Undercover Boss (2010) s03e07 Episode Script
Oriental Trading Company
This week on Undercover Boss the CEO of Oriental Trading Company, a company celebrating 75 years of fun as a supplier of toys and party items, poses as a failed Internet entrepreneur looking for a second chance.
- I'm Dave, nice to meet you.
- What's up, how you doing? All right, welcome to the dungeon.
By working on the front lines - You got one more in there.
- Uh, oh.
he'll feel the heat rising.
- I'm working up a sweat here.
- Yes, indeed, it's hot.
Yeah, absolutely horrible.
How will the boss react when he hears complaints from every single employee? Why don't one of these big-wig guys work with us in the warehouse and see if they can maintain the same pace? Yeah.
By working side-by-side with them 'Cause I came up with a suggestion once, and never heard back anything on it.
What? he'll find out, there's not a lot of fun for his workers.
Anyone that says they do want to work here is out of their mind.
Undercover Boss 3x07 - Oriental Trading Company Original air date March 9, 2012 Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, Oriental Trading Company is the nation's largest retailer of novelties, small toys, and party items.
It offers more than 30,000 products, via three websites, and employs more than 2,000 people.
Your package will be received in the next three to four weeks.
Leading this $1/2 billion a year business is one man.
I'm Sam Taylor, I'm the CEO of Oriental Trading Company.
We're the largest direct retailer of party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties, school supplies, and affordable for everyone to celebrate, have fun, and express creativity throughout their lifetime.
Oriental Trading has been making the world more fun for over 80 years.
It started out here in Omaha, selling to the carnival trade.
Oriental Trading has evolved through the years.
It started as a family business, and now we're a privately-held institution.
And with the Internet, e-commerce being So I was born in Yonkers, New York.
When I was eight years old, my family was traveling to Los Angeles, our car was hit by a drunk driver, and my dad was killed.
It was something that nobody expects to have to go through.
My dad was 33 years old, and it was very tough.
My mom, she was a stay-at-home mom, um, before my dad passed away.
All of a sudden, now having to raise four boys on her own, four young boys, my mom knew she had to support the family.
My mom passed away last year.
She, um, fought valiantly, um, but lost her bout with cancer.
It's always tough to lose a parent, but she lived such a wonderful life.
One of the key things I learned from my mom was the impact that we can have on people for good, and every single day trying to do something for somebody to make them feel better.
So that's the kind of legacy that my mom left, for me and my wife and for our daughters.
And so my family was very excited to have the opportunity to come to Omaha, and for me to work at Oriental Trading.
They love the product.
They love the idea that we make people's lives more fun.
So I started with Oriental Trading Company in May 2008.
Hey, good morning Pam.
- Good morning, how are you? - I'm doing well.
And as we all know, October 2008 is when the markets crashed, and we had to go through some tough decisions, and met with employees face-to-face to tell them that we were going to have to go through a downsize, and the first in our history.
I got emails from employees that, um, we had to, um, let go.
And so I made it a priority that I was going to communicate with our employees.
We have several things that we do to make the employee experience fun here at Oriental Trading.
I'm in the warehouse, presenting to our employees every three months, when I have our quarterly meeting.
So I've kept them informed.
And then we'll do an annual summer event, every summer for employees and their families where we all come together, and that's one of the most popular things that we do.
I feel like I've worked hard in my business career and have advanced to the position I have today.
Dad! Yes, it affords myself and my family, you know, - some nice things.
- Oh! We have a house like that because we like to have parties and we like to have fun.
I'm married to my wonderful wife Stephanie, we've been married for 23 years.
We have three daughters.
Our oldest is just turning 16, and then our second daughter is 12, and our youngest daughter is 8.
Oops, daddy's messing up.
All right, we'll start over again.
Having Sam gone for the week will be an adjustment especially for my oldest daughter, because he helps her quite a bit with her math homework every night.
- The difference of two cubes? - Yup.
Next week, Ashton turns 16, it's her sweet sixteen, so that's a big birthday, and I won't be there.
And I can't remember a single time when I wasn't there for one of my kids' birthdays.
So that's tough.
So what do you guys think of my rental car? Oh, my gosh, that's your car? - It's a rental.
- Oh, my gosh.
Well, daddy's going undercover, and I have to make sure nobody recognizes me.
I'm choosing to go undercover because at Oriental Trading we make the world more fun.
And I want to make sure this message of selling fun is really making its way all the way down to our front-line employees.
While undercover I'll be posing as Dave Barton, a failed Internet entrepreneur.
My employees will be told that this is a reality show that gives failed entrepreneurs a second chance at starting a new business.
So for my disguise I'm going to dye my hair dark brown, slick it back, I'm going to get extensions, grew out my beard, dye my beard brown, and have a retainer.
Oh, boy.
This week while I'm undercover, I'll be staying at the same hotel.
- Hi, my name is Dave Barton.
- Mr.
Barton.
We don't have stores all around the country that I have to travel to.
Everything that we do is here in Omaha.
Tonight I'm going to be working a night shift.
Well I'm nervous that I'm going to get recognized, but hopefully the disguise works.
Meet Dave Barton.
I'm at a fulfillment center in Omaha.
This is where we pick, pack, and ship our customers' orders.
It's critical that every item of the order is 100% accurate.
Excuse me, I'm looking for Troy.
Oh, got it, thanks.
We've invested a lot in technology over the last two years to improve our accuracy and productivity, and I'm here to see how that technology's being used, and identify even more ways that we can be more productive.
- Jim Troy? - Yeah, you my new trainee? - I'm Dave, yeah.
- Nice to meet you, Dave.
Good to meet you.
So what are we doing here? What I'm doing right now is I'm setting up for, uh, non-sortable pick, and we're going to be showing you - how to do pick today.
- Okay.
More specifically, we're going to be showing you how to do non-sortable pick.
- Okay, I'm going to show - What does that mean, - non-sortable? - Non-sortable is the items that are too big, or too heavy, to go into a tote.
That's a tote? - This is a tote.
- Okay.
Non-sortable items are too big to fit in there comfortably.
They can't go down a conveyor because if it goes down a conveyor it might fall out, or it might break inside the tote.
So we have to personally hand stage it, instead of send it - down a conveyor.
- Okay.
This is a "Jennifer" unit, okay? It's what tells us what to pick.
So she talks to me? Yes, she does.
- Did you hear her? - I heard her.
- She talks fast.
- Well, you can - Jennifer, slower.
- Slower.
- Jennifer, slower.
- Slower.
- Jennifer, slower.
- Oh, wow.
- This is slowest.
- This is the slowest.
- Oh, there you go.
Okay.
- Okay.
We've got at least 600 and something picks in here.
And how long do we have to pick that? However long it takes you to pick it.
Okay, all right.
Okay.
However much money you want to make.
- Okay.
- You can make up to $3.
22 more an hour.
So that's, like, But I have to be fast, okay.
Now I'm going to have to get my marching orders from Jennifer before I can go any farther, okay? Jennifer, ready to go.
Zone A, aisle 8, 0-8-1, - location, Charlie 7.
- Charlie 7.
Okay.
Zone A, aisle 7-6, bay 7, location, Alpha 3.
- 4-2.
- Grab two.
The first thing that hit me was, man, she talks fast.
A, aisle 6-5, bay 1.
That's the confusing part, is just listening to Jennifer, and keeping in your mind as she's telling you which bay to go to, and how many to pick.
- Two, multi.
- Grab two.
R-4, put one.
- 5-9, put one.
- D-4, put one.
- 4-2, put one.
- Bay 2, location, Alpha 4.
Okay, did you get all that? Dave looked a little bit overwhelmed.
He's got to concentrate a little bit harder.
Alpha 4, so - Jennifer, repeat.
- Six, multi.
- Six? Supposed to grab six? - Oh, boy.
- Grab 3-2-9.
- Location, 9-4.
Oh, and then what'd she say? I didn't hear her.
- She's doing the next location.
- Oh.
But go ahead Oh, 'cause it's in the same one.
No, it's not in the same one.
Oh, it's not? What did she did she say? He's got to learn to tune everything out, and just listen to Jennifer.
We have to get this done tonight.
Okay, you're doing this like an old man, okay? Normally, I hustle a little faster.
Jennifer, get work.
This is slowest.
Jennifer, get work.
Cart not available.
She's not being kind to me here.
Okay, come on, Jennifer, get work.
- Zone A, aisle 7-6, aisle 7 - Jennifer, slower.
You don't have to scream.
She can hear you.
Okay, Jennifer, are you there? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Jennifer, slower.
Don't scream it.
Just talk it.
Dave can't hold up the Jennifer unit and scream.
She's being tough on me.
He can't do that.
He, uh Jennifer is complicated.
You've got to develop a relationship with her.
How did you get it on that? I didn't do anything.
Dave's going to have to send her some flowers, send her chocolates, something.
I've got to put two more in there.
See, now you cut too deep, and you cut into the flamingo, look, look there.
- Uh-oh.
- Damaged, damaged, damaged.
Confirm 8-8-2-4-8 are damaged.
