Undercover Boss (2010) s03e13 Episode Script
Mastec
Male announcer: This week on the season finale of Undercover Boss, the CEO of Mastec, one of the country's largest builders of telecommunication and energy systems, poses as a recently laid-off high school coach getting a second chance at starting a new career.
How are you? My name is Manny.
Wendy Maxwell, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Announcer: By going out in the field - Pull your pile.
- I'm pulling, I'm pulling.
Announcer: this soft-spoken boss will find out if he's tough enough to work on the front lines.
How you doing in there? You doing all right? Okay.
Little faster, rookie.
He's sensitive, man.
Like a doctor.
Yeah.
Remind me of my dentist, dude.
You got to be tough.
One part of me just wants to cut him a little slack, the other part is like, "look at this guy.
" Announcer: And along the way he'll face real danger.
Now this will provide this transformer with power.
Right now? [Yells.]
Announcer: Coming up next on the season finale of Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 3x13 - Mastec Original air date May 11, 2012 Announcer: Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Mastec is one of the largest builders of telecommunication and energy systems in North America.
With more than 9,000 employees, Mastec builds everything from power lines to gas lines to sources of renewable energy.
At the head of this $2.
8 billion corporation is one man.
I'm Jose Mas, and I'm the CEO of Mastec.
is when you're at home and you turn on a light switch.
We're the ones behind building that power grid that allows that light to turn on.
When you pick up your telephone and you have a dial tone, we're the ones that build the system to allow that communication to happen.
That's what Mastec does.
Mastec was founded by my father, Jorge Mas Canosa.
He actually immigrated from Cuba in 1959.
He came to the United States, not speaking the language with no money in his pocket.
You know, he worked a bunch of odd-end jobs.
He worked as a shoe salesman, you know, some of the hotels, cleaning dishes.
And eventually, he had some friends that had opened up a business doing underground construction that was failing, where they offered him an interest in the business if he could turn it around.
He did it.
Had no idea what he was doing, but he figured it out, eventually bought his partners out, and really grew the company during the '60s, '70s, and '80s.
I grew up watching my father fight for his people.
He took a keen interest in the Cuban-American struggle.
He actually served as the chairman of the Radio Advisory Committee to Cuba for president Reagan, president Bush, president Clinton, and it made him a huge presence in Miami.
My dad was an incredible man that I would love to be like.
My dad was a larger-than-life figure.
He loved being around people.
And I actually love being around people as well.
I love hearing stories.
He passed away at his house in 1997 at the age of 58.
And that moment showed me the impact that he had in his life.
And then it just ballooned up to his funeral, his burial, you know.
Couple hundred thousand people.
Unbelievable.
There were the average citizen that came to pay their respects for somebody that fought so hard to help his people.
I mean, he was an unbelievable spirit, a very giving man.
He fought for them until the day he died.
I became CEO of the company in 2007, and at the time, financially, we weren't doing great.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
I made a lot of changes, really diversified our business, and the success that Mastec's had over the last four years has been unbelievable.
Since 2007, we've tripled revenues and quadrupled earnings.
And I got the Florida Entrepreneur Of The Year award for the success that we've had here in the last couple years.
You know, as the CEO of Mastec, the buck stops here.
Every decision that gets made, ultimately, I'm responsible for.
We've got big goals, we want to become a lot bigger than what we are.
And I'm not satisfied until we get there.
You know, as CEO of a large, publicly traded company, I get paid very well.
I have a nice home, I'm able to provide a lot for my family.
Hey, kids.
I have two beautiful children.
I have a great wife.
Jose's an amazing father.
He's a great role model to our kids.
There was nobody he admired more in the world than his dad.
And I think part of the reason he's so successful is he had a role model like his dad.
Make the pass and cut.
One of the activities that I most enjoy with my kids is I coach them in basketball.
You get here and you pop your shot.
It's a big part of our family nucleus.
Come on.
Over the course of the last four years, we've grown a lot.
But as we become so large, there's many jobs that I still don't know.
My father was hands-on.
He dug the first ditch.
And for me it's very important to participate in these jobs, getting to understand the challenges and opportunities that we have.
Bye, baby.
I'll miss you.
Is the tingling and stinging normal? Yeah, it's normal.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Manny Medina, a gym teacher from Eagle, Colorado, who's been recently laid off.
Oh, my God.
My employees will be told I'm a contestant on a reality show called "Second Chances," where someone who's been recently laid off tries to get a second chance by working in a new career.
I'm here today in the Fort Myers area.
And today I'm going undercover as a high-voltage electrician.
My father was very passionate about bringing power to homes, and making that efficient and effective.
Even though the business has changed a lot, you always have to stay close to your roots.
And working around energized cable is extremely dangerous.
So I'm looking to make sure that our employees are working safely.
They need to be doing a job of quality and they need to do it, you know, as quickly as they can.
- Hey, how you doing? - How you doing, sir? How you doing, man? I'm Manny, looking for Alex.
Yes, sir.
Nice to meet you.
You're Alex.
How are you? - This is my brother, Kelvin.
- How you doing? Hey, Kelvin.
How are you, man? Always work together.
Let's see if you have what it takes to do this.
My brother been doing this for ten years.
He was my teacher, and I since passed the teacher.
"Pass the teacher," ha! Yeah, good luck with that one.
Well, what are we doing here today? There's power running underground, so what we're doing now is going to provide power to all these houses We're going to use that crane to lift it and set it on the pad.
Once we set it, we go to the step of all the connections.
As a safety issue, we always treat everything as live.
But if that's live, that'll kill you, right? Exactly.
Yeah.
If you cut the cable wrong and somebody might go without knowing what they're doing and connect it, this will blow up.
Man, you're scaring me, man.
- Can't be afraid of it.
- All right.
You got to respect it.
Manny reminds me of, like, an older version of a less cooler - Eminem? - Eminem.
Yeah.
This is pretty simple.
This handle tells you exactly what this arm's going to do.
This here is winch down.
Which is winch over there.
Which is the winch over there.
- This extends the boom.
- This extends the boom.
- Retracts the boom.
- Simple, right? - So far.
- All right.
Are you leaving me? I'll tell you what to do down there.
All right, all right.
[Laughs.]
All right.
Make sure we don't drop this, man, or we're going to have to work for the rest of our life for free, okay? All right.
Now winch up.
A winch, right? Yeah, winch up.
[Laughs.]
All right, Manny.
Bring it to me.
God, Manny is just slow.
Slower than a turtle, man.
It's normal that it turns like that? Yeah, it's fine.
Manny was too gentle.
You have to be fast and productive and safe all at once, you know? You can't be timid or scared.
Little faster, rookie.
- Got to do it quick, man.
- You got to do it yeah.
Come on.
Bring it right here.
- There you go.
- He's doing it.
You're almost there.
I've never operated a boom truck before.
So it was actually pretty cool that I was able to pick up the transformer and put it where it needed to go.
Three hours later, transformer is set.
Okay.
So, you grab one of the brown wire and you pull.
A lot of people just make a mess.
But me, I like to actually make my job look good.
From here, pull the knob, set it to strip.
Do that circle.
See how it goes in? You made that look easy.
A lot of years, brother.
Now this will provide this transformer with power.
Right now? [Yells.]
Just kidding, man.
[Laughter.]
How was it? You got scared? You scared the #$&* out of me, man.
I was about to jump.
Felt like I was in a fraternity in college again getting hazed.
They got me.
They got me good on that one.
I'm going to have to figure out a way to get them back.
Think you could do it? I don't know.
We'll see.
Don't be nervous, man.
That's like what, $10,000, $20,000 dollars? Psh, what the heck is that? It's just a little bit of pressure.
Got to keep in mind, got to work fast.
[Sighs.]
H's sensitive, man.
He's like a doctor.
- Yeah.
- Remind me of my dentist, dude.
"Am I touching you too hard?" No, you got to be tough.
You know my girlfriend built an elbow? You girlfriend did it? - First try she did an elbow.
- Five minutes.
[Laughing.]
What do you think about this so far? You know, so far, other than you guys teasing me, it ain't too bad.
What do you guys aspire to do in the company? What's the next step for you guys? How long does it take to be a lineman? Depends who trains you.
The company doesn't provide it here.
You want to get into this line of work? You've got to spend money.
Companies don't pay for it? - Actual, no.
- No? Also, you got to buy all your tools, your bag, anything that would make your job easier.
It's not good.
There's no question that we've got training schools across a lot of different areas.
