected leaders have the answers to our problems.
In these tough times, some bosses are taking radical steps to discover how to improve their companies.
Each week, we follow the head of a major organization as they work undercover alongside their own staff.
this week, Undercover Boss's dirtiest mission yet.
- Oh, what is all this? - Yeah, that's, um, sludge.
The President and CEO of Synagro, America's largest waste treatment corporation, poses as a former chemical plant worker looking to change his ways.
- Formerly.
A recovering one.
The boss will trade in his motorcycle and personal aircraft for a bulldozer and rubber gloves.
- I should have gotten me one of them long-sleeved shirts.
By working on the front lines, he'll get an up-close look at his own company.
- That's really clumpy.
Never in my life did I think I would be grabbing sludge with my bare hands.
In fact, it made me pretty damn uncomfortable.
- Watch your step.
- This is when the fun begins, buddy.
Will he be able to handle being waist deep in his own business? - Yeah, I definitely want to see this.
- Reach more down in this thing.
- I had no idea what I was in store for.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
With over 860 employees and facilities operating in 34 states, Synagro is the largest waste treatment corporation in America today.
And at the head of this $350 million business is one man.
- I'm Bill Massa, the President and CEO of Synagro.
Synagro is the largest waste water treatment company today.
I've been the CEO of Synagro for a little less than one year.
I've had some interesting jobs in my career.
Never did I think I would wind up in the poop industry.
Synagro takes waste water from the city and treats it.
Waste water is what goes down the toilet.
Just imagine for a minute, if you would, what would happen if that material just kept piling up and piling up and piling up.
All those sewers have to go someplace, so we've taken that material and take the water out of it and get it down to a solid, treat it, and then find a beneficial use for it such as green energy, fertilizer, composting.
So a wide range of different things that can be done with it.
Like probably most everyone else, when I first found out what Synagro did, I was astonished.
I had no idea that that goes on.
But using human waste as fertilizer is something that's been going on for thousands of years.
In fact, George Washington used it at Mount Vernon.
And the more that we can recycle, the less of an impact we'll have on the planet going forward.
I was born in Brooklyn, New York.
I had a middle class upbringing.
I paid for my way through college through a Navy scholarship.
I was in nuclear submarines for seven years.
I've worked in everything from biotech and pharmaceuticals, the chemical industry, where I worked for about 15 years.
The environment wasn't at the top of their list.
It wasn't a big priority for them.
I spent the first 15 years of my career polluting the earth, and now, hopefully, in the next 15 years, cleaning it up.
A lot of bad things had happened in the previous administration.
A few years ago, an employee attempted to influence a local board to award a contract to Synagro in an effort to increase his commission, and they were just bad businesspeople.
I'm the new CEO.
I'm thrilled to be here and very excited about sort of what we've accomplished in six or eight months and what the future holds for us.
Do we have some sauce anywhere or we're not using sauce? - No, we're just gonna do tomatoes and basil.
- I am fortunate to have a great family.
I married my high school sweetheart.
We've been married for 29 going on 30 years.
I have two great kids.
You gonna throw some garlic on there? - Yeah, and some olive oil too.
When you're at a party and people want to know what kind of business Bill is in, it's really tough cocktail conversation.
- A toast.
- People turn away and not want to be friends with you.
- Synagro had been a fast-growing company, but the last five or six years, things have stagnated because of prior management.
- Don't get dirty.
- We've made a lot of progress, but just as you can't turn a submarine around instantly, you can't turn a company around instantly.
So I want to see what's working, what's not working, how our employees are handling the change, and how I can make a difference.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Paul Stonebridge, a former supervisor in a chemical plant.
My coworkers will be told that this is a reality show which takes people that have damaged the environment and trains them to work in environmentally friendly companies.
Today is the day that I get to do my first job.
I have never blown dry my hair.
As a new CEO, I've had very limited opportunity to get out into the field, so this is a tremendous opportunity for me to get some firsthand experience.
I think I'm prepared for today but we'll find out.
Perfect.
Today I'm at the wastewater treatment plant in Knoxville, Tennessee.
I'll be working undercover with one of our centrifuge operators.
- Hello? - Hi, I'm looking for Cindy.
- I'm Cindy.
- Hi, Cindy, I'm Paul.
- Hello, Paul.
It's nice to meet you.
- Very nice to meet you.
- So you're the polluter.
- Formerly.
A recovering one.
- Okay.
First, the hard hat.
- Okay.