Damaged, damaged, damaged.
Dave, you're going to get me fired.
Sam Taylor, CEO of Oriental Trading Company, is a boss undercover in his own company.
Jim Troy? - Yeah, you my new trainee? - I'm Dave, yeah.
But right now, he's cutting into his business' profits.
See, now you cut too deep and you cut into the flamingo, - look, look there.
- Uh-oh.
Damaged, damaged, damaged.
Confirmed.
Today, I did about 1/100th of what I'd normally do with Dave with me.
That was a showstopper for me, that made me think that non-sortable's not his bag.
That's a wrap.
Let's go take a break.
Okay, I could use it.
It's it's a God-forsaken, grueling place to work.
But I have four kids, I'm a single father, I need to work nights, so this job works for me.
I need to be free in the afternoons, and I sleep during the day when they're at school.
How old are your kids? My oldest is 16, and my youngest is 8.
Oh, thanks.
So any questions? Well, yeah, 'cause you know this show that I'm on is about people that failed at business, so I had a business, it failed, and I'm looking for ways to learn from larger companies how they do things right.
Well, everyone has opinions.
Half the people in here don't care about OTC.
They don't pay real well.
Anyone that says they do want to work here is out of their mind.
I mean it's like saying I want to walk across the desert.
Most managers don't they, they don't know how to interact with their employees.
They either treat them like a number, or they don't, like I'm 27947, if you gotta know.
I keep my percentages up high enough to where I should be able to keep my job.
But more importantly, they need to care about their employees enough to treat them like they're more than just a number.
It doesn't feel good at all to hear that Troy feels like he's a number.
It makes me feel sick inside.
I want to make sure that we do something about that.
I can't have my employees feeling like they're numbers, that's just not right.
If there's these things that you would change, why are you still working here? What makes you come to work every day? Because I work at nights.
I have four kids and, uh, my mom was sick.
Oh, really? And so I had to move in with her.
Your mom's going to be okay, or? She's, uh, diabetic, she just needs constant monitoring, you know? It's either that or home nursing, like I say, I don't make enough for home nursing, so Yep.
You know, I lost my mom a little over a year ago.
She raised myself and my three brothers, she did that as a single parent, and he's having to do the same thing.
So I really my hat's off to Troy for everything that he's got to balance in his life taking care of his four kids, and then also taking care of his mom.
That's a lot for one person to have to handle.
- Oh, storm's coming.
- Yeah, we need to get back - in there and get back to work.
- Okay, gotta get back to work.
It sounds like there's some things that Troy is unhappy with here at Oriental Trading.
So my hope is that we can address some of these issues, and make it where he feels like, you know, this is a better place to work than how he feels right now.
Jennifer, ready to go.
Back to work.
Bay 2, location, aisle 4.
I'm at our Omaha fulfillment center.
I'm here to train in the truck loading department.
Truck loaders are important because they're the last individuals to handle the boxes before they get shipped off and before they arrive to the customers.
We're a large-scale operation.
In our peak season, we'll load and this year we will load over 6 million boxes.
- Excuse me? - Huh? - I'm looking for Andrew.
- "K" trailer, right there - with the big lights.
- Right there? Okay, thank you.
I'm here undercover to make sure they handle the boxes carefully.
We don't want any damage to the boxes.
We've got to make sure that everything arrives in tip-top shape.
Excuse me, hello.
Are you Andrew? Yeah, what's up buddy? How you doing? Hey, I'm Dave, nice to meet you.
All right, welcome to the dungeon.
- The dungeon? - Yes, the dungeon.
Why is it called the dungeon? Well, you're at the point of no return here.
So what is this job? What are we doing here? What we're doing is loading.
You want to take it, and load the boxes as best you can.
We're just it's just like a puzzle, - we're just matching the boxes.
- Okay.
You can have a tall one, you can have a short one, see how I did that? Okay, so you want to pack it as efficiently, - as tight as you can.
- As tight as you can, right.
You know, you might do 4,000 boxes a day or so sometimes.
Wow, 4,000 a day? Sometimes it's a little slower.
- You ready? - I'm ready.
All right.
Some of this stuff is heavy, if it's heavy we're not trying to put it all the way to the top.
And the boxes just keep coming? Yeah.
So this can go up here? No, the other way, the long way.
Oh, this way.
Yeah, gonna toss it in there.
There you go, good enough.
- That was fun.
- And they say - white men can't jump.
- That's right, man.
This one here? Let's fill it here.
'Cause it's pretty light? Oh, here comes another one.
- This one's heavier.
- Now, go ahead and - put that right there.
- Are you sure? Yeah.
Put that one like I had it, right there.
- Like this? - It's a bigger box, yeah.
How heavy are some of these boxes? - 45 or 50 pounds.
- Man, I'm getting all this So you're getting a workout, man.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm gonna have to go over here and finish this other truck, you're on your own for a minute.
If you need me, - you've got to learn my call.
- Okay, what's the call? Ready? Can you do that? Good enough man, just give me a squeak or something.
All right, that was close.
That was my first try.
That's my first try.
Oh, that was a little better.
I'm going to have to work on that, Andrew.
Dave sounded more like a chicken on his last leg.
The job's harder than I thought it was going to be.
Oh, this is a heavy one.
And the different sizes of boxes, and some are light, some are heavy.
Oh, they're coming faster.
And then you've got to try to pack the truck as efficiently as possible.
I'm not sure how hot it is, but the humidity is an issue.
So I know I slowed him down tonight.
I was afraid you wouldn't recognize it.
Need some help? I don't want to back things up here, so uh All right, buddy.
Dave was not fast.
He was slow.
But he's trying to get a second chance, and it won't be at OTC.
How long have you been doing this? Too long for no money.
About two years.
Okay.
The company itself, we claim to sell fun.
We sell fun.
Yes, but it's no fun in this truck.
Oh.
Is it a tough job? Very tough, it gets a little hectic, man, at times.
- Does it really? - Yeah.
We're making the same money as a lot of pickers, and packers, when we have the most physical job in the whole plant.
We work you more for less here.
What was that? We work you more for less here.
Oh, more for less? Yeah.
If it's 95 outside it's probably 105 or so in the truck, but I'm here every day doing my job, and just biting the bullet and doing what I gotta do.
So you married? Got any kids? I'm married, yeah.
I have - How many kids? - My wife we got three kids.
- Three kids.
- What about you? I've got three kids.
Two girls and a boy.
- You've got three kids? - My oldest daughter's 30 - My son is 25, and my - You don't look old enough - to have a daughter who's 30.
- Well thank you, man.
I'm 48 years old, 48 years old.
And I have two grandbabies, two adorable little girls, one's four and one's two.
- Oh, cool.
- Yup, and I love them dearly.
That's great.
All right buddy, we worked hard, that's the end of the shift, man.
- You, uh, like to shoot pool? - I do like to shoot pool.
Well let's go shoot some pool, man.
All right.
So at the end of our shift, Andrew invited me to go shoot pool with him, which I thought was really great because I'd love to go spend some more time and get to know him a little bit better.
Oh, what is there, like a soda or anything? Well, Dave, you've got some snacks here, - you've got coffee there.
- Okay.
And over here are the sports drinks, but they haven't been giving us that.
That's supposedly when it gets real hot in here, you're sweating, maybe the temperature's 90 or above.
Yep.
But, uh, they say, uh, they're trying to "save money" so they kind of pick and choose when they think they should hand that out.
In our effort to be efficient, in tough times, we had to cut costs in different areas, and one of those areas was in the sports drink area.
So you can't get in there for the sports drink? No, it stays locked.
I think it's a bunch of bull.
Let's see if I can make something happen here.
Whoa, look at that.
Ooh.
What advice would you give to me as a business owner starting up a new business? Be different than OTC.
Nobody likes to be criticized, so it's hard to hear the criticisms about the company, about me.
What kind of car do you drive? It's a '95 Cadillac.
- Whoa caddy, that's a nice car.
- I'm working for OTC, man, do you get it? I'm working for OTC.
All this, you know, complaining and all that - Yeah.
- it really threw me for a loop.
So you wouldn't tell people to come work at Oriental Trading? No, I wouldn't, no I wouldn't.
Helped me realize, I'm in big trouble.
I'm halfway through my journey, and it's been tough.
I'm concerned that the employees aren't happy, and I really hope this job goes better than the other jobs I've done.
I'm here at our Omaha fulfillment center, and I'm going to be training in the packing department.
The packers are critical in the process because if a customer order is missing an item, that can cost $15 or more to express ship that item to the customer.
So I'm here undercover to make sure that we're reducing the amounts of re-ships, as that allows us to offer the guaranteed lowest prices to our customers.
Excuse me? Are you Kim? - Yes, hi, how are you? - Hi, I'm Dave, how are you? Yes, good, nice to meet you, Dave.
Nice to meet you too.
I'm going to train you today, so what we're doing is packing.
- Okay.
- We're basically the last people to see it before they go out of the door.
- Okay.
- Okay? This is our scanner, and this is what we use, this is what we go by.