Why everybody wouldn't know about that bothers me.
The other way around.
And having to provide some of their own tools, we got to fix that.
You know, I got to fix that.
Now he's going to go ahead and inspect your elbow.
Okay.
Man, it's freaking ugly, but Freaking ugly? You're just picky, man.
I'm picky, man.
[Laughter.]
So how long have you been doing this job? I started when I was 18.
And, um, we're two brothers, and we're lucky to work together, and coming from the Dominican Republic, a hard life, I don't know if you know, third-world country.
- It's poor, man.
- It is.
Talking about walking around with no shoes, you know.
We came here when we were, like, ten years old.
- Ten years old.
- He was ten.
We were young.
And I didn't know no English, bro.
My mother had to take a boat.
You know, the whole freaking story how we make it here.
You know, Alex and Kelvin coming from the Dominican Republic to start a new life is amazing.
Obviously, you know, my family's been through something very similar where my parents had to leave their country.
Getting in this line of work is what helped us move up, or else we don't know what we'd be doing.
To know that Mastec's afforded that opportunity to two immigrants coming to this country and starting from scratch, much like my father did, I think he would be extremely proud of what we're doing.
Before you, uh, get back to work, there's a little something you're going to have to do.
All right.
Oh, man.
- There you go, buddy.
- Go ahead.
You got to teach me.
- No, no right in the moment.
- No? I just got to do it? There you go.
There you go.
It's your turn, bro.
I think they make a great team, and they've got an opportunity to really advance in this company so we got to figure out how to make that happen.
- That a little - A little hip-hip - There you go.
- Freaking hilarious.
I don't know about that.
I don't know about that.
You guys, you know.
Announcer: Coming up A lot of people don't like it.
Announcer: the boss learns something unsettling.
Went in a restaurant and pretty much was told if we worked on the wind farm, they didn't want our dollars.
Wow.
Announcer: And later Come on down.
Announcer: Jose discovers he doesn't stack up.
I don't think you're ready for this yet.
All right.
I'm in American Falls, Idaho on a wind farm, and today I'm going to be a heavy equipment operator.
When this wind farm's complete, it's going to power 37,000 homes.
The renewable energy business is very important for me.
In 2008 it was the first major acquisition that I made as CEO.
We think it's going to be a big growth engine for the company for a long time.
Today I'm going to be looking for the impact that we're having on the landowner's land and anything we can do to make the business better.
Are you my new trainee today? I am, how are you? My name is Manny.
Wendy Maxwell, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
This is pretty cool.
Well, what we do is pretty cool.
I don't like the idea of giving money to foreign countries to buy oil.
There's enough in our United States to help us.
Sounds like you're working for a mission.
It's what I do.
I'm part of the civil crew.
And we're the first ones on the job and the last ones off.
We come in, we build all the roads, we dig all the holes from the turbines, and, after they erect these wonderful things, we reclaim and dress up all the land.
Do you know anything at all about heavy equipment? Nothing.
Okay.
We're going to try to move some of this dirt and make it as level and pretty as we can.
So all I'm going to do is make a few passes.
And then we'll get you in - and let you give it a try.
- All right.
All right.
As long as you don't show me up.
No, I'm not going to show you up.
Okay.
You know, this is your typical wind farm site.
Probably owned by a farmer.
And the farmer gets paid for leasing out the space to the wind farm.
They're letting us use their property, we're here to do a job, but at the end of the day we have to turn that land over exactly how we found it.
Think I'm ready.
Okay.
Just don't hit this.
There's no way I'm hitting that.
$2 million turbine.
I'm jumping off before I hit that.
No, don't jump off.
This is your forward and reverse, left and right to move your machine.
This is your blade control in the front.
- Okay.
- Pretty much that's it.
So turn your key.
Do you want me to give it a shot now, pulling pushing some dirt.
Go for it.
Don't be trying to get all fancy now we just need to push some dirt.
Okay.
Manny is real soft-spoken.
He talks really low.
You doing all right? Okay.
We all loud people, you know, like to have fun.
And if this something he would like to do, he might have to get a little bit more vocal.
I don't think that looked too pretty.
You can't expect to be perfect if you're only learning.
You know I want to do a good job.
Part of my DNA is I want to win, I want to do everything right.
Don't go too deep.
I found myself messing up a couple times.
Well, you still have a pretty good load on your blade.
Raise your blade up as you go, and then you lose your load.
First time on a 'dozer, and it's tough.
I think I made more hills than I straightened it out, so I think I do other things better than operate equipment.
Okay, let's put it in neutral and then kill it.
Okay, Manny.
How did that feel? Felt all right, but I can't keep an even surface.
You know, it's a learning process.
Some people have it, some people don't.
But we'll move on to something else.
We're going to compact some gravel.
All right.
I read everywhere about clean energy, and it's the wave of the future.
What's the job like? What's Well, we work longer hours.
Most of the time you're away from home, from family.
I guess I'm fortunate enough I'm from South Louisiana.
Don't see it but about three weeks out of the year, but that is home.
You know, it's a solitary life.
It's hard.
But, because of this job, I'm able to do things for my children, for my grandchildren that otherwise I wouldn't be able to do.
Do you get to see your grandkids a lot? When I go home at Christmas, you know? Wow.
Throughout my life, I've been poorer than dirt.
But the one thing you can give somebody when you can't give anything else is a smile.
That is free.
And, I've kind of lost my smile.
Why? What's wrong with your smile? Well, I have fibromyalgia.
And I take a good bit of medication, which is causing me to lose teeth.
What is it that they would do? I'd probably have to have them all pulled and all put back in.
But when we come out here to work, I can't take extended periods of time off to go do that.
And I've got a little bit more financial obligation, because I want to go home and not owe a soul.
My home be paid for, everything.
Wendy's a great person.
She's a woman working as an equipment operator, which is almost unheard of.
She's working hard, long hours, long days, and she's doing it so her life and her family's life can be better.
I was very impressed.
So what are we going to be doing up here? We're dressing up all the roads, because they take such a beating.
You know, we're coming back and adding a couple inches of gravel on top.
And so we're going to compact some gravel.
Here we are.
Isn't that a beautiful view out there? It's gorgeous.
It's just magnificent.
A great thing.
A lot of people don't like it.
They don't like to look at them.
You know, if we go into communities we're not welcome.
You know, if they're not making the dollars, then they really don't want it.
Like one time we went in a restaurant and pretty much was told if we worked on the wind farm, they didn't want our dollar.
Wow.
You know, it's tough.
To see to our future, then that's what we have to do.
Let's go get her done.
All right.
I think we're doing something that's good for not only the country, but the communities that we're working in, and I absolutely want to look into it and see if there's things that we can do to improve the relationship between our employees and the communities in which we're working in.
This is Billy Maxwell.
- Hello, Billy.
- Hi.
How are you? I'm Manny.
Nice to meet you.
Also my husband, but you know, he's only my husband after I clock out in the day.
Are you learning anything? Trying to figure it out.
Right, well, there's only one way to learn it after your she shows you what to do, the only really way to learn it is to do it.
I'm ready.
Turn it on.
I'm going to get out of here.
So, uh, good luck to you, Manny.
All right, thank you very much.
So I'm going in this direction, forward, then back? Right.
Wendy is here with her husband.
They spend a lot of time away from home.
And it's tough, I mean, she's out here trying to make it better for her kids, make it better for her grandkids, and she's doing it a hard way, she's doing it the American way.
Pretty awesome to be around her.
Is that good? That's better.
Announcer: Coming up, Jose faces a dangerous task.
Now what do we got a fire extinguisher for? If somebody drives by, in their car, and flips a cigarette out the window, I want to be able to put the fire out.
Years ago, a house literally blew up.
Blew up? Announcer: Jose Mas is a boss undercover in his own company.
He's currently posing as a high-school coach looking for a second chance at a new career.
Wendy Maxwell, nice to meet you.
All right.
This is pretty cool.
Announcer: His journey continues in Dallas, Texas.
Today I'm going to be working with a foreman.
On this job we're changing out natural gas pipes so we're taking old pipes in bad shape, and replacing them with new pipes.
What that does at times is there's less leakage in the pipes, which hopefully brings down everybody's natural gas bill.
You have a brand new pipe.
Uh, we've had some issues here in Dallas.
We lost a big account.
You know, I'm competitive.
I want to win every job in a market.
So our goal here is to go after every account that we can win, and hopefully, eventually win back the account that we lost.
Excuse me, how you doing? I'm looking for Rick.