Cindy operates this entire plant by herself.
This is a large, complicated plant.
There are many operations here.
I want to understand what really goes on behind these walls to help make our company better.
This is my first time at this facility.
I'm sure I have a lot to learn.
- You have no idea what we're doing here, do you? - I have no idea.
- You have none.
Everything you flush down the toilet in knox county comes into this plant.
The whole idea is to separate the solids from the liquid.
We take it to the farms and use it as fertilizer, and one of the things we do is we pull samples because it has to be a certain quality before it can go to the field.
- I see.
Where's all the people that help you do all this stuff? - I'm it.
- You're what? Okay.
- We're late on the samples, so I hope you're in good shape.
- Pretty good shape, yeah.
- 'Cause we're gonna run.
- Okay, great.
- Let's go.
- Let's do it.
- You gotta keep up.
Oh, yeah.
This is called a sample bag, and - All right.
- Well, you are, anyway.
You're gonna scoop it up.
- Okay.
- From between the augers.
Do not put your hand below the level of the auger.
- That's good advice.
It's really clumpy.
- Are you messing with me? Handling sludge is icky.
Never in my life did I think I would be grabbing sludge with my bare hands.
In fact, it made me pretty damn uncomfortable.
I thought I'd be doing fun stuff today.
- Don't you love the smell? - A little more or is that good? - No, that'll be good.
This way.
Come on.
I really am running behind.
This is that big holding tank that we showed on the computer.
Now this here, pretty disgusting.
- Yeah.
- You're looking at hair.
- Hair.
All right.
- And we take this.
- Mm-hmm.
- And you're gonna drop it down in that tank.
It's not technical, but it's very efficient.
- Exactly.
Keep it simple.
- Yeah.
Pull it out, and you hold this.
Fill it up.
- All the way.
- And it's gonna get on your hand, and it's gonna go down the bottle.
I felt kind of bad 'cause we went upstairs later and he's like, "oh, you have gloves.
" And it's like, "yeah.
" All right.
- Who is this handsome guy over here? - Oh, that's Glen.
Yeah.
I think he was three sheets to the wind, but Is he a friend of yours? - Uh, yeah.
We're kind of engaged.
- Okay.
- All right.
Let's go bring the truck in.
- All right.
- Okay.
It seems like a good name.
Really? - Yep.
This is where I open the chutes.
- Yep.
After this material is dewatered by the centrifuge, we need to collect it and then ultimately load it into the trucks.
Then the material is taken and spread by our workers out in the field.
How many loads you gotta get? - Six.
- Six! - Do you ever sit? Or is that? - Occasionally.
- When I got here, I was very concerned about how one person could handle this entire plant.
- We have not cleaned that off.
- Cindy certainly seemed to have a very good handle on that, but I think she is a unique person, and I'm not sure anyone could do that.
- That's good.
- I certainly couldn't do it.
- This way.
I'm gonna load another truck.
Come on.
I need to step it up.
- Don't let me slow you down.
- I'm used to being by myself all day.
- All right.
Well, I'll go as fast as you do.
- So we gotta suck it up.
I'll let you turn this off and then turn the other ones on.
It's pretty darn simple.
- How much? - Seven.
- Seven? - His name is Naylon.
- Naylon? Oh, okay.
- Okay, stop three and four.
- Stop.
- And then you move it to one and two.
- So does the seven-year-old grandson live with y'all? - His mom, Glen's daughter, lives with us, and he lives with us.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna go move the truck.
I hate sweating under that hard hat.
I'm not supposed to wear it when I'm driving, but I hate to take it off because of the way I feel I look when I take it - it's okay.
It's fine.
- Let's go get you a drink.
- Thank you.
I was just interested about, uh, how you got here.
- Well, first I was a mother.
- A mother.
- I was a stay-home mother.
- A little while, yeah.
- And then, uh, well, my daughter, my youngest daughter became very ill.
- Hmm.
What was going on, if you don't mind me asking? - A brain tumor.
- Oh.
Hmm.
- And, uh, we went to St.
Jude's.
- Right.
As a parent, I can't imagine what Cindy must have been feeling when she found out her daughter was sick.
St.
Jude's is a wonderful place, huh? - Yeah.
- They do miracles there.
- They really do.
- That that was tough.
- But anyway, I said I wanted to go to St.
Jude's, and so I called and they said yes.
And left at, like, and drove 7 1/2 hours to be at St.
Jude's the next day.
- Right.