We're going to take the product, we're going to scan it, - box five.
- Okay.
- Okay, so we're going to go to box five - Box five.
Two.
Which box are we going to put it in? - Box five.
- Hey, you're pretty good - at this, I gotta say.
- The computer makes it easy.
Two.
My job now is to make the orders look neat, and as you see, I like to pack it like you'd like to receive it.
I don't like a sloppy order, I like things looking neat like that.
How long have you been doing this? Um, I have been with the company for it'll be 19 years this October.
You really do take time to arrange it nice.
I do, I you know, it hurts me, uh, with my production, but, you know what, I'm okay with that.
It hurts you? Yes, that's kind of where your XP comes in place The what? Um, the XP, our bonus program, based on your productivity and also your accuracy.
So when you slow down to do the little things that I do, - it hurts my overall score.
- Yeah.
But I'm okay with that, because, you know, I choose to make sure that my orders look good for our customers.
You know, that's something I take a lot of pride in.
- Yeah, I can tell.
- You know, and, uh, at least I can go home at the end of the day saying, - "all right, it's looking good".
- You feel like you did the very best you could for the customer.
Exactly, you know, and the company that I work for, because I represent OTC.
We're going to put our shipping label on - I think Kim is phenomenal.
- That one's ready to go out, and you can see it looks nice and neat.
I'm very impressed with her and her attitude about the job that she does, and how she's so focused on the customer.
- Let me try one too.
- All right.
- Just like that, that's perfect.
- Just like that? Might be a little easier, kind of, if you put the box like that, as I did.
- Oh, do it this way? - Is that easier for you? Oh, you have to go like that.
Yeah, now you may want to go over that again because see, look at that.
- Oh.
- That could very easily, - you know? - I'm not that good at taping.
Yeah, it's not as easy as it looks, is it? Okay.
I hurt that.
Dave's very clumsy with that tape gun, which is the way that I would describe it kind of fumbling a little bit.
If I can do about 27 in 10 minutes, let's see what you can do.
- Oh, man.
- Are you up for that? - I'm up for it.
- And I'll be right around here.
Okay.
Man, you've got to hustle.
So Let's see, so scan item.
Oh, wait.
Oh, there it goes.
How we doing over there? Good.
Close the chute.
Oop, got the foamy.
Okay.
Eight.
I need one more.
Six.
I forgot to hit "close.
" Four minutes left.
Are you feeling a little bit of anxiety there? I'm feeling the pressure.
Okay.
Whoop.
Got about 90 seconds left there.
- Oh, you're kidding.
- No, I'm not.
- Go, box.
- No pressure here, - no pressure here.
- Yeah, no, I'm feelin' it.
Dave had a little panic attack.
Oh! I'm going as fast as I can.
And your countdown is over.
So I did eight boxes.
Yes.
It is hot though, I'm working up a sweat here.
Um, yes indeed it's hot, yeah, absolutely horrible.
It's 103 degrees outside, it's a humid day, it's hot inside this warehouse.
I was in the warehouse and I was working, and I got so overwhelmed and hot that I went down.
Oh, really? Yes.
And that's how quickly it can come over you.
- Heat exhaustion or something? - Exactly.
That's exactly what I had.
I mean, and I went down, and I mean, I just felt lifeless.
But, you just have to keep plenty of fluids with you.
Okay.
Can we get a drink? Are you? I'm thirsty.
So what I generally do is I bring my own water bottle.
Have you talked to management about that? Yeah, I mean, it's a big thing, they say it's a budget thing, but I I just think, you know, that it's horrible to work in this environment - Oh, yeah.
- Because the heat drains you.
Yep.
Like most companies going through the recession, we had to focus on reducing our costs as much as possible.
Go ahead and take a break.
Follow me.
All right.
But, this is an issue I heard in another job as well, and we've got to make sure our employees stay hydrated.
So what's it like working here? My body has a hard time doing this.
Why don't one of these big-wig guys come out there and work with us in the warehouse and see if they can maintain the same pace? Yeah.
But, on the other hand, Oriental Trading does things like, you know, company picnics for the families.
Wow.
I would like to see Oriental Trading not do that at all and take care of us while we're here, because you know what? We're working here for our families.
Yup.
Do you have a family? I have six children, and six grandbabies.
Oh, wow.
- What does your husband do? - Um, I'm not married.
I just actually got engaged Saturday night.
Well, congratulations.
Yeah, he generally comes out here a couple times a week.
He'll bring me a little cold drink because he knows the issue here, and it upsets him.
He doesn't want me in this environment.
That was painful when Kim said that the big-wigs don't care about the employees, I mean, she's talking about me.
So it's time to get in now.
And I do, and I wanted to just say something to her right there but I gotta stay incognito.
I'm a little frustrated because I thought we had made more progress.
My hope is that we can address a lot of these issues.
I'm here to train in the induction department.
In the induction process, our high-speed sorter will take the individual items and drop them into chutes that correspond to the customer order.
The sorter that we use here is the fastest machine of its kind in North America.
We will do over 450,000 items in a day, so we need to be as efficient as possible to keep our costs down.
I'm here undercover to make sure that this technology is working, that we're giving our employees the tools they need to be productive and happy.
Hello, are you Julia? - Yes, I am.
- I'm Dave, how are you? - Good, how are you? - Good, nice to meet you.
You too.
- Well, this is induct.
- What's it called? - Inducting.
- Inducting? Okay.
Basically what it is, is we get the items in bulk and then, you know, we have to sort them out and we put them on the sorter, like, an item at a time.
Wow.
- Yeah, you go - Okay, that's fast.
You want to watch me for a second, or - Yeah, oh yeah, I do.
- Okay.
You're going to take your scanner Okay, got it.
then you just take one of the items and scan it, and it will tell you you need five of them.
Then you take one, and just throw it on a tray.
- Just like that.
- Like dealing cards, there.
- Yeah, kinda.
- Okay.
And then as long as it's green, you can go ahead - and put it on the tray.
- Okay.
Oh, you put that up there? Yeah, and then they go down there.
So you've got a bunch of these coming here.
Do you want to try, or? Yeah.
Ha! I saw you doing two at a time.
Whoo! Ha.
Okay, haha.
You got you got one more in there.
- Oh, I did? - Yeah, you got one more.
Oh, my gosh.
Sometimes you've got to slow down to make sure you're accurate first.
Basically, here's a badge you can use.
You're going to be close by, though, if I have any questions, - right? - Oh, yeah, I'm going to be right behind you, so if there's anything you need Oh, okay, all good.
There we go.
Snowman for Christmas.
Rock candy.
I see all these items for a luau party, a wedding, or baby shower, or for a birthday party, and it reminds me why I joined this company in the first place.
To bring happiness and fun to people's lives.
And so for me, it's really exciting.
Oh, man, a lot of spiders.
Gunnysacks.
Tons of rubber duckies.
Jungle birthday plates.
The giant map of Australia.
And some beads.
Beach balls.
This is kind of fun here.
Uh-oh.
I didn't break it.
What happened? You know, you've always got to make sure Oh.
Do you ever get distracted by the product because it's so fun? In induct, you've got to kind of be both accurate and fast because you can go as fast as you want, but you're just going to mess everybody up up there.
Always make sure that it's green before you put your next items down.
- Okay.
- Okay.
You know, lesson learned on that one.
How long have you been doing this job? Um, for three years now.
What's it like working here? Communication's a lot, you know, needed.
So you don't think this company does a good job with communication? I wouldn't say from the upper, higher-ups, no.
Oh, you don't get to talk to any of the big-wigs? No.
Well, the CEO sometimes will come in, but that's basically just telling us numbers and stuff.
Julia called me out as a CEO.
It's not just enough to have these meetings with all the warehouse employees, and to give updates on our business.
So that communication is not working the way it needs to.
Like, I came up with a suggestion once, and never heard back anything on it.
What was the suggestion? You know, I was telling them that maybe they should start, uh, focusing more on the hispanic community, you know.
They have, like, quinceaneras and stuff like that, which is a birthday.
They could sell them a lot of balloons or, you know, like, the fake flowers or, you know, tablecloths.
They use a lot of that stuff.
You never heard back? At least get some feedback.
- Feedback, yeah.
- Well that makes sense.
Oh, it's moving again.
You wanna work here for a long time, or do you have other dreams or - No, no, no.
- What's your long-term dream? Take pictures, do photography.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
How long you been doing photography? For a long time now.
How fast do you go on this? I usually can do, like, Do you usually get your bonus? - Oh, yeah.
- Yeah? Does that help a lot? It does.
I usually get about $200.
That's good.
Every little bit counts, right? Oh, yeah, especially with my niece.
- These are tough times.
- Oh what about your niece? Her mom's not doing too good right now, so I take care of her.
- Oh, you do? - Mm-hmm.
Her mom - Ohh.
- Yeah.
It sucks, but it's all right.
At least my niece is doing okay, so that's all I'm worried about.
I really admire Julie as a person for what she's done.
She's gonna be watching her niece for at least probably the next five years.