This man right here.
That's him? Thank you.
Hey Rick, how are you? I'm Manny.
Good.
So, uh, you going to be helping us today? I'm going to be helping you today.
All right, cool.
We're retrofitting all the gas service lines going to the houses.
We're taking out the steel.
The steel pipes are rusty, a lot of corrosion on them from years of sitting in there.
Some of this stuff was done in the '20s.
They had an issue several years ago where a house literally blew up.
- Blew up? - Yeah.
So, I mean, it's not feasible to leave it in.
You know, instead of just going and getting the ones that are leaking, we're just going to do them all.
Replace them with new, poly-plastic pipe.
So are you familiar with the use of any of this equipment at all? No, I'm not.
What did you do before you came out here? I was a high school basketball coach and, you know, school's are having a tough time.
Hard to make a living that way.
It's true.
So I'm trying to figure out what to do next.
Grab a shovel and just kind of clear this out.
Okay.
I'm not used to being this physical on the job.
Usually I'm using my brain a lot more than I'm using my body.
Let's get this pipe out of here.
This is live gas down here.
Actually, hang tight.
What we're going to do now what do we got a fire extinguisher for? If, uh, if somebody drives by, in their car, and flips a cigarette out the window, I want to be able to put the fire out.
This is a live gas main.
Going to put soap around it.
If it bubbles, we'll fix the leak first before we do any work.
That doesn't scare you? No.
I'm not overly concerned about it, but a guy that doesn't know how to react to a situation, he might freak out.
You know, those are the kind of the things that I think about as the foreman.
Take this soap bottle and just squeeze it.
See the fitting? All around that.
Soak it good.
I mean, make sure it's good and wet.
All right.
No bubbles, right? All right, that'll be good.
While you're down there, see how we had all this extra slack - on that pipe over there? - Yes.
I'm going to push it this way, and I want you to pull, and we're going to pull all that slack back in the hole.
Okay.
Pull your pipe.
I'm pulling, I'm pulling.
Manny, he's very soft-spoken.
Working out here with a bunch of guys, sometimes you got to get rough with them.
You know, you got to be loud.
He's having problems.
It's tough.
You know, you don't know if you talk to a guy like that if it's going to hurt his feelings.
- Is that good? - No.
One part of me just wants to cut him a little bit of slack, but there other part is like, "hey, guys, you know, look at this guy.
" Go ahead and pull your pipe.
Out here you've got to have a little bit of confidence and show it.
It's a tough job.
It's physically tiring.
There's a very dangerous element to this job.
You know, and that's a natural gas main line.
You make a mistake, that that line can blow up.
You got this? I'm going to try it.
They're risking their life every day for our company, and that's impressive.
So, Rick, how can I unscrew this? Well, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, I learned that a long time ago.
- You want a break for lunch? - Sure.
I got to figure out what I'm going to do, right? So I might I might get a chance to work for this company.
What's that like? Well, ten years ago, things were a lot better here.
From what I understand, the laborers, other than their paycheck at the end of the week, they don't have any incentive.
You know, we've got a bonus program that, you know, that hasn't worked.
Nobody's gotten it, nobody's reached it.
How many of these can you do in a day? They want us to do somewhere around three a day.
And it's almost impossible.
I don't see how we're going to ever reach it, but I put out a bonus program to try to, you know, help the employees make more money, to give them a chance to get ahead and advance.
But if nobody's able to achieve it, then we got to re-look at it.
Do you have a family? I'm engaged to be married.
And I have a 55 year-old sister-in-law, she's mentally retarded.
What's that like? She she's a lot of fun.
So, basically if we go somewhere, she goes with us.
But, on the bright side, she is 55-years old, so she can go with us if we want to go dancing, if we want to go to the club or something.
She calls me boy.
She loves her boy.
When are you getting married? We haven't set a date yet, I don't know.
I think the I've been married for 14 years, man.
Really? Congratulations.
Thank you.
Has it been good, all good? It's been good.
You know, it's kind of one of them deals.
We're waiting to see where the money's at, you know, before we get married.
Because she wants to have a special wedding, you know, and we don't have the money to do that right now.
Right.
I haven't been in the position that Rick's been in.
I haven't had to worry about providing something for my wife or for my kids.
And, to me, it's important that we don't let our success get to our head.
Because these are the real stories of the men and women at Mastec.
And, you know, I won't forget that.
Because it's going to help me to make better decisions.
[Speaking spanish.]
I guess let's get back to work.
- All right.
- Let's go.
Today, I'm in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and I'm going to be working on a construction crew on a transmission line.
You know, a transmission line's like a highway for power.
Everything we do requires power.
And we need affordable power.
But to be able to do that we need a system, a highway, that moves our power from the places where it can be produced most effectively to homes and businesses.
That's what these transmission lines do.
Today, we're upgrading an existing transmission line.
These are big lines, a lot of things can go wrong.
A lot of things can happen.
So I want to make sure they're working safely.
How you doing? Looking for Hugh.
I'm Hugh.
Hey Hugh, how are you? I'm Manny.
Oh, you the new guy, okay.
I'm the new guy.
I'm the foreman of the crew out here.
All right.
Let me get you, uh, to sign this safety sheet.
This here is our little thing we do every day on, uh, hazards on the job.
We got our protective boot, leather gloves, ear protector, safety glasses, hard hats, uh I think you can just sign it down here at the bottom somewhere.
All right.
We're going to go strictly by safety.
We're going to be digging.
As you can see, we've done started.
We've got some wire to put in the ground.
We've got ground rods to drive.
What do the ground rods do? The ground rods is for the, uh, static.
For this point, right now, it's for lightning.
For it won't damage the structure, won't damage the bases of stuff like this.
And that way everything's cool on it.
All right, cool.
Let's grab some of those ground rods, and we'll go ahead and get those drove up.
Slide that over the end of this.
All right, beat that thing down.
Just watch how high you pull it.
Hit that thing like you live.
I'm sorry? I said hit it like you live.
All right, I'm scared that I'm going to put it all the way up, man.
I'm going to hurt my head.
You ain't going to hurt it.
That will make a man out of you.
I probably got an 11-year-old boy that could beat that thing harder than him.
You could probably get more leverage on it if you want to jump down here now.
He act like he was scared of it, Manny was.
That ought to be good, right there.
Have you ever operated a backhoe? Yeah.
You think you'd be safe enough to run that front bucket and push it in here? I think I can do it.
All right, uh, tell you what, I'll get you over here on that pile of dirt right there and see what you can do with it.
All right.
Cool deal.
All right.
I don't want you close to these structures.
Because, man, if we hit these things, boy, we going to be in a world of A lot of trouble? Yeah.
Go ahead and jump up on there now.
Kind of show you.
Go ahead and crank it up and see what it does.
If it's in, you've got to put your seatbelt on.
Put seatbelt on? Yeah.
All right, put it in gear and see what it does there.
Straight forward.
All right, go ahead and ease it down, straight.
Push it forward, all right.
Roll it to the right.
All right, curl it down.
The other way.
Bring it back up some.
Do you want me to pick up the piece yeah, just try to lay it flat and scrape it smooth.
Come on down.
I don't think you're ready for this yet.
You don't think I'm ready for this? No, no.
You'll find out, I'm picky when it comes to using equipment.
I don't want nobody hurt, and if I don't feel safe with you, I ain't going to let that happen.
I don't want nobody to get hurt or nothing.
All right.
I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I need to get some water.
Yeah, my mouth was getting pretty cotton-y there.
I'm getting too old for this.
I'm about ready to retire.
So tell me a little bit about yourself.
How do you like, uh I'm from Georgia.
You're from Georgia? Yeah, yeah.
Do you have any family back in Georgia? Yeah, I got a wife, ten grandbabies, - Oh, wow.
- Four kids.
So what's it like working so far away from home? It's not good.
I've been with the company march 6th will be 15 years.
I started out with 'em in telephone communications.
Went from that to the power.
I was the first Georgia power service crew that Mastec had.
So now I'm on the transmission.
All over the place.
I've been around.
Uh, I got injured on the job.
I got twisted around a boring rod.
Broke my ankle, busted a jewel, and my eyes were hemorrhaging.
But, uh, yeah, I stayed in the hospital a couple days.
Everything come out pretty good.
I got a plate and screws in that ankle.
Mastec treated me real good on that deal.
Mr.
Mas, the senior, he's dead now, but, uh, Mr.
Mas talking to my wife while we're and they was telling her, you know, if there was anything that she needed, do not hesitate to ask.