- So, uh, she went through radiation treatment.
We were there about six months.
We lived for free.
One of the checkups, when we went back, and it was clear, it was like all of a sudden it hits you, you can think about tomorrow.
- Yeah, huh? - You know? Then, all of a sudden, I'm walking around the place, just crying.
- Sure.
Tears of joy.
Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
They never Bill you.
They Billed my insurance.
But they never sent me a Bill.
- Is that right? - I don't know what we would have done without 'em.
- Yeah, that's amazing.
- Uh - And she's doing great now? - She's a trouper.
- Yeah.
Where does she get that from? - I don't know.
My mother.
- Your mother.
Okay.
- You ready to run? - Okay.
- Don't forget your glasses.
- Back to work? - Somebody's smoking a cigarette.
I smell it.
- Hmm.
- Actually, that's Ray and Mark.
- I can't believe that you're smoking cigarettes.
- I know, it's just - What are you doing? - I know.
I'm trying to quit.
- Given how much physical activity she has and her grandson and how much she has to live for, I was very surprised that she smokes.
- Yeah, that's good.
- Have you tried to quit? - I've cut way back.
- Yeah? - Glen gets on me really bad about smoking.
- Does he smoke? - Never.
- Uh-huh.
See? When I first arrived, I thought all I was gonna learn about was how the centrifuge worked and the process.
I learned so much more.
This is a tough job.
You need to have a lot of different skills.
You have to have your wits about you.
And I really hope we have a lot more people like Cindy out in the field.
- Whoo! I kind of like this.
- Yeah, lookit, you finally get a break, huh? - What you doing Monday? Coming up - Be careful.
The boss enters dangerous waters.
Oh.
And later, Bill encounters his biggest job yet.
- This is when the fun begins, buddy.
- Whoa! I had no idea what I was in store for.
Bill Massa, the President and CEO of Synagro is a boss undercover in his own company.
His employees think he's a former chemical plant worker trying to go green.
- So you're the polluter.
- Formerly.
A recovering one.
His journey continues in shawnee, Kansas.
- I'm at the mill creek water treatment plant.
Today we are here to clean out the lagoon.
Some municipalities use lagoons because, frankly, they have the storage space available.
Over a period of years, it gets filled up with treated biosolids.
We'll be pumping it down and then removing the solids that have collected at the bottom.
Hi, I'm looking for Melvin.
- Hi, how are you doing? I'm Melvin.
I've been waiting on you to get here.
- All right.
Sorry.
- You're the new guy supposed to be trained for Synagro? - I am.
- We'll walk over here into the dressing room.
- Okay.
I've never been to an operation like this.
By going undercover, I can understand much more clearly how it works, how we can do better, what's working, what's not working.
All right.
- All right.
Y'all ready to go? - Yes, sir.
Thank you.
- All right.
- Oh, what is all this? Wow.
- Yeah, that's, um, sludge.
- Sludge, okay.
- All right.
- And - I see.
Okay.
Okay.
Hula pump.
All right.
That's what's taking just the sludge out? And then what happens when they take the sludge out? Fertilizer.
And the farmers are okay with that? - Real good.
Okay.
- All right.
Yep.
Right.
Oh, there we go.
Wow, that's quick.
- Okay, okay.
That went too far.
- Oh, too far? Okay.
- That's what it did.
- I didn't break it, did I? - He pulled the lever down.
Don't pull it down, all the way down.
That that kills the motor.
- All right, thank you.
I was worried.
I thought I broke it.
Okay.
Are we gonna get to do some of that too? - Yeah, we gonna.
- All right.
- Be careful.
It can be kind of rough walking down there.
- All right.
- You gotta be careful when you, uh as a matter of fact, I'd like to show you something right here.
Okay.
- Oh! - Out of one of the be careful.
Okay, watch your step.
- All right.
I don't want to be slipping down here.
Gotcha.
All right.
- Okay, we gonna - Show me how it's done.
Yeah, yeah.
Nobody took a break yet.
Now do they now do they make you move so fast that you don't do it safely or? Yeah.
All right.
All right.
When I woke up this morning, I didn't know what I was gonna be doing.
This was not one of those things.
- That's not one of those things.
- Nope, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
- A man's gotta do what he's gotta do.
- Yeah.
- Okay, then.
That's reverse.
- You just keep working it.
- Keep working it.
- Is that okay? It's like black gold out here.
- Yeah.
- Well, that's money, right? - That's money.