And I'm just extremely impressed by her as a person, that she's willing to make that sacrifice.
Beach balls.
Based on going undercover this week, I really question some of the budget cuts we made.
It broke my heart that employees said, "you know what?" "We say we make the world more fun," "but this is not a fun place to work.
" We need to make sure we're investing sufficiently in our employees.
I can't wait to get home and see my family.
I definitely need to recharge after being humbled by this experience.
I have a special delivery for Ms.
Ashton Taylor.
- Whoa! - Ohh! What happened to you? - Oh, my gosh.
- Happy Birthday.
You look so different.
What is that, a mohawk? What did they make you do? I did a job that was night shift.
- Wow.
- Started, like, at we started, like, at 10:00 at night.
- People really work then? - Oh, yeah.
What I've realized this week is I need to spend more time with those employees and help them understand that their CEO really does care about them, and that I listen.
Gives me a much better appreciation for our employees out there and what they do.
- To see what they do.
- It's tough, yeah.
So I'm gonna look for ways we can apply some of the things that maybe existed when the company was very small and run by a family.
We're a much larger corporation now, but we need to have those personal touches.
Two candles! All right! - Love it.
- Whoo! Coming up, Sam reveals his true identity Picture me with a retainer and glasses and long, black hair.
I've been tricked.
and hears some upsetting news.
My journey here is almost over.
I've kind of grown attached to those extensions.
Right? This week undercover has been a life-changing experience for me.
All right.
Welcome back, Sam Taylor.
All of the employees that I trained with think they've been called in to decide if I've earned a second chance at starting a new business.
With Dave losing his business, I full well believe that he does deserve a second chance.
They have no idea why they're really here.
- Hello.
- Hi.
Wow.
So do you know who I am? - Our big guy.
- The big guy.
- The big guy.
- How else do you know me? I have no clue.
Picture me with a retainer and glasses and long, black hair.
What that you, Sam? Do you see now, if you look close? I still can't really tell, no.
I've been tricked.
- It was a good disguise? - Yeah, it was.
I actually thought you were Dave from California.
We gotcha, man.
Wow, yeah, you most definitely got me.
So, drew, I really want to thank you for welcoming me into your job.
I remember I walked around the corner and into the truck, and the first thing you said was, "welcome to the dungeon.
" And I I thought "Oh, boy.
What am I in for?" - Wow.
- But it's definitely - it's a tough job.
- Mm-hmm.
And I know it gets hot out there.
And sometimes, yeah, you want a sports drink.
And so because of you raising this issue to me, I'm making a change in our policy.
- Sounds good.
- And our new policy is, during the two hottest months of the of the year, we're gonna make sports drinks available to every, single employee out there in the fulfillment center.
That's a good deal.
So we're gonna make that change.
Okay, sounds good.
And now that I've done the truck loading job, - it is a hard job.
- Very.
Because of the time I spent with you, Drew, I'm gonna increase the base pay for our truck loaders - by 25 cents an hour.
- Wow.
That's a commitment of around $100,000 I'm making to you and the other truck loaders.
Wow, you're you're you're really serious? I'm serious.
I'm sure they'll appreciate it.
I know you care a lot about your family, and for me, that's the most important thing, is family.
And you love your kids, and you got these two grandkids.
So I want to start an education fund for your two grandkids.
So I'm gonna put $5,000 in for each grandkid, so $10,000 You sure this is not a joke? This is for real.
And you mentioned to me something about your car.
And I said, "Oh, a caddy.
You know, that's a nice car.
" And you said, "Not my car, it's" No, not my car.
I want to do everything I can to retain good employees like you.
So I'm gonna give you $25,000 so you can buy a car.
Now, this this has got to be a joke.
Nope, it's true.
$25,000 so you can get a new car.
I want you to be able to have a better ride than what you got now.
Wow.
I'm lost for words.
It's a blessing what I'm going through.
You're a good man.
Let's do a fist bump.
Yeah, and a I got better.
That was better.
That's my best one yet.
I'm happy.
I really am.
Ah, man.
Wow.
Troy, one of the things that really cut me to the core was when you talked about you feel like a number - Yeah.
- and not a person.
And that really hurt.
Troy, I'm talking to you face to face.
I want you to know that I do care about every, single employee.
I'm going to implement a new policy.
I'm gonna have all of my members of the senior executive team spend at least two days a year working out in the warehouse, doing the frontline jobs.
Because the way you feel, that's not right.
Right.
That's sounds that sounds good.
That sounds real good, actually.
Thanks to you.
So, Troy, one of the other things you told me is that you're a single dad, four kids.
And one of the things that's really important for me is education.
So I'm gonna set up and education fund for each of your of your four kids.
- Holy cow.
- So $5,000 apiece, so - Nice.
$20,000, so you can get a good start for your kids - for their future education.
- Wow.
- Thank you.
- But it's 'cause you're a great dad, and I can see that.
And you care about your kids.
So I wanted to do something for you.
Thank you.
And the other thing that really blew me away was with your mom.
And you mentioned that your mom has some medical bills.
So I want to help you out there too, so I'm gonna give you $20,000 Oh, my God.
to pay for medical bills and whatever you need.
I feel like he went above and beyond what anyone should do for their employees.
Well, thank you.
This time period with my mom and my children was probably the most difficult time I've gone through in the last 15 years.
- Thank you so much.
- Hey, man.
That's great.
Thanks.
And he just took a big burden off me.
Kim, what I loved is you said, you know, you pack the box as if you were receiving it.
That's phenomenal.
When our customer opens that box, and a lot of times, you know, if her kids are around her and she's opening the box, and the kids are so excited, and that's a magical moment.
And you're doing everything you can to make sure that that moment is as magical as possible, and I thank you for that.
I know it gets incredibly hot out there on the floor sometimes, and, Kim, I don't want any of our employees experiencing heat exhaustion.
So we're going to add more water coolers - Yes.
- in the packing area.
And we're gonna put a fan up there to get the air flow going, so we're gonna take care of that.
- Great.
- And that's because of - Great.
- my day working with you.
The other thing, we talked about your wedding date coming up in November.
Gonna give you $10,000 to help pay for your wedding.
Oh, my gosh.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
I'm gonna give you an all-paid week in Las Vegas.
Oh, my gosh.
We're gonna set you up in the honeymoon suite at one of the top hotels.
And I'm gonna give you guys $5,000 spending money.
This will really help.
Oh, my goodness sakes, this helps so much.
You've been a single mom raising six kids on your own.
I mean, you deserve, you know, some help.
I can't thank you enough.
And Bill and I will have a wonderful, wonderful start.
Oh, I know you will.
He had a stroke last night.
He had a stroke? Yeah.
Last night? Yeah.
I'm gonna pay for those medical bills.
I'm gonna give you $20,000 so you can pay off all your bills and any debt that you have.
Nobody's ever done anything like this for me.
Well, I want you I didn't realize this.
I want you to get back you need to get back to him.
I know.
It's extremely emotional for me.
I've never had anybody care like that for for myself or my family.
And you're not the man I thought you were.
Thank you.
And tell Billy hi for me and get well soon.
I will.
Thanks.
I know that that man cares.
And now I will enjoy coming to work and feeling appreciated.
Julia, you said you submitted an idea, and you thought there was a lot of opportunity to provide more product to the hispanic market.
- Mm-hmm.
- And you were frustrated, because you said you put the idea up and you never heard anything about it.
- Hm-mm.
- So I'm gonna have you work with our product development team and our merchandising team on how we can best expand our hispanic line of merchandise.
- And that's a paid position.
- Awesome.
- Sound good.
- Oh, yeah.
You mention you have a passion for photography.
Yes.
I want to give you the right equipment.
- So I'm gonna - You serious? I'm serious.
I think you got a lot of talent there, but you need to have the right equipment.
So I'm gonna give you $5,000 so you can go out and get a really top-notch camera that a real photographer would need, so you can start to pursue that passion that you have.
Oh, thank you.
You talked about your niece.
Raising your niece while your sister's going through some tough times.
- Mm-hmm.
- So I wanna help you out.
So I'm gonna give you $30,000 Oh, my God.
Are you serious? I'm serious.
I really want you to be able to give your niece a great start.
Thank you so much.
And I really appreciate my experience working with you undercover.
Thank you.
Mm, thank you so much.
Thanks, Julia.
You know, I never ask for anything from anybody, but I think it's amazing.
This was an epiphany for me, going undercover, working this week.
- I'm Sam Taylor.
- I'm Leslie Hill.
Leslie, nice to meet you.
It was beneficial for me, because I got to hear the things that we need to improve.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Valerie.
Valerie? And, even though we've made progress, there's still a lot of work to be done.
We're handing out sports drinks today to everybody.
You guys look like you're working hard.
We gotta make sure that our employees are able to work in good environment and healthy conditions.
All right, thank you very much.
- Sure.
- Thanks.
- How are you doing? - Hi.
We'll be a better-performing company going forward.
We'll have better employee morale.
We'll be able to retain these great employees longer.
Thank you.
You look like you're working hard.