And, you know, that means a lot to me.
You know, a man that owns the company come up and say something like that to my wife, that meant a lot.
You know, it wasn't surprising to hear that my dad that.
Because he was, uh, an incredible human being.
Um, he did a lot of things like that.
But I got to meet him and, uh, junior.
Uh, which Mas now that's got it? Jose, I guess.
And I wish they could get out and see everybody a lot more.
I think a lot more people would have a better outlook at some of the company.
Today, I came expecting one thing, and sometimes you learn something else.
Hugh taught me a good lesson.
What makes Hugh exceptional is his love of the company.
With guys like that, we're in great hands.
Can I grab another water in here? Yeah.
You know, it started with my father, long time ago, and, uh, here I am.
Well, we need to finish this thing.
Come on.
All righty.
So I'm at the end of my journey.
Thousands of miles away from home, in a basketball gym.
Because this is a place for me that I can find solace.
And I can think about the week that I've had.
I met some unbelievable people.
I heard their stories.
What moves them, what motivates them.
And the reality is that I'm not the reason for the success of Mastec.
I'm one person.
Our success starts in the jobs that I did this week.
I need to be a lot more visible.
I need to get out and meet more of our people.
It's hard, but if it meant that much to Hugh and it had that much of an impact, I have to do it.
My father was 58 when he passed away, I was 26.
And it's amazing to me that 14 years later, he's still teaching me lessons.
My time undercover has finally come to an end.
I've had an incredible journey, and I've learned some unbelievable lessons.
So I've called the employees to the freedom tower.
The freedom tower is where Cubans were first processed when they came to this country.
The road outside of the freedom tower is actually named after my father.
I'm about to reveal my true identity to the employees.
And they think they're voting to decide whether or not I deserve a second chance.
It's something that's completely out of his element.
He's never done anything like this before.
Manny don't look like he's really cut out for this type of work Hey, guys.
How you doing, Manny? All right, so I got a secret.
I'm not really Manny.
My name's Jose Mas.
Oh, God.
And I'm the CEO of Mastec.
You're kidding me, right? You had that hair dyed blonde and you kind of fooled me a little bit.
Wendy, we talked a little bit about some of the communities that you're working.
And you were concerned some communities accepted you, or others that didn't really want you there.
So one of the things that I'd like to do is when we get to a new wind site, I want to do an event for the community, and explain to the community what it is that we're doing, why it's a benefit to them, and how it can help them.
Thank you.
You brought up the issue about your smile.
And you said that you wanted to bring joy to people's world.
So you're going to get the time off to go do your teeth.
And whatever it costs, we're going to pay for.
I don't know if it's 20, $25,000, to fix your teeth.
Wow.
I want you to smile and I want you to bring joy to people's lives.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There's something else that I want to do for you, because I think you told me that you had about $30,000 in different debts.
And I'm going to give you $30,000 too.
So that you can feel good about having your teeth done.
And you don't feel that that's taking away from anything else.
Thank you, sir.
Jose.
Jose.
I don't know if there's words to to convey that feeling.
You know, to have that done means everything.
Kelvin, Alex.
You guys gave me a really hard time, man.
You called me "rookie.
" You said, "my girlfriend's faster than that.
" I don't know, man.
I was a little offended.
I'm disappointed to hear that you didn't think my skills were up to task.
I don't know what to say.
Actually, when I got out of there, I said, "I'm going to get you guys back," somehow I'm going to find a way to get you back.
" So I got you back.
I got you back! - You did.
- Yes, you did.
Because I was like Great to meet you guys.
Same here, sir.
Pleasure to meet you.
I had an awesome time working with you guys.
You guys talked a little bit about some of the tools weren't being provided by the company.
We're going to work on getting you guys the tools that you need to make the jobs as best as you can across the company.
Because I think you guys are incredible representatives of the company.
And I, you know, want to do something for you guys.
I don't think you guys had an opportunity to finish your lineman school and get your license.
Mastec has a school.
Really? And my commitment today to you is I'm going to pay for both of you to get your lineman certificate.
I'm speechless, man.
I want you guys at events.
I want you guys to reach for your dreams.
I never knew things like this existed, you know? You guys are immigrants.
Yeah.
Just like my family.
And once upon a time, somebody reached their hand down to my dad and they gave him a chance.
And he was able to build this and give me and my family everything.
And I'm a big believer in education, so we have a scholarship fund, and next year I want to have a special scholarship called "The Duran Brothers Scholarship.
" And I want you guys to pick one kid in Fort Myers.
A hispanic kid in Fort Myers, and give him $25,000 towards their college education.
On behalf of you, so that you guys can change somebody's life.
- Yeah.
- That would be great.
And it's not because of what you're doing for me, it's just the way you're doing it.
You're not just helping us, you're helping somebody else.
If I ever make it big, I want to do the same thing you're doing.
Know what I'm saying? I'm actually looking up to you now, and I just met you the other day.
Remember when I told you God works in mysterious ways? Speechless, don't know what to say.
I'm thinking like I'm dreaming right now.
Hugh, you know, of all the people that I met during the week, you're probably the one that had the most experience in all the different parts of Mastec.
I've tried.
I've tried to learn it all.
And for that, I say thank you.
I want you to get all your family, and I want you to go and use my home in the Bahamas.
And I want you to take a big family trip out there.
I'm going to cover all the expenses, all the airfare for whoever you want to take.
We'll get you a boat to go fishing.
You know, that's a token of my appreciation and gratitude for everything you've done for this business.
Couldn't ask for nothing no better.
And it will be greatly appreciated, I guarantee.
You know, one of the things that you talked about, which probably impacted me as much in this week as anything else, is when you talked about my father.
And you said that he had come out and visited you in the hospital.
And one of the things you said is, "since the old man died," you know, "I haven't seen the kids come around.
" That was, uh, a realization.
Yeah.
It really, uh, affected me.
So I'm going to make a commitment that I'm getting out there a lot more.
I think it'd make a big difference.
I want to do something for you.
I want to give you $25,000.
Man.
And, uh, a lot of that has to do with the lessons that you've taught me this week.
I thank you, a lot.
I really do.
You know, my father passed away 14 years ago.
Sitting in that truck with you that day, it's like if he was talking to me.
That's what that meant to me.
For it to have meant that much to you, for you to talk about it, really helped me realize how important that is, and how much more I need to do that.
Right.
So from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you.
Thank you so much, man.
It made me feel good to hear that, you know, he wanted to get out and, uh, kind of check over the company.
You know, I believe he'll be around.
I am ready for that vacation, and I'm going to go put my rear-end in the sand and my feet in the water.
Rick, you know, you talked about the bonus program, and the fact that you don't think it's reachable.
If we have a program out there that everybody thinks is bogus and is completely unachievable, then we're doing a disservice because it's actually very negative, so you have my commitment that I'm going to fix that.
My guys work hard for me, and they deserve better.
I want them to get ahead.
I want them to have opportunities.
And all that's going to be because of you.
I just I don't know what to say.
Thank you.
You talked about your fiancee and the fact that you'd love to get married, but you don't have the money.
I learned a lot of lessons from you that day.
Maybe I wasn't that good at the work, but I was listening.
And, uh, I'd like to pay for your wedding and your honeymoon.
I'd like to give you $20,000 for you to get married and take her on a proper honeymoon.
That'd be awesome.
She's going to flip out.
There's something else I want to do for you.
You told me about your fiancee's sister.
What I'd like to do is I'd like to give you $25,000 for her care.
I want you to use it as you please, to give you guys some time to make your marriage work.
It's incredible.
I can't believe this is happening, really.
I mean it's thank you for what you do for us.
Things like this don't happen to people like me.
It's happening.
Over the last four years, we've had an incredible ride.
But at the same time, it's not all about revenue.
It's not all about growth.
There's a human touch to the business.
How are you? Jose Mas.
Nice to meet you.
Jose Mas.
Our people need to have the feeling that they're welcome, that they're part of the family.
But I also know, we're not going to get there, we're not going to be there if people don't know me.
[Speaking spanish.]
You know, I've really fallen short of going out and really touching people and really being visible to the company.
I'm Jose Mas, man.
- How you doing? - It's good to see you, man.
I used to work in the summers.
I remember you, I was, uh, a little kid running around.
Thank you for everything you've done and for being with us for so long.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
All right, great seeing you.
- Have a good night.
- All right, take care.
You know, my father built this business.
He started in the trenches, worked his way up, you know, people knew him, he was out there.
