Undercover Boss (2010) s04e15 Episode Script
Orkin
Male announcer: This week on Undercover Boss Headquartered in the deep South, Orkin, one of the most trusted names in pest control, killing bugs for more than 100 years American cockroaches I mean, these guys are really tough to control.
Announcer: Sends their president and C.
O.
O.
undercover.
He'll pose as a contestant on a reality show, competing to win funding for his own business.
How you doing? I'm Johnny the Orkin man.
- How you doing, Johnny? - Doing great.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Bo.
All righty.
Let's go back there and have some fun.
Announcer: By going undercover, this second generation Orkin man sees if he still has what it takes to make it in the field.
- Do you ever get tired? - No.
[Thud.]
Whoops.
Yeah, try not to break the customer's stuff.
Bob needs to loosen up.
Bob needs to let his inner Bob out.
You remind me of my wife [Chuckles.]
Who yells at me all the time.
Announcer: Along the way, he'll face everything from bees Man, they're really buzzing now.
- Announcer: To rodents.
- Hey, Chris, I found this behind the sink.
Announcer: But how will he react when he's confronted with the worst infestation he's ever seen? We got a lot.
Everywhere I look, I'm surrounded by cockroaches.
I can see under there a lot of dead ones and a lot of live ones.
It was almost overwhelming.
They're in the walls, pretty much the sign of a major infestation.
Announcer: Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 4x15 - Orkin Original air date May 3, 2013 [Upbeat music.]
Announcer: Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Rollins Corporation, along with their signature brand Orkin is a pest control giant that keeps nearly 2 million customers pest-free around the world.
Bringing in revenues of over $1.
3 billion a year, and sitting atop this anthill of nearly 8,000 employees is one man.
I'm John Wilson, president and Chief Operating Officer of Rollins Incorporated.
Rollins is the parent company for a family of eight pest control brands, Orkin being the largest and essentially the flagship brand.
For bugs, Americans rely on one company far more than any other.
All: Orkin! Call the Orkin army number one against pests Orkin was founded by Otto Orkin in 1901.
And he sold rat poison door-to-door to build his business.
To control your pest Orkin is best Call Otto the Orkin man The Orkin man is everything to our brand identity, maybe the most recognizable brand in the country.
I believe the Orkin brand has lived for over 100 years because of our employees.
I believe they're the best trained in the industry.
American cockroaches I mean, these guys are really tough to control.
Aah! [Laughter.]
Oh, my God.
Look at that.
I don't know where it went, John.
[Chuckles.]
I think he went down your pants.
Oh, he okay, yes.
There he is.
[Laughter.]
America is such a large country with varying climates, and each region has its own different types of pests.
The most common pests that our customers encounter are ants, roaches, rodents, fleas, mosquitoes, millipedes, sowbugs, and termites.
We provide the pest control services that keep them out.
Doing so provides a safe and clean living environment.
I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the oldest of three boys.
My father was an Orkin man from the time I was two years old.
I would go to work with my dad on Saturdays.
And I guess you could say that's how I got started in this business.
My dad and my mother divorced somewhere during that time, and my dad gained custody of me and my two brothers.
He was a single father from the time I was six.
As he moved up through the ranks with Orkin, we moved around a fair amount.
We moved 12 times in the 12 years I was in school.
He taught me some important lessons about commitment and valuing, you know, your family, and taking care of your responsibility.
The way that Orkin treated my father really impacted the decision for me to come to work here.
I started as a branch manager trainee.
We did well well enough for me to be promoted to operate a region.
When my father passed away, I was a division manager.
He didn't live long enough to quite see you know, see me to this level.
Orkin really treated my father well late in his career.
They valued his contributions, and I believe we're still that kind of company today.
Come on, dad, we're hungry.
All right.
Here comes a burger.
My wife's name is Alison.
We've been married over 20 years.
My daughter's name is Sydney.
And my son is John the fourth.
So have you decided on your name? I thought Bob would be a nice abridgment of Bubba.
How about that? What's your last name gonna be, any idea? - Watson.
- Bubba Watson? - Like the golfer.
- Yes.
Oh, are you ready for your makeover? I am ready.