Oh, it's always hot over here, it seems like.
That's what I want my legacy to be, is the CEO that really cares about his employees and the customers.
- I'm Dave, nice to meet you.
- What's up, how you doing? All right, welcome to the dungeon.
By working on the front lines - You got one more in there.
- Uh, oh.
he'll feel the heat rising.
- I'm working up a sweat here.
- Yes, indeed, it's hot.
Yeah, absolutely horrible.
How will the boss react when he hears complaints from every single employee? Why don't one of these big-wig guys work with us in the warehouse and see if they can maintain the same pace? Yeah.
By working side-by-side with them 'Cause I came up with a suggestion once, and never heard back anything on it.
What? he'll find out, there's not a lot of fun for his workers.
Anyone that says they do want to work here is out of their mind.
Undercover Boss 3x07 - Oriental Trading Company Original air date March 9, 2012 Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, Oriental Trading Company is the nation's largest retailer of novelties, small toys, and party items.
It offers more than 30,000 products, via three websites, and employs more than 2,000 people.
Your package will be received in the next three to four weeks.
Leading this $1/2 billion a year business is one man.
I'm Sam Taylor, I'm the CEO of Oriental Trading Company.
We're the largest direct retailer of party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties, school supplies, and affordable for everyone to celebrate, have fun, and express creativity throughout their lifetime.
Oriental Trading has been making the world more fun for over 80 years.
It started out here in Omaha, selling to the carnival trade.
Oriental Trading has evolved through the years.
It started as a family business, and now we're a privately-held institution.
And with the Internet, e-commerce being So I was born in Yonkers, New York.
When I was eight years old, my family was traveling to Los Angeles, our car was hit by a drunk driver, and my dad was killed.
It was something that nobody expects to have to go through.
My dad was 33 years old, and it was very tough.
My mom, she was a stay-at-home mom, um, before my dad passed away.
All of a sudden, now having to raise four boys on her own, four young boys, my mom knew she had to support the family.
My mom passed away last year.
She, um, fought valiantly, um, but lost her bout with cancer.
It's always tough to lose a parent, but she lived such a wonderful life.
One of the key things I learned from my mom was the impact that we can have on people for good, and every single day trying to do something for somebody to make them feel better.
So that's the kind of legacy that my mom left, for me and my wife and for our daughters.
And so my family was very excited to have the opportunity to come to Omaha, and for me to work at Oriental Trading.
They love the product.
They love the idea that we make people's lives more fun.
So I started with Oriental Trading Company in May 2008.
Hey, good morning Pam.
- Good morning, how are you? - I'm doing well.
And as we all know, October 2008 is when the markets crashed, and we had to go through some tough decisions, and met with employees face-to-face to tell them that we were going to have to go through a downsize, and the first in our history.
I got emails from employees that, um, we had to, um, let go.
And so I made it a priority that I was going to communicate with our employees.
We have several things that we do to make the employee experience fun here at Oriental Trading.
I'm in the warehouse, presenting to our employees every three months, when I have our quarterly meeting.
So I've kept them informed.
And then we'll do an annual summer event, every summer for employees and their families where we all come together, and that's one of the most popular things that we do.
I feel like I've worked hard in my business career and have advanced to the position I have today.
Dad! Yes, it affords myself and my family, you know, - some nice things.
- Oh! We have a house like that because we like to have parties and we like to have fun.
I'm married to my wonderful wife Stephanie, we've been married for 23 years.
We have three daughters.
Our oldest is just turning 16, and then our second daughter is 12, and our youngest daughter is 8.
Oops, daddy's messing up.
All right, we'll start over again.
Having Sam gone for the week will be an adjustment especially for my oldest daughter, because he helps her quite a bit with her math homework every night.
- The difference of two cubes? - Yup.
Next week, Ashton turns 16, it's her sweet sixteen, so that's a big birthday, and I won't be there.
And I can't remember a single time when I wasn't there for one of my kids' birthdays.
So that's tough.
So what do you guys think of my rental car? Oh, my gosh, that's your car? - It's a rental.
- Oh, my gosh.
Well, daddy's going undercover, and I have to make sure nobody recognizes me.
I'm choosing to go undercover because at Oriental Trading we make the world more fun.
And I want to make sure this message of selling fun is really making its way all the way down to our front-line employees.
While undercover I'll be posing as Dave Barton, a failed Internet entrepreneur.
My employees will be told that this is a reality show that gives failed entrepreneurs a second chance at starting a new business.
So for my disguise I'm going to dye my hair dark brown, slick it back, I'm going to get extensions, grew out my beard, dye my beard brown, and have a retainer.
Oh, boy.
This week while I'm undercover, I'll be staying at the same hotel.
- Hi, my name is Dave Barton.
- Mr.
Barton.
We don't have stores all around the country that I have to travel to.
Everything that we do is here in Omaha.
Tonight I'm going to be working a night shift.
Well I'm nervous that I'm going to get recognized, but hopefully the disguise works.
Meet Dave Barton.
I'm at a fulfillment center in Omaha.
This is where we pick, pack, and ship our customers' orders.
It's critical that every item of the order is 100% accurate.
Excuse me, I'm looking for Troy.
Oh, got it, thanks.
We've invested a lot in technology over the last two years to improve our accuracy and productivity, and I'm here to see how that technology's being used, and identify even more ways that we can be more productive.
- Jim Troy? - Yeah, you my new trainee? - I'm Dave, yeah.
- Nice to meet you, Dave.
Good to meet you.
So what are we doing here? What I'm doing right now is I'm setting up for, uh, non-sortable pick, and we're going to be showing you - how to do pick today.
- Okay.
More specifically, we're going to be showing you how to do non-sortable pick.
- Okay, I'm going to show - What does that mean, - non-sortable? - Non-sortable is the items that are too big, or too heavy, to go into a tote.
That's a tote? - This is a tote.
- Okay.
Non-sortable items are too big to fit in there comfortably.
They can't go down a conveyor because if it goes down a conveyor it might fall out, or it might break inside the tote.
So we have to personally hand stage it, instead of send it - down a conveyor.
- Okay.
This is a "Jennifer" unit, okay? It's what tells us what to pick.
So she talks to me? Yes, she does.
- Did you hear her? - I heard her.
- She talks fast.
- Well, you can - Jennifer, slower.
- Slower.
- Jennifer, slower.
- Slower.
- Jennifer, slower.
- Oh, wow.
- This is slowest.
- This is the slowest.
- Oh, there you go.
Okay.
- Okay.
We've got at least 600 and something picks in here.
And how long do we have to pick that? However long it takes you to pick it.
Okay, all right.
Okay.
However much money you want to make.
- Okay.
- You can make up to $3.
22 more an hour.
So that's, like, But I have to be fast, okay.
Now I'm going to have to get my marching orders from Jennifer before I can go any farther, okay? Jennifer, ready to go.
Zone A, aisle 8, 0-8-1, - location, Charlie 7.
- Charlie 7.
Okay.
Zone A, aisle 7-6, bay 7, location, Alpha 3.
- 4-2.
- Grab two.
The first thing that hit me was, man, she talks fast.
A, aisle 6-5, bay 1.
That's the confusing part, is just listening to Jennifer, and keeping in your mind as she's telling you which bay to go to, and how many to pick.
- Two, multi.
- Grab two.
R-4, put one.
- 5-9, put one.
- D-4, put one.
- 4-2, put one.
- Bay 2, location, Alpha 4.
Okay, did you get all that? Dave looked a little bit overwhelmed.
He's got to concentrate a little bit harder.
Alpha 4, so - Jennifer, repeat.
- Six, multi.
- Six? Supposed to grab six? - Oh, boy.
- Grab 3-2-9.
- Location, 9-4.
Oh, and then what'd she say? I didn't hear her.
- She's doing the next location.
- Oh.
But go ahead Oh, 'cause it's in the same one.
No, it's not in the same one.
Oh, it's not? What did she did she say? He's got to learn to tune everything out, and just listen to Jennifer.
We have to get this done tonight.
Okay, you're doing this like an old man, okay? Normally, I hustle a little faster.
Jennifer, get work.
This is slowest.
Jennifer, get work.
Cart not available.
She's not being kind to me here.
Okay, come on, Jennifer, get work.
- Zone A, aisle 7-6, aisle 7 - Jennifer, slower.
You don't have to scream.
She can hear you.
Okay, Jennifer, are you there? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Jennifer, slower.
Don't scream it.
Just talk it.
Dave can't hold up the Jennifer unit and scream.
She's being tough on me.
He can't do that.
He, uh Jennifer is complicated.
You've got to develop a relationship with her.
How did you get it on that? I didn't do anything.
Dave's going to have to send her some flowers, send her chocolates, something.
I've got to put two more in there.
See, now you cut too deep, and you cut into the flamingo, look, look there.
- Uh-oh.
- Damaged, damaged, damaged.
Confirm 8-8-2-4-8 are damaged.
Damaged, damaged, damaged.
Dave, you're going to get me fired.