And, you know, looking back at the last couple years, you know, really something that's been missing.
So I'm committed to really making that happen.
How are you? My name is Manny.
Wendy Maxwell, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Announcer: By going out in the field - Pull your pile.
- I'm pulling, I'm pulling.
Announcer: this soft-spoken boss will find out if he's tough enough to work on the front lines.
How you doing in there? You doing all right? Okay.
Little faster, rookie.
He's sensitive, man.
Like a doctor.
Yeah.
Remind me of my dentist, dude.
You got to be tough.
One part of me just wants to cut him a little slack, the other part is like, "look at this guy.
" Announcer: And along the way he'll face real danger.
Now this will provide this transformer with power.
Right now? [Yells.]
Announcer: Coming up next on the season finale of Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 3x13 - Mastec Original air date May 11, 2012 Announcer: Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Mastec is one of the largest builders of telecommunication and energy systems in North America.
With more than 9,000 employees, Mastec builds everything from power lines to gas lines to sources of renewable energy.
At the head of this $2.
8 billion corporation is one man.
I'm Jose Mas, and I'm the CEO of Mastec.
is when you're at home and you turn on a light switch.
We're the ones behind building that power grid that allows that light to turn on.
When you pick up your telephone and you have a dial tone, we're the ones that build the system to allow that communication to happen.
That's what Mastec does.
Mastec was founded by my father, Jorge Mas Canosa.
He actually immigrated from Cuba in 1959.
He came to the United States, not speaking the language with no money in his pocket.
You know, he worked a bunch of odd-end jobs.
He worked as a shoe salesman, you know, some of the hotels, cleaning dishes.
And eventually, he had some friends that had opened up a business doing underground construction that was failing, where they offered him an interest in the business if he could turn it around.
He did it.
Had no idea what he was doing, but he figured it out, eventually bought his partners out, and really grew the company during the '60s, '70s, and '80s.
I grew up watching my father fight for his people.
He took a keen interest in the Cuban-American struggle.
He actually served as the chairman of the Radio Advisory Committee to Cuba for president Reagan, president Bush, president Clinton, and it made him a huge presence in Miami.
My dad was an incredible man that I would love to be like.
My dad was a larger-than-life figure.
He loved being around people.
And I actually love being around people as well.
I love hearing stories.
He passed away at his house in 1997 at the age of 58.
And that moment showed me the impact that he had in his life.
And then it just ballooned up to his funeral, his burial, you know.
Couple hundred thousand people.
Unbelievable.
There were the average citizen that came to pay their respects for somebody that fought so hard to help his people.
I mean, he was an unbelievable spirit, a very giving man.
He fought for them until the day he died.
I became CEO of the company in 2007, and at the time, financially, we weren't doing great.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
I made a lot of changes, really diversified our business, and the success that Mastec's had over the last four years has been unbelievable.
Since 2007, we've tripled revenues and quadrupled earnings.
And I got the Florida Entrepreneur Of The Year award for the success that we've had here in the last couple years.
You know, as the CEO of Mastec, the buck stops here.
Every decision that gets made, ultimately, I'm responsible for.
We've got big goals, we want to become a lot bigger than what we are.
And I'm not satisfied until we get there.
You know, as CEO of a large, publicly traded company, I get paid very well.
I have a nice home, I'm able to provide a lot for my family.
Hey, kids.
I have two beautiful children.
I have a great wife.
Jose's an amazing father.
He's a great role model to our kids.
There was nobody he admired more in the world than his dad.
And I think part of the reason he's so successful is he had a role model like his dad.
Make the pass and cut.
One of the activities that I most enjoy with my kids is I coach them in basketball.
You get here and you pop your shot.
It's a big part of our family nucleus.
Come on.
Over the course of the last four years, we've grown a lot.
But as we become so large, there's many jobs that I still don't know.
My father was hands-on.
He dug the first ditch.
And for me it's very important to participate in these jobs, getting to understand the challenges and opportunities that we have.
Bye, baby.
I'll miss you.
Is the tingling and stinging normal? Yeah, it's normal.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Manny Medina, a gym teacher from Eagle, Colorado, who's been recently laid off.
Oh, my God.
My employees will be told I'm a contestant on a reality show called "Second Chances," where someone who's been recently laid off tries to get a second chance by working in a new career.
I'm here today in the Fort Myers area.
And today I'm going undercover as a high-voltage electrician.
My father was very passionate about bringing power to homes, and making that efficient and effective.
Even though the business has changed a lot, you always have to stay close to your roots.
And working around energized cable is extremely dangerous.
So I'm looking to make sure that our employees are working safely.
They need to be doing a job of quality and they need to do it, you know, as quickly as they can.
- Hey, how you doing? - How you doing, sir? How you doing, man? I'm Manny, looking for Alex.
Yes, sir.
Nice to meet you.
You're Alex.
How are you? - This is my brother, Kelvin.
- How you doing? Hey, Kelvin.
How are you, man? Always work together.
Let's see if you have what it takes to do this.
My brother been doing this for ten years.
He was my teacher, and I since passed the teacher.
"Pass the teacher," ha! Yeah, good luck with that one.
Well, what are we doing here today? There's power running underground, so what we're doing now is going to provide power to all these houses We're going to use that crane to lift it and set it on the pad.
Once we set it, we go to the step of all the connections.
As a safety issue, we always treat everything as live.
But if that's live, that'll kill you, right? Exactly.
Yeah.
If you cut the cable wrong and somebody might go without knowing what they're doing and connect it, this will blow up.
Man, you're scaring me, man.
- Can't be afraid of it.
- All right.
You got to respect it.
Manny reminds me of, like, an older version of a less cooler - Eminem? - Eminem.
Yeah.
This is pretty simple.
This handle tells you exactly what this arm's going to do.
This here is winch down.
Which is winch over there.
Which is the winch over there.
- This extends the boom.
- This extends the boom.
- Retracts the boom.
- Simple, right? - So far.
- All right.
Are you leaving me? I'll tell you what to do down there.
All right, all right.
[Laughs.]
All right.
Make sure we don't drop this, man, or we're going to have to work for the rest of our life for free, okay? All right.
Now winch up.
A winch, right? Yeah, winch up.
[Laughs.]
All right, Manny.
Bring it to me.
God, Manny is just slow.
Slower than a turtle, man.
It's normal that it turns like that? Yeah, it's fine.
Manny was too gentle.
You have to be fast and productive and safe all at once, you know? You can't be timid or scared.
Little faster, rookie.
- Got to do it quick, man.
- You got to do it yeah.
Come on.
Bring it right here.
- There you go.
- He's doing it.
You're almost there.
I've never operated a boom truck before.
So it was actually pretty cool that I was able to pick up the transformer and put it where it needed to go.
Three hours later, transformer is set.
Okay.
So, you grab one of the brown wire and you pull.
A lot of people just make a mess.
But me, I like to actually make my job look good.
From here, pull the knob, set it to strip.
Do that circle.
See how it goes in? You made that look easy.
A lot of years, brother.
Now this will provide this transformer with power.
Right now? [Yells.]
Just kidding, man.
[Laughter.]
How was it? You got scared? You scared the #$&* out of me, man.
I was about to jump.
Felt like I was in a fraternity in college again getting hazed.
They got me.
They got me good on that one.
I'm going to have to figure out a way to get them back.
Think you could do it? I don't know.
We'll see.
Don't be nervous, man.
That's like what, $10,000, $20,000 dollars? Psh, what the heck is that? It's just a little bit of pressure.
Got to keep in mind, got to work fast.
[Sighs.]
H's sensitive, man.
He's like a doctor.
- Yeah.
- Remind me of my dentist, dude.
"Am I touching you too hard?" No, you got to be tough.
You know my girlfriend built an elbow? You girlfriend did it? - First try she did an elbow.
- Five minutes.
[Laughing.]
What do you think about this so far? You know, so far, other than you guys teasing me, it ain't too bad.
What do you guys aspire to do in the company? What's the next step for you guys? How long does it take to be a lineman? Depends who trains you.
The company doesn't provide it here.
You want to get into this line of work? You've got to spend money.
Companies don't pay for it? - Actual, no.
- No? Also, you got to buy all your tools, your bag, anything that would make your job easier.
It's not good.
There's no question that we've got training schools across a lot of different areas.
Why everybody wouldn't know about that bothers me.
The other way around.
And having to provide some of their own tools, we got to fix that.
You know, I got to fix that.