- How am I doing so far? Not not as good as Melvin, but, uh - Oh, you you you gettin' good as me.
I'm not I'm not that good.
- I got a good teacher.
That's all.
- What's it like working out here for a few hours at a time with no breaks? That must get get - Is there any water around this place? - Oh, man, yeah, we get you a get a bottle of water.
- All right.
It'll be all right.
I mean, there's plenty of water down here, but - no, this this water, no.
- Not drinking water.
- Here we go.
- Thank you.
- It ain't real real cold.
- Oh, that's all right.
Is it wet? Is it wet? - Yeah, it's wet.
- It's wet? All right.
- It'll wet your throat.
- All right, I need it.
- Yeah.
- Mmm.
- Me too.
You know, sometime we go on different jobs and what you need might not be there.
I keep my cool and I buy my water for myself, 'cause I know I might go on a job and I might not have no water.
- That sounds like a good idea.
- Yeah.
- Huh.
- And we had to go a coup about a mile up the road.
- Huh.
When Melvin told me at some of the job sites, there aren't even port-a-potties, I find that to be unacceptable.
These are difficult jobs out in the hot sun.
I want to be sure that when our employees are out in the field, they have what they need, and we need to fix that.
- What you think about it so far? - I like it, I like it.
- Yeah.
- You ain't smellin' nothin' but money.
- You said you're from Georgia, but you're - I'm from Mississippi.
- Mississippi, okay.
- But I workin' I workin' in Georgia.
- You work in Georgia, okay.
- Yeah.
- So you're up, away from your family.
And you, uh, that must be hard.
- Is it, like, half the time you're gone from home? Wow.
How does the family feel about you? - It's good for us and it's bad for us.
- Bad for us, right, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
- What kind of benefits do they got? Vision? - But, you know, they need vision.
- Yeah.
- Especially when I gotta travel, reading that mail.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Melvin had a great attitude about some of these challenges that he faces, but he needs to be able to focus on the job at hand.
Not only is it important for our employees to have good vision from a personal perspective, but also for job safety.
As the new CEO, clearly some issues still remain.
So when I get back, I'm gonna take a good, hard look at some of these issues to help make Melvin's job just a little bit easier.
So what do you do for fun when you get to be home a little bit? - Me and my wife, we go out to eat dinner.
We go out, uh, shopping.
- You do some shopping too? Or she does all the shopping? - She do all the shopping.
- I was gonna say, I - I just be going - You goin' to supervise.
- Yeah.
I'm going to supervise.
- Exactly.
Coming up, the boss finds a new pet.
And later, Bill finally gets his feet wet.
- How low do you have to get this down to? - Spotless.
- Spotless? Oh, jeez.
Bill Massa, the President and CEO of Synagro is a boss undercover in his own company.
- Oh, what is all this? - That's, uh, sludge.
His employees think he's a former chemical plant worker trying to go green.
- This is like black gold out here.
Well, that's money, right? His journey continues in Baltimore, Maryland.
- Today I'm at the back river wastewater treatment plant.
Here, we produce pellets.
Pellets are more versatile than cake and liquid.
They travel easier.
They can be stored for a period of time.
But that equipment needs to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and yet we still have to clean and maintain it.
I need to understand how we're able to do that and yet continue to expand our operation.
Hello? - Hello.
- Hi, I'm looking for krista.
- Krista's right down at the end of the hall on the right.
- On the end of the hall on the right.
Thank you.
Okay.
Hi, I'm looking for krista.
- Hi.
- Krista, hi.
I'm Paul Stonebridge.
Nice to meet you.
- You too.
- I'm here to learn.
- Okay.
- Today I'm going undercover with a pelletizer operator.
I am curious and excited to find out what goes on beyond those walls.
- Um, just to give you an idea of what we do around here - Please, yeah.
- We P.
M.
this equipment, which is preventative maintenance.
- Okay.
- These are our centrifuge feed pumps.
The better we take care of it, the better it runs.
What the centrifuge does is, it mixes the sludge with polymer and it makes it into a cake.
And then from there, go through the dryer, which dries it and makes it a pellet to give you your final product.
We're gonna use these today.
- Huh? We're gonna do some spackling or? - Well, you'll see what you're gonna be scraping at.
- Okay.
This is a big plant in here.
- Yeah.
- It's cool.
- We gotta clean all this up.
- What is this? - It's just buildup.
You know, just from the machine running.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
Yes.
It's always interesting, watching the new guy.