Sam Taylor, CEO of Oriental Trading Company, is a boss undercover in his own company.
Jim Troy? - Yeah, you my new trainee? - I'm Dave, yeah.
But right now, he's cutting into his business' profits.
See, now you cut too deep and you cut into the flamingo, - look, look there.
- Uh-oh.
Damaged, damaged, damaged.
Confirmed.
Today, I did about 1/100th of what I'd normally do with Dave with me.
That was a showstopper for me, that made me think that non-sortable's not his bag.
That's a wrap.
Let's go take a break.
Okay, I could use it.
It's it's a God-forsaken, grueling place to work.
But I have four kids, I'm a single father, I need to work nights, so this job works for me.
I need to be free in the afternoons, and I sleep during the day when they're at school.
How old are your kids? My oldest is 16, and my youngest is 8.
Oh, thanks.
So any questions? Well, yeah, 'cause you know this show that I'm on is about people that failed at business, so I had a business, it failed, and I'm looking for ways to learn from larger companies how they do things right.
Well, everyone has opinions.
Half the people in here don't care about OTC.
They don't pay real well.
Anyone that says they do want to work here is out of their mind.
I mean it's like saying I want to walk across the desert.
Most managers don't they, they don't know how to interact with their employees.
They either treat them like a number, or they don't, like I'm 27947, if you gotta know.
I keep my percentages up high enough to where I should be able to keep my job.
But more importantly, they need to care about their employees enough to treat them like they're more than just a number.
It doesn't feel good at all to hear that Troy feels like he's a number.
It makes me feel sick inside.
I want to make sure that we do something about that.
I can't have my employees feeling like they're numbers, that's just not right.
If there's these things that you would change, why are you still working here? What makes you come to work every day? Because I work at nights.
I have four kids and, uh, my mom was sick.
Oh, really? And so I had to move in with her.
Your mom's going to be okay, or? She's, uh, diabetic, she just needs constant monitoring, you know? It's either that or home nursing, like I say, I don't make enough for home nursing, so Yep.
You know, I lost my mom a little over a year ago.
She raised myself and my three brothers, she did that as a single parent, and he's having to do the same thing.
So I really my hat's off to Troy for everything that he's got to balance in his life taking care of his four kids, and then also taking care of his mom.
That's a lot for one person to have to handle.
- Oh, storm's coming.
- Yeah, we need to get back - in there and get back to work.
- Okay, gotta get back to work.
It sounds like there's some things that Troy is unhappy with here at Oriental Trading.
So my hope is that we can address some of these issues, and make it where he feels like, you know, this is a better place to work than how he feels right now.
Jennifer, ready to go.
Back to work.
Bay 2, location, aisle 4.
I'm at our Omaha fulfillment center.
I'm here to train in the truck loading department.
Truck loaders are important because they're the last individuals to handle the boxes before they get shipped off and before they arrive to the customers.
We're a large-scale operation.
In our peak season, we'll load and this year we will load over 6 million boxes.
- Excuse me? - Huh? - I'm looking for Andrew.
- "K" trailer, right there - with the big lights.
- Right there? Okay, thank you.
I'm here undercover to make sure they handle the boxes carefully.
We don't want any damage to the boxes.
We've got to make sure that everything arrives in tip-top shape.
Excuse me, hello.
Are you Andrew? Yeah, what's up buddy? How you doing? Hey, I'm Dave, nice to meet you.
All right, welcome to the dungeon.
- The dungeon? - Yes, the dungeon.
Why is it called the dungeon? Well, you're at the point of no return here.
So what is this job? What are we doing here? What we're doing is loading.
You want to take it, and load the boxes as best you can.
We're just it's just like a puzzle, - we're just matching the boxes.
- Okay.
You can have a tall one, you can have a short one, see how I did that? Okay, so you want to pack it as efficiently, - as tight as you can.
- As tight as you can, right.
You know, you might do 4,000 boxes a day or so sometimes.
Wow, 4,000 a day? Sometimes it's a little slower.
- You ready? - I'm ready.
All right.
Some of this stuff is heavy, if it's heavy we're not trying to put it all the way to the top.
And the boxes just keep coming? Yeah.
So this can go up here? No, the other way, the long way.
Oh, this way.
Yeah, gonna toss it in there.
There you go, good enough.
- That was fun.
- And they say - white men can't jump.
- That's right, man.
This one here? Let's fill it here.
'Cause it's pretty light? Oh, here comes another one.
- This one's heavier.
- Now, go ahead and - put that right there.
- Are you sure? Yeah.
Put that one like I had it, right there.
- Like this? - It's a bigger box, yeah.
How heavy are some of these boxes? - 45 or 50 pounds.
- Man, I'm getting all this So you're getting a workout, man.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm gonna have to go over here and finish this other truck, you're on your own for a minute.
If you need me, - you've got to learn my call.
- Okay, what's the call? Ready? Can you do that? Good enough man, just give me a squeak or something.
All right, that was close.
That was my first try.
That's my first try.
Oh, that was a little better.
I'm going to have to work on that, Andrew.
Dave sounded more like a chicken on his last leg.
The job's harder than I thought it was going to be.
Oh, this is a heavy one.
And the different sizes of boxes, and some are light, some are heavy.
Oh, they're coming faster.
And then you've got to try to pack the truck as efficiently as possible.
I'm not sure how hot it is, but the humidity is an issue.
So I know I slowed him down tonight.
I was afraid you wouldn't recognize it.
Need some help? I don't want to back things up here, so uh All right, buddy.
Dave was not fast.
He was slow.
But he's trying to get a second chance, and it won't be at OTC.
How long have you been doing this? Too long for no money.
About two years.
Okay.
The company itself, we claim to sell fun.
We sell fun.
Yes, but it's no fun in this truck.
Oh.
Is it a tough job? Very tough, it gets a little hectic, man, at times.
- Does it really? - Yeah.
We're making the same money as a lot of pickers, and packers, when we have the most physical job in the whole plant.
We work you more for less here.
What was that? We work you more for less here.
Oh, more for less? Yeah.
If it's 95 outside it's probably 105 or so in the truck, but I'm here every day doing my job, and just biting the bullet and doing what I gotta do.
So you married? Got any kids? I'm married, yeah.
I have - How many kids? - My wife we got three kids.
- Three kids.
- What about you? I've got three kids.
Two girls and a boy.
- You've got three kids? - My oldest daughter's 30 - My son is 25, and my - You don't look old enough - to have a daughter who's 30.
- Well thank you, man.
I'm 48 years old, 48 years old.
And I have two grandbabies, two adorable little girls, one's four and one's two.
- Oh, cool.
- Yup, and I love them dearly.
That's great.
All right buddy, we worked hard, that's the end of the shift, man.
- You, uh, like to shoot pool? - I do like to shoot pool.
Well let's go shoot some pool, man.
All right.
So at the end of our shift, Andrew invited me to go shoot pool with him, which I thought was really great because I'd love to go spend some more time and get to know him a little bit better.
Oh, what is there, like a soda or anything? Well, Dave, you've got some snacks here, - you've got coffee there.
- Okay.
And over here are the sports drinks, but they haven't been giving us that.
That's supposedly when it gets real hot in here, you're sweating, maybe the temperature's 90 or above.
Yep.
But, uh, they say, uh, they're trying to "save money" so they kind of pick and choose when they think they should hand that out.
In our effort to be efficient, in tough times, we had to cut costs in different areas, and one of those areas was in the sports drink area.
So you can't get in there for the sports drink? No, it stays locked.
I think it's a bunch of bull.
Let's see if I can make something happen here.
Whoa, look at that.
Ooh.
What advice would you give to me as a business owner starting up a new business? Be different than OTC.
Nobody likes to be criticized, so it's hard to hear the criticisms about the company, about me.
What kind of car do you drive? It's a '95 Cadillac.
- Whoa caddy, that's a nice car.
- I'm working for OTC, man, do you get it? I'm working for OTC.
All this, you know, complaining and all that - Yeah.
- it really threw me for a loop.
So you wouldn't tell people to come work at Oriental Trading? No, I wouldn't, no I wouldn't.
Helped me realize, I'm in big trouble.
I'm halfway through my journey, and it's been tough.
I'm concerned that the employees aren't happy, and I really hope this job goes better than the other jobs I've done.
I'm here at our Omaha fulfillment center, and I'm going to be training in the packing department.
The packers are critical in the process because if a customer order is missing an item, that can cost $15 or more to express ship that item to the customer.
So I'm here undercover to make sure that we're reducing the amounts of re-ships, as that allows us to offer the guaranteed lowest prices to our customers.
Excuse me? Are you Kim? - Yes, hi, how are you? - Hi, I'm Dave, how are you? Yes, good, nice to meet you, Dave.
Nice to meet you too.
I'm going to train you today, so what we're doing is packing.
- Okay.
- We're basically the last people to see it before they go out of the door.
- Okay.
- Okay? This is our scanner, and this is what we use, this is what we go by.
We're going to take the product, we're going to scan it, - box five.
- Okay.
- Okay, so we're going to go to box five - Box five.