The last time I was in the field was when I was a regional manager, about 12 years ago.
I'm excited about the opportunity to learn from our employees.
We've been around for 100-plus years, and we wanna be around for another 100-plus years.
The bugs are certainly going to be.
While I'm undercover, I'll be posing as a contestant on a reality show who dreams of starting his own business.
Throughout my undercover journey, my employees will think they are on a hosted reality show where I am trying to earn money to start my own business.
I'm your host Tracy Stumpf.
Today, we're in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
And I am here with Johnny the Orkin man.
- Johnny, how are you feeling? - I feel fine.
- You feel fine? - Great.
The woman pretending to be the host of the fake show will keep asking about whether Bob deserves the money, so my employees will have no idea that this is secretly Undercover Boss.
Today I'm in Lafayette, Louisiana, and I'll be working as a pest control service specialist.
A pest control service specialist is really the face of our company.
Our customers let our service specialists into their homes.
And I really look forward to see how the service specialist here in Lafayette interacts with his customer, and establishes that rapport.
[Dog barking.]
- How you doing? - Hey, how are ya? - I'm Chris.
- I'm Bob.
- Nice to meet you, Bob.
- Nice to meet you.
- Welcome to the world of Orkin.
- Awesome.
You ever done pest control before? - I have not.
- All right.
Well, it's an exciting job.
Might get a little dirty.
Well, that sounds good.
I used to go on these job sites as a little boy.
I did some of this work in college.
However, it's been a long time since I've been out in the field.
So I'm excited.
I'm excited about it.
Hey, how you doing, Mr.
Henson? - How you doing? - All right, man.
How's everything going since the last service, man? Uh, we're still having some activity.
Yeah, still in the kitchen, the cabinets, and stuff.
- Having some problems? - Yes, sir.
Okay.
Mind if we take a look? - No, I'd love for you to.
- All right.
Hi.
Come on in, Bob.
First thing I wanna do is go ahead and put our gloves on here.
So, we're gonna just assess the situation here.
Try and take a look down here.
All right.
Now, whoever did the first initial service on this here, they put what's called a tin cat trap.
There should be a glue board in here, right? It's gonna tell us if we've captured anything.
As you can tell, we have a German roach problem.
They're a particular tough breed to try and contain.
Looks like our heaviest concentration is up here.
[Tense music.]
Pretty much running wild up in here.
Wow.
We're gonna try and kill as many as we can, 'cause as you can tell, we got a lot.
Everywhere I look, I'm surrounded by cockroaches.
I can see under there a lot of dead ones and a lot of live ones.
- Wow.
- Major problem.
TV's probably loaded with 'em.
They just kept coming and coming.
They're in the walls.
Pretty much the sign of a major infestation.
It was almost overwhelming.
Got some work cut out for us today.
[Eerie music.]
This is a really bad situation.
This seems to be our most heavily concentrated area.
And this can be a health issue as well.
Cockroaches give off a very distinctive odor.
I could smell that cockroach infestation, so I knew we were in for a battle.
There's no mouse, but there's droppings.
Chris, I found this behind the sink here.
Let me guess.
We got a critter in there, huh? This is a pretty big job that we're on right now.
It's not impossible to fix it, but this, by far, is one of the biggest ones that I've been on.
All right, Mr.
and Mrs.
Henson.
What we have is a major infestation.
You got 'em pretty much everywhere.
They're in the walls, underneath the sink.
They're in the pantries.
You guys have probably had 'em on you at night crawling, I'm sure.
You have everything that a German roach would want.
You got food debris on the countertops.
You got trash and stuff everywhere and clutter.
We're gonna flush 'em out a little bit.
You guys keep cleaning, and I'll keep baiting.
- Okay.
- And over a period of time, you can reclaim your home again.
Terrific first impression of Chris.
He communicates well with his customers.
He's begun to the lay the foundation for the part that they need to play in this.
He's done a great job.
So, we're just gonna kinda spot as we go.
As you see 'em, you just get 'em.
[Vacuum whirring.]
There's so many roaches everywhere, it's, like, where do you start? I thought I had cockroaches in my hair there at one time.