- Yep.
She kept saying, "we just gotta get this cleaned out, "because that's the way the equipment runs the most efficient.
" So that means you gotta go into the nooks and crannies and pull out big, gigantic hairballs that were like the size of softballs.
What do I do with this? A big, sticky, slimy mess.
It was it was pretty gross.
What do we do now, boss? - We're gonna clean this out of the way.
We want these open, out of our way.
So this one was making very bad cake.
- Yeah? - Because of what was laying on top of it.
I like dirty work.
Once you know what you're working with - Right.
- It's not really that horrible.
And it's got a good purpose.
I use it.
- How do you use it? - I use it in my gardens and I use it when I plant trees.
The stuff works great.
- I think that's pretty clean.
- That looks wonderful.
We're gonna move on to screen cleaning.
The wet cake goes through the dryer and a screener separates it into what is product and what goes back into what we call the recycle bin.
- I see.
- So it's very dusty.
- Okay.
- Lots and lots of buildup.
We just pull these doors down.
Okay.
- Okay.
- Have at it.
Now, you're gonna want to catch them.
In here, you might find a lot of hair.
- Oh, yeah, great.
- It's important that we keep the screeners clean because if not, we're gonna make bad product.
- Right.
Gotcha.
I should have gotten me one of them long-sleeved shirts.
- Yeah.
- The equipment in this plant is worth tens of millions of dollars.
- Krista clearly understands the concept of preventative maintenance, taking care of things as you go as opposed to spending millions of dollars to replace it later on.
That's bigger than the dog I'm getting.
Yeah, my boys are getting bigger.
I kind of need something to cuddle with on the couch.
How big are your boys? - 12 and 13.
They're good boys.
They're a lot of fun.
Into their sports.
- Those are great ages.
All right, we're making progress here, boss.
- There you go.
We're gonna go ahead and take a break.
- Oh, good.
Thank you.
- There'll be another another shift coming in.
That's looking pretty good.
- Are there other women that work here or are you the only one? - No.
I'm it.
Nothing in this plant intimidates me or or - clearly, yeah.
- It's not too bad, all in all.
So do you have any questions? - Oh, do I have questions.
Ah.
Do you, um, do you have, like, recycling and? - No.
- Oh, wow.
- A fundamental attribute of Synagro is recycling.
We're all about recycling.
We take in material and recycle it.
However, as I've gone around to a number of facilities in Synagro, I've noticed that we do not have recycling programs at many of them.
- It's a matter of it being, I guess, part of the budget.
- Very interesting.
That's something that we need to change.
- Okay.
- So, what's the, uh, what are the shifts like? - We work 6:00 to 6:00 and 6:00 to 6:00.
- Hmm.
- So we work 24/7.
All holidays.
- Huh.
- We never shut down.
- Okay.
Wow.
How does your family feel about you working here and, uh - They're very helpful.
- Oh.
So is your husband? - We're separated.
- You're separated.
I see.
That must be really tough with just by yourself and - it's tough.
T-bird, he stays with his dad.
- Okay.
So the kids come home after school or, uh? - Yeah, yeah.
- Do they have any, uh, thing they want to know what they want to do or they, uh? - Um, they want to be professional football players.
- Oh, do they? Are they, like? - My sons.
- Ah, okay.
What positions do they play? - Zack plays defense.
T-bird's tiny.
He's more, uh - T-bird is the - the smaller one.
- The smaller one, oh.
- He likes offense.
They've been having him in defense.
They're fun to watch.
I'm a very big ravens fan.
- Are you? - Yeah.
- Well, I mean, they could be the, you know, front line of the ravens.
Krista has two boys.
She clearly loves them a lot.
- I just got a tattoo on my lower back with their names on them.
- You did? - Uh-huh.
They love it.
- Do they? That's cool, that's cool.
- They love it.
It's probably a little dusty right now.
- Yeah, a little dusty.
That's cool.
She works very hard.
She brings a lot of passion to the job.
So for krista, in this place at this time, it seems to be right.
- My boys think it's funny.
Mommy works at the poopy palace.
- Okay, nice.
But clearly, we need to look at our facilities and institute recycling programs.
We still have a lot of work to do, and that's certainly gonna be one of our focuses.
- It's bad.
- Oh, good.
Whoo! Today I'm here in beautiful, chilly sparta, Wisconsin.
There are different means for storing treated biosolids.
In this facility, they store their material in a tank.