Two.
Which box are we going to put it in? - Box five.
- Hey, you're pretty good - at this, I gotta say.
- The computer makes it easy.
Two.
My job now is to make the orders look neat, and as you see, I like to pack it like you'd like to receive it.
I don't like a sloppy order, I like things looking neat like that.
How long have you been doing this? Um, I have been with the company for it'll be 19 years this October.
You really do take time to arrange it nice.
I do, I you know, it hurts me, uh, with my production, but, you know what, I'm okay with that.
It hurts you? Yes, that's kind of where your XP comes in place The what? Um, the XP, our bonus program, based on your productivity and also your accuracy.
So when you slow down to do the little things that I do, - it hurts my overall score.
- Yeah.
But I'm okay with that, because, you know, I choose to make sure that my orders look good for our customers.
You know, that's something I take a lot of pride in.
- Yeah, I can tell.
- You know, and, uh, at least I can go home at the end of the day saying, - "all right, it's looking good".
- You feel like you did the very best you could for the customer.
Exactly, you know, and the company that I work for, because I represent OTC.
We're going to put our shipping label on - I think Kim is phenomenal.
- That one's ready to go out, and you can see it looks nice and neat.
I'm very impressed with her and her attitude about the job that she does, and how she's so focused on the customer.
- Let me try one too.
- All right.
- Just like that, that's perfect.
- Just like that? Might be a little easier, kind of, if you put the box like that, as I did.
- Oh, do it this way? - Is that easier for you? Oh, you have to go like that.
Yeah, now you may want to go over that again because see, look at that.
- Oh.
- That could very easily, - you know? - I'm not that good at taping.
Yeah, it's not as easy as it looks, is it? Okay.
I hurt that.
Dave's very clumsy with that tape gun, which is the way that I would describe it kind of fumbling a little bit.
If I can do about 27 in 10 minutes, let's see what you can do.
- Oh, man.
- Are you up for that? - I'm up for it.
- And I'll be right around here.
Okay.
Man, you've got to hustle.
So Let's see, so scan item.
Oh, wait.
Oh, there it goes.
How we doing over there? Good.
Close the chute.
Oop, got the foamy.
Okay.
Eight.
I need one more.
Six.
I forgot to hit "close.
" Four minutes left.
Are you feeling a little bit of anxiety there? I'm feeling the pressure.
Okay.
Whoop.
Got about 90 seconds left there.
- Oh, you're kidding.
- No, I'm not.
- Go, box.
- No pressure here, - no pressure here.
- Yeah, no, I'm feelin' it.
Dave had a little panic attack.
Oh! I'm going as fast as I can.
And your countdown is over.
So I did eight boxes.
Yes.
It is hot though, I'm working up a sweat here.
Um, yes indeed it's hot, yeah, absolutely horrible.
It's 103 degrees outside, it's a humid day, it's hot inside this warehouse.
I was in the warehouse and I was working, and I got so overwhelmed and hot that I went down.
Oh, really? Yes.
And that's how quickly it can come over you.
- Heat exhaustion or something? - Exactly.
That's exactly what I had.
I mean, and I went down, and I mean, I just felt lifeless.
But, you just have to keep plenty of fluids with you.
Okay.
Can we get a drink? Are you? I'm thirsty.
So what I generally do is I bring my own water bottle.
Have you talked to management about that? Yeah, I mean, it's a big thing, they say it's a budget thing, but I I just think, you know, that it's horrible to work in this environment - Oh, yeah.
- Because the heat drains you.
Yep.
Like most companies going through the recession, we had to focus on reducing our costs as much as possible.
Go ahead and take a break.
Follow me.
All right.
But, this is an issue I heard in another job as well, and we've got to make sure our employees stay hydrated.
So what's it like working here? My body has a hard time doing this.
Why don't one of these big-wig guys come out there and work with us in the warehouse and see if they can maintain the same pace? Yeah.
But, on the other hand, Oriental Trading does things like, you know, company picnics for the families.
Wow.
I would like to see Oriental Trading not do that at all and take care of us while we're here, because you know what? We're working here for our families.
Yup.
Do you have a family? I have six children, and six grandbabies.
Oh, wow.
- What does your husband do? - Um, I'm not married.
I just actually got engaged Saturday night.
Well, congratulations.
Yeah, he generally comes out here a couple times a week.
He'll bring me a little cold drink because he knows the issue here, and it upsets him.
He doesn't want me in this environment.
That was painful when Kim said that the big-wigs don't care about the employees, I mean, she's talking about me.
So it's time to get in now.
And I do, and I wanted to just say something to her right there but I gotta stay incognito.
I'm a little frustrated because I thought we had made more progress.
My hope is that we can address a lot of these issues.
I'm here to train in the induction department.
In the induction process, our high-speed sorter will take the individual items and drop them into chutes that correspond to the customer order.
The sorter that we use here is the fastest machine of its kind in North America.
We will do over 450,000 items in a day, so we need to be as efficient as possible to keep our costs down.
I'm here undercover to make sure that this technology is working, that we're giving our employees the tools they need to be productive and happy.
Hello, are you Julia? - Yes, I am.
- I'm Dave, how are you? - Good, how are you? - Good, nice to meet you.
You too.
- Well, this is induct.
- What's it called? - Inducting.
- Inducting? Okay.
Basically what it is, is we get the items in bulk and then, you know, we have to sort them out and we put them on the sorter, like, an item at a time.
Wow.
- Yeah, you go - Okay, that's fast.
You want to watch me for a second, or - Yeah, oh yeah, I do.
- Okay.
You're going to take your scanner Okay, got it.
then you just take one of the items and scan it, and it will tell you you need five of them.
Then you take one, and just throw it on a tray.
- Just like that.
- Like dealing cards, there.
- Yeah, kinda.
- Okay.
And then as long as it's green, you can go ahead - and put it on the tray.
- Okay.
Oh, you put that up there? Yeah, and then they go down there.
So you've got a bunch of these coming here.
Do you want to try, or? Yeah.
Ha! I saw you doing two at a time.
Whoo! Ha.
Okay, haha.
You got you got one more in there.
- Oh, I did? - Yeah, you got one more.
Oh, my gosh.
Sometimes you've got to slow down to make sure you're accurate first.
Basically, here's a badge you can use.
You're going to be close by, though, if I have any questions, - right? - Oh, yeah, I'm going to be right behind you, so if there's anything you need Oh, okay, all good.
There we go.
Snowman for Christmas.
Rock candy.
I see all these items for a luau party, a wedding, or baby shower, or for a birthday party, and it reminds me why I joined this company in the first place.
To bring happiness and fun to people's lives.
And so for me, it's really exciting.
Oh, man, a lot of spiders.
Gunnysacks.
Tons of rubber duckies.
Jungle birthday plates.
The giant map of Australia.
And some beads.
Beach balls.
This is kind of fun here.
Uh-oh.
I didn't break it.
What happened? You know, you've always got to make sure Oh.
Do you ever get distracted by the product because it's so fun? In induct, you've got to kind of be both accurate and fast because you can go as fast as you want, but you're just going to mess everybody up up there.
Always make sure that it's green before you put your next items down.
- Okay.
- Okay.
You know, lesson learned on that one.
How long have you been doing this job? Um, for three years now.
What's it like working here? Communication's a lot, you know, needed.
So you don't think this company does a good job with communication? I wouldn't say from the upper, higher-ups, no.
Oh, you don't get to talk to any of the big-wigs? No.
Well, the CEO sometimes will come in, but that's basically just telling us numbers and stuff.
Julia called me out as a CEO.
It's not just enough to have these meetings with all the warehouse employees, and to give updates on our business.
So that communication is not working the way it needs to.
Like, I came up with a suggestion once, and never heard back anything on it.
What was the suggestion? You know, I was telling them that maybe they should start, uh, focusing more on the hispanic community, you know.
They have, like, quinceaneras and stuff like that, which is a birthday.
They could sell them a lot of balloons or, you know, like, the fake flowers or, you know, tablecloths.
They use a lot of that stuff.
You never heard back? At least get some feedback.
- Feedback, yeah.
- Well that makes sense.
Oh, it's moving again.
You wanna work here for a long time, or do you have other dreams or - No, no, no.
- What's your long-term dream? Take pictures, do photography.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
How long you been doing photography? For a long time now.
How fast do you go on this? I usually can do, like, Do you usually get your bonus? - Oh, yeah.
- Yeah? Does that help a lot? It does.
I usually get about $200.
That's good.
Every little bit counts, right? Oh, yeah, especially with my niece.
- These are tough times.
- Oh what about your niece? Her mom's not doing too good right now, so I take care of her.
- Oh, you do? - Mm-hmm.
Her mom - Ohh.
- Yeah.
It sucks, but it's all right.
At least my niece is doing okay, so that's all I'm worried about.
I really admire Julie as a person for what she's done.
She's gonna be watching her niece for at least probably the next five years.
And I'm just extremely impressed by her as a person, that she's willing to make that sacrifice.
Beach balls.
Based on going undercover this week, I really question some of the budget cuts we made.