Now he's going to go ahead and inspect your elbow.
Okay.
Man, it's freaking ugly, but Freaking ugly? You're just picky, man.
I'm picky, man.
[Laughter.]
So how long have you been doing this job? I started when I was 18.
And, um, we're two brothers, and we're lucky to work together, and coming from the Dominican Republic, a hard life, I don't know if you know, third-world country.
- It's poor, man.
- It is.
Talking about walking around with no shoes, you know.
We came here when we were, like, ten years old.
- Ten years old.
- He was ten.
We were young.
And I didn't know no English, bro.
My mother had to take a boat.
You know, the whole freaking story how we make it here.
You know, Alex and Kelvin coming from the Dominican Republic to start a new life is amazing.
Obviously, you know, my family's been through something very similar where my parents had to leave their country.
Getting in this line of work is what helped us move up, or else we don't know what we'd be doing.
To know that Mastec's afforded that opportunity to two immigrants coming to this country and starting from scratch, much like my father did, I think he would be extremely proud of what we're doing.
Before you, uh, get back to work, there's a little something you're going to have to do.
All right.
Oh, man.
- There you go, buddy.
- Go ahead.
You got to teach me.
- No, no right in the moment.
- No? I just got to do it? There you go.
There you go.
It's your turn, bro.
I think they make a great team, and they've got an opportunity to really advance in this company so we got to figure out how to make that happen.
- That a little - A little hip-hip - There you go.
- Freaking hilarious.
I don't know about that.
I don't know about that.
You guys, you know.
Announcer: Coming up A lot of people don't like it.
Announcer: the boss learns something unsettling.
Went in a restaurant and pretty much was told if we worked on the wind farm, they didn't want our dollars.
Wow.
Announcer: And later Come on down.
Announcer: Jose discovers he doesn't stack up.
I don't think you're ready for this yet.
All right.
I'm in American Falls, Idaho on a wind farm, and today I'm going to be a heavy equipment operator.
When this wind farm's complete, it's going to power 37,000 homes.
The renewable energy business is very important for me.
In 2008 it was the first major acquisition that I made as CEO.
We think it's going to be a big growth engine for the company for a long time.
Today I'm going to be looking for the impact that we're having on the landowner's land and anything we can do to make the business better.
Are you my new trainee today? I am, how are you? My name is Manny.
Wendy Maxwell, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
This is pretty cool.
Well, what we do is pretty cool.
I don't like the idea of giving money to foreign countries to buy oil.
There's enough in our United States to help us.
Sounds like you're working for a mission.
It's what I do.
I'm part of the civil crew.
And we're the first ones on the job and the last ones off.
We come in, we build all the roads, we dig all the holes from the turbines, and, after they erect these wonderful things, we reclaim and dress up all the land.
Do you know anything at all about heavy equipment? Nothing.
Okay.
We're going to try to move some of this dirt and make it as level and pretty as we can.
So all I'm going to do is make a few passes.
And then we'll get you in - and let you give it a try.
- All right.
All right.
As long as you don't show me up.
No, I'm not going to show you up.
Okay.
You know, this is your typical wind farm site.
Probably owned by a farmer.
And the farmer gets paid for leasing out the space to the wind farm.
They're letting us use their property, we're here to do a job, but at the end of the day we have to turn that land over exactly how we found it.
Think I'm ready.
Okay.
Just don't hit this.
There's no way I'm hitting that.
$2 million turbine.
I'm jumping off before I hit that.
No, don't jump off.
This is your forward and reverse, left and right to move your machine.
This is your blade control in the front.
- Okay.
- Pretty much that's it.
So turn your key.
Do you want me to give it a shot now, pulling pushing some dirt.
Go for it.
Don't be trying to get all fancy now we just need to push some dirt.
Okay.
Manny is real soft-spoken.
He talks really low.
You doing all right? Okay.
We all loud people, you know, like to have fun.
And if this something he would like to do, he might have to get a little bit more vocal.
I don't think that looked too pretty.
You can't expect to be perfect if you're only learning.
You know I want to do a good job.
Part of my DNA is I want to win, I want to do everything right.
Don't go too deep.
I found myself messing up a couple times.
Well, you still have a pretty good load on your blade.
Raise your blade up as you go, and then you lose your load.
First time on a 'dozer, and it's tough.
I think I made more hills than I straightened it out, so I think I do other things better than operate equipment.
Okay, let's put it in neutral and then kill it.
Okay, Manny.
How did that feel? Felt all right, but I can't keep an even surface.
You know, it's a learning process.
Some people have it, some people don't.
But we'll move on to something else.
We're going to compact some gravel.
All right.
I read everywhere about clean energy, and it's the wave of the future.
What's the job like? What's Well, we work longer hours.
Most of the time you're away from home, from family.
I guess I'm fortunate enough I'm from South Louisiana.
Don't see it but about three weeks out of the year, but that is home.
You know, it's a solitary life.
It's hard.
But, because of this job, I'm able to do things for my children, for my grandchildren that otherwise I wouldn't be able to do.
Do you get to see your grandkids a lot? When I go home at Christmas, you know? Wow.
Throughout my life, I've been poorer than dirt.
But the one thing you can give somebody when you can't give anything else is a smile.
That is free.
And, I've kind of lost my smile.
Why? What's wrong with your smile? Well, I have fibromyalgia.
And I take a good bit of medication, which is causing me to lose teeth.
What is it that they would do? I'd probably have to have them all pulled and all put back in.
But when we come out here to work, I can't take extended periods of time off to go do that.
And I've got a little bit more financial obligation, because I want to go home and not owe a soul.
My home be paid for, everything.
Wendy's a great person.
She's a woman working as an equipment operator, which is almost unheard of.
She's working hard, long hours, long days, and she's doing it so her life and her family's life can be better.
I was very impressed.
So what are we going to be doing up here? We're dressing up all the roads, because they take such a beating.
You know, we're coming back and adding a couple inches of gravel on top.
And so we're going to compact some gravel.
Here we are.
Isn't that a beautiful view out there? It's gorgeous.
It's just magnificent.
A great thing.
A lot of people don't like it.
They don't like to look at them.
You know, if we go into communities we're not welcome.
You know, if they're not making the dollars, then they really don't want it.
Like one time we went in a restaurant and pretty much was told if we worked on the wind farm, they didn't want our dollar.
Wow.
You know, it's tough.
To see to our future, then that's what we have to do.
Let's go get her done.
All right.
I think we're doing something that's good for not only the country, but the communities that we're working in, and I absolutely want to look into it and see if there's things that we can do to improve the relationship between our employees and the communities in which we're working in.
This is Billy Maxwell.
- Hello, Billy.
- Hi.
How are you? I'm Manny.
Nice to meet you.
Also my husband, but you know, he's only my husband after I clock out in the day.
Are you learning anything? Trying to figure it out.
Right, well, there's only one way to learn it after your she shows you what to do, the only really way to learn it is to do it.
I'm ready.
Turn it on.
I'm going to get out of here.
So, uh, good luck to you, Manny.
All right, thank you very much.
So I'm going in this direction, forward, then back? Right.
Wendy is here with her husband.
They spend a lot of time away from home.
And it's tough, I mean, she's out here trying to make it better for her kids, make it better for her grandkids, and she's doing it a hard way, she's doing it the American way.
Pretty awesome to be around her.
Is that good? That's better.
Announcer: Coming up, Jose faces a dangerous task.
Now what do we got a fire extinguisher for? If somebody drives by, in their car, and flips a cigarette out the window, I want to be able to put the fire out.
Years ago, a house literally blew up.
Blew up? Announcer: Jose Mas is a boss undercover in his own company.
He's currently posing as a high-school coach looking for a second chance at a new career.
Wendy Maxwell, nice to meet you.
All right.
This is pretty cool.
Announcer: His journey continues in Dallas, Texas.
Today I'm going to be working with a foreman.
On this job we're changing out natural gas pipes so we're taking old pipes in bad shape, and replacing them with new pipes.
What that does at times is there's less leakage in the pipes, which hopefully brings down everybody's natural gas bill.
You have a brand new pipe.
Uh, we've had some issues here in Dallas.
We lost a big account.
You know, I'm competitive.
I want to win every job in a market.
So our goal here is to go after every account that we can win, and hopefully, eventually win back the account that we lost.
Excuse me, how you doing? I'm looking for Rick.
This man right here.
That's him? Thank you.
Hey Rick, how are you? I'm Manny.
Good.