Others store it in the lagoon.
Today we'll be entering a 2.
2 million gallon tank to clean it, so I hope I'm ready for this.
Hi, I'm Paul.
I'm looking for Rich.
- Rich.
- Rich.
How you doing? - How you doing? - Good to meet you.
- We'll get you some clothes.
- All right.
Uh-oh, it looks like we're gonna be doing some serious work today.
- Some dirty stuff.
This you can have for later.
- What have you got planned for me that I'm gonna need that for? - We're gonna do some fishing.
All right, excellent.
- We're at a wastewater treatment plant.
We're cleaning a holding tank, it's called.
That big tank there.
- So what are we gonna be doing when we're down there? Are we gonna be? - We just start breaking up the solids and sludge.
- Around there.
- And, uh - and that's slowing up the pumping? - Yep.
- There's too much solids collecting down there? - Yeah.
Let's do her.
- Let's do it.
- Let's rock.
- Watch the stairs.
We've got hoses on the stairs.
- Yep.
- So watch your step.
- This is when the fun begins, buddy.
- Never before have I gone into a biosolid storage tank, so it certainly makes me nervous.
I had no idea what I was in store for.
- This is our final step before we enter the tank.
- Yeah, I definitely want to see this.
We're going down into this thing? - We are gonna go down into it.
- Oh, my God.
So who wants to be first? - Want me to go down there? - Yeah, show me how to do it.
All right, just going fishing.
That's all I gotta think about.
Not that I'm going in a two-million-gallon sludge tank.
- That's right.
- Okay.
- Paul's connected.
- The first step's a doozy.
- There will be a strong ammonia smell.
If at any time you feel overwhelmed or anything like that, just let us know and we'll get you out of there.
This place is big.
All right, I'm in it.
Nice! It's really thick out there.
Jeez! - Yeah.
Like a swamp and a pond maybe? - Oh, it's more than a yeah.
- Like quicksand.
- Really, really thick quicksand.
Yeah, it's really heavy.
The first foot or so was water, but then, pretty quickly, it was it was thick, sticky oatmeal.
Uhh! - This is our big hose.
- Okay.
- I like to call that big Bertha.
- Big Bertha, all right.
- So it's a 2 1/2 inch hose.
- Yep.
- So she got a little pressure.
I'll just show you the How you work it is, you try to get it over your shoulder, and you want to shoot by your feet.
- Really? Okay.
- To help break it up.
- Okay.
- I'll shoot around.
You'll feel it breaking up.
It'll help loosen everything up.
And you walk around the tank like that and you do just sort of, figure eights, you know.
- Okay.
- Back and forth.
It's a big boy hose.
- The water was probably about three feet deep when we got in there, but the sludge was a good foot and a half, two feet underneath it.
- Turn it on nice and slow.
You'll feel her start kicking.
And once you get it by your feet, then you can walk around.
- Whoa! - Don't tip over.
- You don't want to tip over here.
I was worried about losing my balance.
And falling into that would not have been pretty.
- You know, stick it in there, break up all the solids, and the pump will, you know, pump it out.
- It's it's solid down there.
- It it definitely is.
- It's really tough to walk in.
- There ain't no running in here, either.
- No.
No splashing, too, I heard.
- No, no.
No splashing in the pool.
- The smell is not not good.
Uhh! - How does that feel on your shoulder? - Ah, it gets to you after a while, you know what I'm sayin'? Now, what do you think of holding that for about six hours, eight hours a day? Man! I'm naturally gonna laugh at him because I've ran that hose.
I'm a big guy, so, you know, it don't kick me around as much.
And the worst part about it when you're starting to sweat, you can't wipe your face.
- Yeah, I was thinking about that.
- Being a, uh, you know, a new guy, it's sort of fun to watch.
- How long does a guy stay down in here doing this? When I get out of the tank, I'll give you a hug, and then we'll be done.
- How low do you have to get this down to? - Spotless.
- Spotless? Oh, jeez.
- You're gonna you're gonna see cement.
- How long do you think that's gonna take? - Well, you know, hopefully a couple weeks.
- A couple weeks? - I think I need a raise.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- How is the, uh, how is the pay? - The pay ain't bad.
- Yeah? - You know, we work a lot of hours, though.
- Uh-huh.
- And, uh, you know, some guys are at a set location.
- Uh-huh.
- For me to work, I gotta travel.
- Uh-huh.
- Last winter, I worked down in Atlanta.