It brought back some memories from from times where I had to shake my clothes out to get cockroaches out of 'em.
Ooh, sorry.
Bob doesn't exactly fit the profile of what an Orkin man would be.
He reminded me of a mad scientist look, I guess is what you could say.
[Vacuum whirring.]
[Glass shatters.]
It's okay.
Bob broke a glass.
You kinda have to pay attention to what you're doing, um [Glass shatters.]
We'll pick that up when we're done.
We'll just have to let the customer be aware of that, and give them a free service of some sort to sort of make up for that.
- Okay, you ready? - Yep.
Man, we haven't really gotten to know each other too much, man.
Where are you from? I currently live in Orlando, Florida, - currently.
- Okay, okay.
What about you? Uh, I'm married with two kids.
Keep a picture of 'em on my dashboard here.
You know, they're probably about a year younger - in that picture there, but - That's really- - Those are my babies, man.
So how are things going for you here? Um, I had no intention of even working for Orkin.
When we started renting our house in Lafayette, we noticed some roaches.
"Let's call Orkin," that's the first thing I could think of, Orkin, you know? I wasn't working at the time.
I was staying home with my kids.
And I said, "are you guys hiring over there?" You know, and he was like, "actually, yeah.
" - You know, here we are now.
- Yeah.
You know, I mean, I never really pictured it to be like this.
I can't honestly say I went to six years of college to become an Orkin man, but this is the way things work out, you know? And so far, so good.
- It's it's been good.
- Uh-huh.
I was really impressed with Chris.
Anyone that's that committed to his family, I believe we have a place for.
Let's get in here and finish this job up.
- All right.
- Good talking though.
Same to you.
[Chuckles.]
You know, my father was the same way.
My father worked for Orkin from the time I was two, uh, trying to do better for his family and his boys.
Orkin's provided a good home for my family.
And there's real opportunity for people like Chris, who want to pursue the same Avenue and do a lot of good things.
[Country rock music.]
I'm really excited to be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, today.
I'll be posing as an Orkin man with one of our service specialists.
How you doing? I'm Johnny the Orkin man.
- How you doing, Johnny? - Doing great.
Our team here in Baton Rouge is doing very well.
So I'm looking forward to spending time with Johnny, to see what it is they're doing, and maybe how we can implement it across the system.
We're here to do the inspection.
- Okay.
- We're here to kill the bugs.
Are you scared of bugs? No, sir, not too much.
- Rats and mice? - Maybe rats and mice.
Huh? Oh, well.
Don't worry about it.
- They won't attack ya.
- They won't? - They won't attack you.
- Okay.
You can do it? - I can do it.
- You sure? - I'm sure.
- Okay.
- Let's do it.
- Yes, sir.
[Knocking.]
Hey, miss Percy, good morning.
How are you? Any major problem? - No.
- Okay.
See, I've been servicing miss Percy's house for 12 years.
That means she tells me I'm doing a good job.
Right.
This is the bottom sink here.
We gonna treat this area.
Did you find anything? Everything looked good so far, miss Percy.
Oh, good.
Bugs is under control in here.
You've got a good teacher.
It's pretty under control everywhere.
Miss Percy keep a clean house.
[Laughs.]
That's the most important thing.
Johnny has such a great personality.
It's not often that you see that sort of relationship between a customer and a service person in any business.
How have you been feeling? - Feeling fine, feeling fine.
- You sure? Well, how's your hernia doing? I haven't had the work done yet.
I know you haven't.
I was gonna get it operated on.
That's when they found out the leukemia, when I went and did the blood work.
Did you know he was sick? No, ma'am, I did not.
Well, we wouldn't have known if he hadn't actually been to the hospital.
He never, ever missed a beat.
He worked and we didn't know he was sick.
- Really? - We had to pry it out of him.
- He's a hard worker.
- But he's gotta get the hernia fixed.
Johnny's doing a great job taking care of his customers.
But if he doesn't stop to care of himself a little bit, then he won't be able to take care of his customers.
We gonna go ahead and apply our chemical.
There you go.
All right.
How many customers a day do you use this on? - You ever get tired? - No.
No, not on the strip, move to the bottom.