So, uh, you going to be helping us today? I'm going to be helping you today.
All right, cool.
We're retrofitting all the gas service lines going to the houses.
We're taking out the steel.
The steel pipes are rusty, a lot of corrosion on them from years of sitting in there.
Some of this stuff was done in the '20s.
They had an issue several years ago where a house literally blew up.
- Blew up? - Yeah.
So, I mean, it's not feasible to leave it in.
You know, instead of just going and getting the ones that are leaking, we're just going to do them all.
Replace them with new, poly-plastic pipe.
So are you familiar with the use of any of this equipment at all? No, I'm not.
What did you do before you came out here? I was a high school basketball coach and, you know, school's are having a tough time.
Hard to make a living that way.
It's true.
So I'm trying to figure out what to do next.
Grab a shovel and just kind of clear this out.
Okay.
I'm not used to being this physical on the job.
Usually I'm using my brain a lot more than I'm using my body.
Let's get this pipe out of here.
This is live gas down here.
Actually, hang tight.
What we're going to do now what do we got a fire extinguisher for? If, uh, if somebody drives by, in their car, and flips a cigarette out the window, I want to be able to put the fire out.
This is a live gas main.
Going to put soap around it.
If it bubbles, we'll fix the leak first before we do any work.
That doesn't scare you? No.
I'm not overly concerned about it, but a guy that doesn't know how to react to a situation, he might freak out.
You know, those are the kind of the things that I think about as the foreman.
Take this soap bottle and just squeeze it.
See the fitting? All around that.
Soak it good.
I mean, make sure it's good and wet.
All right.
No bubbles, right? All right, that'll be good.
While you're down there, see how we had all this extra slack - on that pipe over there? - Yes.
I'm going to push it this way, and I want you to pull, and we're going to pull all that slack back in the hole.
Okay.
Pull your pipe.
I'm pulling, I'm pulling.
Manny, he's very soft-spoken.
Working out here with a bunch of guys, sometimes you got to get rough with them.
You know, you got to be loud.
He's having problems.
It's tough.
You know, you don't know if you talk to a guy like that if it's going to hurt his feelings.
- Is that good? - No.
One part of me just wants to cut him a little bit of slack, but there other part is like, "hey, guys, you know, look at this guy.
" Go ahead and pull your pipe.
Out here you've got to have a little bit of confidence and show it.
It's a tough job.
It's physically tiring.
There's a very dangerous element to this job.
You know, and that's a natural gas main line.
You make a mistake, that that line can blow up.
You got this? I'm going to try it.
They're risking their life every day for our company, and that's impressive.
So, Rick, how can I unscrew this? Well, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, I learned that a long time ago.
- You want a break for lunch? - Sure.
I got to figure out what I'm going to do, right? So I might I might get a chance to work for this company.
What's that like? Well, ten years ago, things were a lot better here.
From what I understand, the laborers, other than their paycheck at the end of the week, they don't have any incentive.
You know, we've got a bonus program that, you know, that hasn't worked.
Nobody's gotten it, nobody's reached it.
How many of these can you do in a day? They want us to do somewhere around three a day.
And it's almost impossible.
I don't see how we're going to ever reach it, but I put out a bonus program to try to, you know, help the employees make more money, to give them a chance to get ahead and advance.
But if nobody's able to achieve it, then we got to re-look at it.
Do you have a family? I'm engaged to be married.
And I have a 55 year-old sister-in-law, she's mentally retarded.
What's that like? She she's a lot of fun.
So, basically if we go somewhere, she goes with us.
But, on the bright side, she is 55-years old, so she can go with us if we want to go dancing, if we want to go to the club or something.
She calls me boy.
She loves her boy.
When are you getting married? We haven't set a date yet, I don't know.
I think the I've been married for 14 years, man.
Really? Congratulations.
Thank you.
Has it been good, all good? It's been good.
You know, it's kind of one of them deals.
We're waiting to see where the money's at, you know, before we get married.
Because she wants to have a special wedding, you know, and we don't have the money to do that right now.
Right.
I haven't been in the position that Rick's been in.
I haven't had to worry about providing something for my wife or for my kids.
And, to me, it's important that we don't let our success get to our head.
Because these are the real stories of the men and women at Mastec.
And, you know, I won't forget that.
Because it's going to help me to make better decisions.
[Speaking spanish.]
I guess let's get back to work.
- All right.
- Let's go.
Today, I'm in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and I'm going to be working on a construction crew on a transmission line.
You know, a transmission line's like a highway for power.
Everything we do requires power.
And we need affordable power.
But to be able to do that we need a system, a highway, that moves our power from the places where it can be produced most effectively to homes and businesses.
That's what these transmission lines do.
Today, we're upgrading an existing transmission line.
These are big lines, a lot of things can go wrong.
A lot of things can happen.
So I want to make sure they're working safely.
How you doing? Looking for Hugh.
I'm Hugh.
Hey Hugh, how are you? I'm Manny.
Oh, you the new guy, okay.
I'm the new guy.
I'm the foreman of the crew out here.
All right.
Let me get you, uh, to sign this safety sheet.
This here is our little thing we do every day on, uh, hazards on the job.
We got our protective boot, leather gloves, ear protector, safety glasses, hard hats, uh I think you can just sign it down here at the bottom somewhere.
All right.
We're going to go strictly by safety.
We're going to be digging.
As you can see, we've done started.
We've got some wire to put in the ground.
We've got ground rods to drive.
What do the ground rods do? The ground rods is for the, uh, static.
For this point, right now, it's for lightning.
For it won't damage the structure, won't damage the bases of stuff like this.
And that way everything's cool on it.
All right, cool.
Let's grab some of those ground rods, and we'll go ahead and get those drove up.
Slide that over the end of this.
All right, beat that thing down.
Just watch how high you pull it.
Hit that thing like you live.
I'm sorry? I said hit it like you live.
All right, I'm scared that I'm going to put it all the way up, man.
I'm going to hurt my head.
You ain't going to hurt it.
That will make a man out of you.
I probably got an 11-year-old boy that could beat that thing harder than him.
You could probably get more leverage on it if you want to jump down here now.
He act like he was scared of it, Manny was.
That ought to be good, right there.
Have you ever operated a backhoe? Yeah.
You think you'd be safe enough to run that front bucket and push it in here? I think I can do it.
All right, uh, tell you what, I'll get you over here on that pile of dirt right there and see what you can do with it.
All right.
Cool deal.
All right.
I don't want you close to these structures.
Because, man, if we hit these things, boy, we going to be in a world of A lot of trouble? Yeah.
Go ahead and jump up on there now.
Kind of show you.
Go ahead and crank it up and see what it does.
If it's in, you've got to put your seatbelt on.
Put seatbelt on? Yeah.
All right, put it in gear and see what it does there.
Straight forward.
All right, go ahead and ease it down, straight.
Push it forward, all right.
Roll it to the right.
All right, curl it down.
The other way.
Bring it back up some.
Do you want me to pick up the piece yeah, just try to lay it flat and scrape it smooth.
Come on down.
I don't think you're ready for this yet.
You don't think I'm ready for this? No, no.
You'll find out, I'm picky when it comes to using equipment.
I don't want nobody hurt, and if I don't feel safe with you, I ain't going to let that happen.
I don't want nobody to get hurt or nothing.
All right.
I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I need to get some water.
Yeah, my mouth was getting pretty cotton-y there.
I'm getting too old for this.
I'm about ready to retire.
So tell me a little bit about yourself.
How do you like, uh I'm from Georgia.
You're from Georgia? Yeah, yeah.
Do you have any family back in Georgia? Yeah, I got a wife, ten grandbabies, - Oh, wow.
- Four kids.
So what's it like working so far away from home? It's not good.
I've been with the company march 6th will be 15 years.
I started out with 'em in telephone communications.
Went from that to the power.
I was the first Georgia power service crew that Mastec had.
So now I'm on the transmission.
All over the place.
I've been around.
Uh, I got injured on the job.
I got twisted around a boring rod.
Broke my ankle, busted a jewel, and my eyes were hemorrhaging.
But, uh, yeah, I stayed in the hospital a couple days.
Everything come out pretty good.
I got a plate and screws in that ankle.
Mastec treated me real good on that deal.
Mr.
Mas, the senior, he's dead now, but, uh, Mr.
Mas talking to my wife while we're and they was telling her, you know, if there was anything that she needed, do not hesitate to ask.
And, you know, that means a lot to me.
You know, a man that owns the company come up and say something like that to my wife, that meant a lot.