Uh, I was on 12 different jobs this summer.
- Mm-hmm.
- Like, this job is four hours away from my home.
And it's tough.
I mean, it gets tough.
Just like every other job.
This looks pretty good.
It's at waist-level, though.
- Yeah.
- We can call it a day down here.
You want to try and pull that fire hose up? - You have family back home or? - Yep.
A close-knit family.
- Do you? - No kids yet.
- No kids? - I'm getting old, though.
Getting old.
- Are you? Hold old are you now? - Well, 27.
- 27! - Well, and I got six more days until my birthday.
- All right.
- Yeah.
- Are you doing anything special for your birthday? - I don't have nothing planned, 'cause I didn't know if I'd be out here or where.
- Well, you got another job lined up after this one or? - Where do I go next? Hopefully a job back home.
- Back home? Yeah.
- A guy can pray, right? - Yeah.
Does Synagro have a job back home? Or they have any operations around there? - No Synagro jobs are back home.
- Yeah.
- You know, the main thing is the travel.
And I average probably - 200? - You know, this traveling gets old, and, uh - Right, so you're gonna give up this for, uh, for something close to home, huh? - Yeah, I think so.
- Hopefully there'll be some way that we can keep Rich as a Synagro employee.
He's a good guy.
He's a hard worker.
I know what Rich is going through I have had to relocate for jobs several times over my career.
- When I was in the Navy, I happened to have missed my younger son's birth, and it was really one of the things that helped me to make the decision to leave the Navy.
Life is about choices, and it sounds like Rich is about to make a very tough one.
Whoo! Fresh air.
I learned a bunch of things today.
This is a tough, dirty, physical job.
- I'll try to clean you up a little bit.
- I got a chance to get firsthand experience in tank cleaning.
It's something we do a lot of, and now I have a much better appreciation for the challenges.
Are you gonna drink some beers after this or what's, uh? - I don't know.
There might be a 12-pack drained after working with that hose.
- Man.
Coming up, Bill's employees think they're coming to company headquarters to evaluate his performance.
- He was pretty good for a trainee.
I really don't see why he wouldn't be a good fit.
But how will they react when he reveals the truth? - I'm not really Paul.
- All of the employees that I've worked with this past week have been called to headquarters to review my performance.
- Would you like to have a seat, please? - Thank you.
- They have no idea why they're really here.
- He was pretty good for a trainee.
I really don't see why he wouldn't be a good fit.
- How are you doing today? - I'm fine, thank you.
- They're ready for you now.
- Okay.
Thank you.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- How are you doing? - Good, how are you? - Do you remember me? - Paul! - Paul, that's right.
- Paul, yeah, Paul.
- I am not really Paul.
I am Bill Massa, the CEO of Synagro.
- Oh, man.
- Oh, my gosh.
- You're the ce CEO? - I'm the CEO.
Chief executive officer, yeah.
- Pretty cool.
- It's a pleasure to meet you.
- Krista, as I got to know you over the course of the day, it was clear to me that you were really focused on keeping things well-maintained to make a good product for our customers.
That was really neat.
Is that the way you think about it every day or? - Yes, yes, it actually is.
And that's definitely my home away from home so - And I appreciate that.
Uh, I listened to you talk about your two sons.
That was that was that was neat.
That was really touching.
- My boys are my everything, so - I got the sense that you're a pretty good ravens fan.
- Oh, yeah.
- What I'm going to do for you and your sons is get you three tickets to all of the ravens' home games next season.
- Oh, wow.
- Okay? I hope they get to the super bowl, because if they get to the super bowl, we're gonna pay for a trip for you and your two sons to see them.
- Wow.
- We'll get you tickets for that.
- That is so incredible.
I can't wait to tell my boys.
I definitely think it's gonna blow their minds.
I think they are just gonna be beside themselves.
- Melvin, you took real good care of me when I was out there.
You taught me a lot.
- I'm glad I did.
- Yeah, you did.
In fact, one of the things that you mentioned, sometimes on some of the jobs, the bathroom and the water is not always available.
So I've already talked to the leadership team, and we're going to make sure that it is available at all of our job sites.
- Okay.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
- You also mentioned it would be nice if we had a vision plan as part of our health care.
And in fact, because of our conversation, we are going to add a vision plan for the medical benefits next year.
- Oh, man, that ah, this is all coming together now.
It's all coming together.
- Would that help? - It'll help a lot.
- Finally, you spend a lot of time away from your wife, and I appreciate the sacrifices.