It broke my heart that employees said, "you know what?" "We say we make the world more fun," "but this is not a fun place to work.
" We need to make sure we're investing sufficiently in our employees.
I can't wait to get home and see my family.
I definitely need to recharge after being humbled by this experience.
I have a special delivery for Ms.
Ashton Taylor.
- Whoa! - Ohh! What happened to you? - Oh, my gosh.
- Happy Birthday.
You look so different.
What is that, a mohawk? What did they make you do? I did a job that was night shift.
- Wow.
- Started, like, at we started, like, at 10:00 at night.
- People really work then? - Oh, yeah.
What I've realized this week is I need to spend more time with those employees and help them understand that their CEO really does care about them, and that I listen.
Gives me a much better appreciation for our employees out there and what they do.
- To see what they do.
- It's tough, yeah.
So I'm gonna look for ways we can apply some of the things that maybe existed when the company was very small and run by a family.
We're a much larger corporation now, but we need to have those personal touches.
Two candles! All right! - Love it.
- Whoo! Coming up, Sam reveals his true identity Picture me with a retainer and glasses and long, black hair.
I've been tricked.
and hears some upsetting news.
My journey here is almost over.
I've kind of grown attached to those extensions.
Right? This week undercover has been a life-changing experience for me.
All right.
Welcome back, Sam Taylor.
All of the employees that I trained with think they've been called in to decide if I've earned a second chance at starting a new business.
With Dave losing his business, I full well believe that he does deserve a second chance.
They have no idea why they're really here.
- Hello.
- Hi.
Wow.
So do you know who I am? - Our big guy.
- The big guy.
- The big guy.
- How else do you know me? I have no clue.
Picture me with a retainer and glasses and long, black hair.
What that you, Sam? Do you see now, if you look close? I still can't really tell, no.
I've been tricked.
- It was a good disguise? - Yeah, it was.
I actually thought you were Dave from California.
We gotcha, man.
Wow, yeah, you most definitely got me.
So, drew, I really want to thank you for welcoming me into your job.
I remember I walked around the corner and into the truck, and the first thing you said was, "welcome to the dungeon.
" And I I thought "Oh, boy.
What am I in for?" - Wow.
- But it's definitely - it's a tough job.
- Mm-hmm.
And I know it gets hot out there.
And sometimes, yeah, you want a sports drink.
And so because of you raising this issue to me, I'm making a change in our policy.
- Sounds good.
- And our new policy is, during the two hottest months of the of the year, we're gonna make sports drinks available to every, single employee out there in the fulfillment center.
That's a good deal.
So we're gonna make that change.
Okay, sounds good.
And now that I've done the truck loading job, - it is a hard job.
- Very.
Because of the time I spent with you, Drew, I'm gonna increase the base pay for our truck loaders - by 25 cents an hour.
- Wow.
That's a commitment of around $100,000 I'm making to you and the other truck loaders.
Wow, you're you're you're really serious? I'm serious.
I'm sure they'll appreciate it.
I know you care a lot about your family, and for me, that's the most important thing, is family.
And you love your kids, and you got these two grandkids.
So I want to start an education fund for your two grandkids.
So I'm gonna put $5,000 in for each grandkid, so $10,000 You sure this is not a joke? This is for real.
And you mentioned to me something about your car.
And I said, "Oh, a caddy.
You know, that's a nice car.
" And you said, "Not my car, it's" No, not my car.
I want to do everything I can to retain good employees like you.
So I'm gonna give you $25,000 so you can buy a car.
Now, this this has got to be a joke.
Nope, it's true.
$25,000 so you can get a new car.
I want you to be able to have a better ride than what you got now.
Wow.
I'm lost for words.
It's a blessing what I'm going through.
You're a good man.
Let's do a fist bump.
Yeah, and a I got better.
That was better.
That's my best one yet.
I'm happy.
I really am.
Ah, man.
Wow.
Troy, one of the things that really cut me to the core was when you talked about you feel like a number - Yeah.
- and not a person.
And that really hurt.
Troy, I'm talking to you face to face.
I want you to know that I do care about every, single employee.
I'm going to implement a new policy.
I'm gonna have all of my members of the senior executive team spend at least two days a year working out in the warehouse, doing the frontline jobs.
Because the way you feel, that's not right.
Right.
That's sounds that sounds good.
That sounds real good, actually.
Thanks to you.
So, Troy, one of the other things you told me is that you're a single dad, four kids.
And one of the things that's really important for me is education.
So I'm gonna set up and education fund for each of your of your four kids.
- Holy cow.
- So $5,000 apiece, so - Nice.
$20,000, so you can get a good start for your kids - for their future education.
- Wow.
- Thank you.
- But it's 'cause you're a great dad, and I can see that.
And you care about your kids.
So I wanted to do something for you.
Thank you.
And the other thing that really blew me away was with your mom.
And you mentioned that your mom has some medical bills.
So I want to help you out there too, so I'm gonna give you $20,000 Oh, my God.
to pay for medical bills and whatever you need.
I feel like he went above and beyond what anyone should do for their employees.
Well, thank you.
This time period with my mom and my children was probably the most difficult time I've gone through in the last 15 years.
- Thank you so much.
- Hey, man.
That's great.
Thanks.
And he just took a big burden off me.
Kim, what I loved is you said, you know, you pack the box as if you were receiving it.
That's phenomenal.
When our customer opens that box, and a lot of times, you know, if her kids are around her and she's opening the box, and the kids are so excited, and that's a magical moment.
And you're doing everything you can to make sure that that moment is as magical as possible, and I thank you for that.
I know it gets incredibly hot out there on the floor sometimes, and, Kim, I don't want any of our employees experiencing heat exhaustion.
So we're going to add more water coolers - Yes.
- in the packing area.
And we're gonna put a fan up there to get the air flow going, so we're gonna take care of that.
- Great.
- And that's because of - Great.
- my day working with you.
The other thing, we talked about your wedding date coming up in November.
Gonna give you $10,000 to help pay for your wedding.
Oh, my gosh.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
I'm gonna give you an all-paid week in Las Vegas.
Oh, my gosh.
We're gonna set you up in the honeymoon suite at one of the top hotels.
And I'm gonna give you guys $5,000 spending money.
This will really help.
Oh, my goodness sakes, this helps so much.
You've been a single mom raising six kids on your own.
I mean, you deserve, you know, some help.
I can't thank you enough.
And Bill and I will have a wonderful, wonderful start.
Oh, I know you will.
He had a stroke last night.
He had a stroke? Yeah.
Last night? Yeah.
I'm gonna pay for those medical bills.
I'm gonna give you $20,000 so you can pay off all your bills and any debt that you have.
Nobody's ever done anything like this for me.
Well, I want you I didn't realize this.
I want you to get back you need to get back to him.
I know.
It's extremely emotional for me.
I've never had anybody care like that for for myself or my family.
And you're not the man I thought you were.
Thank you.
And tell Billy hi for me and get well soon.
I will.
Thanks.
I know that that man cares.
And now I will enjoy coming to work and feeling appreciated.
Julia, you said you submitted an idea, and you thought there was a lot of opportunity to provide more product to the hispanic market.
- Mm-hmm.
- And you were frustrated, because you said you put the idea up and you never heard anything about it.
- Hm-mm.
- So I'm gonna have you work with our product development team and our merchandising team on how we can best expand our hispanic line of merchandise.
- And that's a paid position.
- Awesome.
- Sound good.
- Oh, yeah.
You mention you have a passion for photography.
Yes.
I want to give you the right equipment.
- So I'm gonna - You serious? I'm serious.
I think you got a lot of talent there, but you need to have the right equipment.
So I'm gonna give you $5,000 so you can go out and get a really top-notch camera that a real photographer would need, so you can start to pursue that passion that you have.
Oh, thank you.
You talked about your niece.
Raising your niece while your sister's going through some tough times.
- Mm-hmm.
- So I wanna help you out.
So I'm gonna give you $30,000 Oh, my God.
Are you serious? I'm serious.
I really want you to be able to give your niece a great start.
Thank you so much.
And I really appreciate my experience working with you undercover.
Thank you.
Mm, thank you so much.
Thanks, Julia.
You know, I never ask for anything from anybody, but I think it's amazing.
This was an epiphany for me, going undercover, working this week.
- I'm Sam Taylor.
- I'm Leslie Hill.
Leslie, nice to meet you.
It was beneficial for me, because I got to hear the things that we need to improve.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Valerie.
Valerie? And, even though we've made progress, there's still a lot of work to be done.
We're handing out sports drinks today to everybody.
You guys look like you're working hard.
We gotta make sure that our employees are able to work in good environment and healthy conditions.
All right, thank you very much.
- Sure.
- Thanks.
- How are you doing? - Hi.
We'll be a better-performing company going forward.
We'll have better employee morale.
We'll be able to retain these great employees longer.
Thank you.
You look like you're working hard.
Oh, it's always hot over here, it seems like.
That's what I want my legacy to be, is the CEO that really cares about his employees and the customers.