You know, it wasn't surprising to hear that my dad that.
Because he was, uh, an incredible human being.
Um, he did a lot of things like that.
But I got to meet him and, uh, junior.
Uh, which Mas now that's got it? Jose, I guess.
And I wish they could get out and see everybody a lot more.
I think a lot more people would have a better outlook at some of the company.
Today, I came expecting one thing, and sometimes you learn something else.
Hugh taught me a good lesson.
What makes Hugh exceptional is his love of the company.
With guys like that, we're in great hands.
Can I grab another water in here? Yeah.
You know, it started with my father, long time ago, and, uh, here I am.
Well, we need to finish this thing.
Come on.
All righty.
So I'm at the end of my journey.
Thousands of miles away from home, in a basketball gym.
Because this is a place for me that I can find solace.
And I can think about the week that I've had.
I met some unbelievable people.
I heard their stories.
What moves them, what motivates them.
And the reality is that I'm not the reason for the success of Mastec.
I'm one person.
Our success starts in the jobs that I did this week.
I need to be a lot more visible.
I need to get out and meet more of our people.
It's hard, but if it meant that much to Hugh and it had that much of an impact, I have to do it.
My father was 58 when he passed away, I was 26.
And it's amazing to me that 14 years later, he's still teaching me lessons.
My time undercover has finally come to an end.
I've had an incredible journey, and I've learned some unbelievable lessons.
So I've called the employees to the freedom tower.
The freedom tower is where Cubans were first processed when they came to this country.
The road outside of the freedom tower is actually named after my father.
I'm about to reveal my true identity to the employees.
And they think they're voting to decide whether or not I deserve a second chance.
It's something that's completely out of his element.
He's never done anything like this before.
Manny don't look like he's really cut out for this type of work Hey, guys.
How you doing, Manny? All right, so I got a secret.
I'm not really Manny.
My name's Jose Mas.
Oh, God.
And I'm the CEO of Mastec.
You're kidding me, right? You had that hair dyed blonde and you kind of fooled me a little bit.
Wendy, we talked a little bit about some of the communities that you're working.
And you were concerned some communities accepted you, or others that didn't really want you there.
So one of the things that I'd like to do is when we get to a new wind site, I want to do an event for the community, and explain to the community what it is that we're doing, why it's a benefit to them, and how it can help them.
Thank you.
You brought up the issue about your smile.
And you said that you wanted to bring joy to people's world.
So you're going to get the time off to go do your teeth.
And whatever it costs, we're going to pay for.
I don't know if it's 20, $25,000, to fix your teeth.
Wow.
I want you to smile and I want you to bring joy to people's lives.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There's something else that I want to do for you, because I think you told me that you had about $30,000 in different debts.
And I'm going to give you $30,000 too.
So that you can feel good about having your teeth done.
And you don't feel that that's taking away from anything else.
Thank you, sir.
Jose.
Jose.
I don't know if there's words to to convey that feeling.
You know, to have that done means everything.
Kelvin, Alex.
You guys gave me a really hard time, man.
You called me "rookie.
" You said, "my girlfriend's faster than that.
" I don't know, man.
I was a little offended.
I'm disappointed to hear that you didn't think my skills were up to task.
I don't know what to say.
Actually, when I got out of there, I said, "I'm going to get you guys back," somehow I'm going to find a way to get you back.
" So I got you back.
I got you back! - You did.
- Yes, you did.
Because I was like Great to meet you guys.
Same here, sir.
Pleasure to meet you.
I had an awesome time working with you guys.
You guys talked a little bit about some of the tools weren't being provided by the company.
We're going to work on getting you guys the tools that you need to make the jobs as best as you can across the company.
Because I think you guys are incredible representatives of the company.
And I, you know, want to do something for you guys.
I don't think you guys had an opportunity to finish your lineman school and get your license.
Mastec has a school.
Really? And my commitment today to you is I'm going to pay for both of you to get your lineman certificate.
I'm speechless, man.
I want you guys at events.
I want you guys to reach for your dreams.
I never knew things like this existed, you know? You guys are immigrants.
Yeah.
Just like my family.
And once upon a time, somebody reached their hand down to my dad and they gave him a chance.
And he was able to build this and give me and my family everything.
And I'm a big believer in education, so we have a scholarship fund, and next year I want to have a special scholarship called "The Duran Brothers Scholarship.
" And I want you guys to pick one kid in Fort Myers.
A hispanic kid in Fort Myers, and give him $25,000 towards their college education.
On behalf of you, so that you guys can change somebody's life.
- Yeah.
- That would be great.
And it's not because of what you're doing for me, it's just the way you're doing it.
You're not just helping us, you're helping somebody else.
If I ever make it big, I want to do the same thing you're doing.
Know what I'm saying? I'm actually looking up to you now, and I just met you the other day.
Remember when I told you God works in mysterious ways? Speechless, don't know what to say.
I'm thinking like I'm dreaming right now.
Hugh, you know, of all the people that I met during the week, you're probably the one that had the most experience in all the different parts of Mastec.
I've tried.
I've tried to learn it all.
And for that, I say thank you.
I want you to get all your family, and I want you to go and use my home in the Bahamas.
And I want you to take a big family trip out there.
I'm going to cover all the expenses, all the airfare for whoever you want to take.
We'll get you a boat to go fishing.
You know, that's a token of my appreciation and gratitude for everything you've done for this business.
Couldn't ask for nothing no better.
And it will be greatly appreciated, I guarantee.
You know, one of the things that you talked about, which probably impacted me as much in this week as anything else, is when you talked about my father.
And you said that he had come out and visited you in the hospital.
And one of the things you said is, "since the old man died," you know, "I haven't seen the kids come around.
" That was, uh, a realization.
Yeah.
It really, uh, affected me.
So I'm going to make a commitment that I'm getting out there a lot more.
I think it'd make a big difference.
I want to do something for you.
I want to give you $25,000.
Man.
And, uh, a lot of that has to do with the lessons that you've taught me this week.
I thank you, a lot.
I really do.
You know, my father passed away 14 years ago.
Sitting in that truck with you that day, it's like if he was talking to me.
That's what that meant to me.
For it to have meant that much to you, for you to talk about it, really helped me realize how important that is, and how much more I need to do that.
Right.
So from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you.
Thank you so much, man.
It made me feel good to hear that, you know, he wanted to get out and, uh, kind of check over the company.
You know, I believe he'll be around.
I am ready for that vacation, and I'm going to go put my rear-end in the sand and my feet in the water.
Rick, you know, you talked about the bonus program, and the fact that you don't think it's reachable.
If we have a program out there that everybody thinks is bogus and is completely unachievable, then we're doing a disservice because it's actually very negative, so you have my commitment that I'm going to fix that.
My guys work hard for me, and they deserve better.
I want them to get ahead.
I want them to have opportunities.
And all that's going to be because of you.
I just I don't know what to say.
Thank you.
You talked about your fiancee and the fact that you'd love to get married, but you don't have the money.
I learned a lot of lessons from you that day.
Maybe I wasn't that good at the work, but I was listening.
And, uh, I'd like to pay for your wedding and your honeymoon.
I'd like to give you $20,000 for you to get married and take her on a proper honeymoon.
That'd be awesome.
She's going to flip out.
There's something else I want to do for you.
You told me about your fiancee's sister.
What I'd like to do is I'd like to give you $25,000 for her care.
I want you to use it as you please, to give you guys some time to make your marriage work.
It's incredible.
I can't believe this is happening, really.
I mean it's thank you for what you do for us.
Things like this don't happen to people like me.
It's happening.
Over the last four years, we've had an incredible ride.
But at the same time, it's not all about revenue.
It's not all about growth.
There's a human touch to the business.
How are you? Jose Mas.
Nice to meet you.
Jose Mas.
Our people need to have the feeling that they're welcome, that they're part of the family.
But I also know, we're not going to get there, we're not going to be there if people don't know me.
[Speaking spanish.]
You know, I've really fallen short of going out and really touching people and really being visible to the company.
I'm Jose Mas, man.
- How you doing? - It's good to see you, man.
I used to work in the summers.
I remember you, I was, uh, a little kid running around.
Thank you for everything you've done and for being with us for so long.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
All right, great seeing you.
- Have a good night.
- All right, take care.
You know, my father built this business.
He started in the trenches, worked his way up, you know, people knew him, he was out there.
And, you know, looking back at the last couple years, you know, really something that's been missing.
So I'm committed to really making that happen.