So the company is going to pay for a vacation hotel, airfare, food, everything else for you and your wife.
The only condition is that it has to be a place your wife wants to go to.
- Uh Man, I tell you - I think that's better for you and me.
- Yeah, better for her me and her.
Man, that was that is something else.
My wife, she might break into tears when I tell her this.
I'm just blown away.
I can't hardly get my words right.
- Rich, I was disappointed to hear you talk about thinking of leaving the company.
- You know, a guy gets home on the weekend.
You're home for two days, and Sunday afternoon, after the first football game, you're already counting down the hours when you gotta leave on the road again.
- I respect that a lot, because I was in the Navy for seven years.
I had a really good career going on, and I had the same thing for you a fork in the road.
And it was, I'm either gonna go left and stay in the Navy for 20 years and not see my family, or I was gonna go right and start all over again, and that's why I'm particularly sensitive about this issue.
- Right.
- However, the job is the job, and I would love if all of our customers were located right next to all of our employees.
- But we know that ain't possible.
- That isn't possible.
It isn't the way it works.
I know it's not much, but to help ease the pain of being away from your family so much, I'm going to have our I.
T.
Department work with you and your family to make sure that you have the computers and the software that you need to stay in touch better.
- That would be good.
That would be good.
- I don't want to lose a good, solid employee like you.
So please, please, give it some some serious thought.
- Oh, I definitely will - we work really hard to find people like you.
- It's all it's all coming in.
You know, just soaking it in a little bit.
- It's a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
One of the things that we talked about was your birthday party.
I want to make this a spectacular birthday for you, so the company is going to pay for a nice, big party for you and your friends and your family to get together.
We'll pay for the food and the band or the dj or whatever you need.
- This'll be a special 28th birthday.
- Yeah, there you go.
- I hope you guys, uh, like to drink beer.
- Yeah, there you go.
Absolutely.
- Well, it's awesome to have a party.
Who doesn't want to have a party with their friends and family? You're crazy if you don't.
- Cindy, I was so impressed with your energy level, you passion and enthusiasm and positive attitude.
- Thank you.
- There are a couple things that I want to talk to you about.
This is a very physical job.
You know, up and down a thousand steps a day and moving around.
So one of the things I'm concerned about is your smoking, okay? - Yes.
- My mother was a long-term smoker and she quit a bunch of years ago.
And the experience that I went through with her - I've been trying.
- I know.
Well, I'm gonna help you to try.
- You're gonna help me? - Okay? As of 2011, Synagro's medical plan will pay for 100% of the products and services to help our employees stop smoking, okay? - Oh.
- So it's very important to me, you are, and I really hope you take advantage of it.
- I promise you, I'll do it.
- Okay.
You mentioned something about a grandson? - Naylon, yes.
- Exactly.
So you talked about how important family is to you.
- It is.
- So in order to insure your grandson gets off to a strong start, we are going to set up a $5,000 education fund for him.
- For Naylon? - We are.
So it's a very small token of my appreciation for how hard you work.
- Oh, that's just oh, my God.
I am just breathless.
- I was really moved by the story you told me about your daughter.
And, uh, you talked about St.
Jude's and how much they helped.
To help show St.
Jude's how much you appreciate them, the company is going to make a $10,000 donation in your name to St.
Jude's.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
My pleasure.
- Thank you.
Things like this don't happen to me.
They've never happened to me before.
Wow.
This is great.
This is so great.
- It's been an awesome adventure.
We have a lot to do, and I am really looking forward to it.
- I'd like to introduce to you Mr.
Bill Massa.
- Thank you.
Hi, I'm Bill Massa.
For the last week, I've been undercover in our company.
Surprise! During the last week, I have done some incredible jobs.
I'd like to share with you some of the highlights of that experience.
Yeah, I definitely want to see this.
We're going down into this thing? Oh, my God.
- And it's gonna get on your hand.
- Handling sludge is icky.
In fact, it made me pretty damn uncomfortable.
It has been an amazing experience.
I have learned so much.
I feel much closer to our employees.
Thank you all very much for the enormous progress we've made in the last year.
I feel very good about the path that we're on, and I am so proud to be able to call myself CEO of Synagro.
I left a good job to come to a company that handles sludge.
Many people thought I was crazy.
I believed in this company a year ago, and I have an even greater appreciation for the opportunities that we have.
I learned as much in the last week as I have in the last year.
I'm very excited about moving forward.