Keep it low.
You use this backpack every day? Yes, sir.
Man, my arm's getting tired.
Speed up a little faster.
You have 12 houses a day, Bob.
Bob is kinda slow.
But for his very first time, he's doing a good job.
[Clank.]
Whoa, Bob.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We don't wanna break nothing, Bob.
What? I'm glad that didn't break, Johnny.
- Yeah, that's for $150.
- $150? Yeah, for that, yeah.
You don't wanna break it.
- You ever break anything? - No.
No, I be careful.
Bob, he was looking up.
He was not looking down as he was walking.
Do it again, it'll have come out of his pocket.
I'll tell ya, that's not easy.
It's pretty heavy.
[Laughs.]
Johnny worked me pretty hard.
And he acted like it was nothing to it.
I don't know how he does it.
Lord bless the food, bless the cook, amen.
Amen.
So miss Percy knows about your health issues.
Have you been putting off surgery? Well, been so busy.
But you gotta take care of your health, right? I had to get the leukemia out of the way first.
So how's that doing? Are you - Doing great.
- Really? - Medication's working fine.
- That's good.
My dad experienced some health problems late in life.
I always have had a great deal of respect for the way our company treated my father for his 37 years.
Johnny is so devoted to Orkin, I really wanna make sure we are devoted to Johnny.
I've been with Orkin 28 years, man.
- Yeah? - 28 long years.
Through the good times and bad times.
Really? Tell me about the good times.
I ain't gonna stay 28 years for nothing.
I like my job.
- I like meeting customers.
- Mm-hmm.
The good thing about the company we had years ago, we would get a bonus.
You don't get a bonus now? - Oh, they cut that out, man.
- Really? Johnny mentioned to me that we had a customer retention bonus that apparently has been taken away.
I wasn't aware of this bonus program.
That's the whole reason I wanted to go undercover, to learn about these types of things.
That needs to be looked at immediately.
So Johnny, what do you do when you're not working? Where do you go on vacation? Go to different places Atlantic city, and go right there in Biloxi.
I mean, I started years ago.
I have to work 28 years to get three weeks vacation.
And somebody comes and works ten years, they get three weeks.
Why'd the company change it? I don't know.
Johnny mentioned to me our vacation policy.
We added a week to some of our less tenured employees some years ago, but we didn't do the same for our longer tenured employees like Johnny.
So we'll have to take a look at that, see what can be done.
But it's a good company to work for.
- Yeah? - Oh, yeah.
For 28 years, I you know, I guess so, huh? Well, I guess, that's right, yep.
[Laughs.]
My father would really get on with Johnny.
I believe Johnny embodies the spirit of the Orkin man, top to bottom.
He first of all, presents a great image.
Secondly, takes great care of his customers.
Thirdly, he does the little things that really cement the relationship and make them happy for the long term.
He's got it all.
Now we can get going to our next stop.
All right.
I'll see you there.
Okay.
Announcer: Coming up Let's get our lids on, 'cause they're coming for us.
Announcer: The boss gets up close and personal with a swarm of bees.
Man, they're really buzzing now.
They are livid with us right now.
Announcer: And later [Thud.]
Whoops.
Yeah, try not to break the customer's stuff.
Announcer: John gets put in his place by a feisty Orkin woman.
You need to loosen up.
- Think I need to loosen up? - Yeah.
You remind me of my wife [Chuckles.]
Who yells at me all the time.
Announcer: John Wilson, president and C.
O.
O.
of Orkin is a boss undercover in his own company.
It's pretty much running wild up in here.
Announcer: His employees think he's competing on a reality show, in hopes of winning money to open his own small business.
[Clank.]
Whoa, Bob.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You don't wanna break nothing, Bob.
Announcer: His journey continues in California.
[Rock music.]
I'm in Los Angeles, California, today.
And I'll be working with a branch sales and service inspector.
A branch sales inspector is able to analyze a situation, prescribe the solution, offer it to the customer, and implement that solution right on the spot.
The Southern California area does very well for our company.
And I'm looking forward to seeing it firsthand.
- Hi, Aaron.
- Hi, Bob.
How you doing? How you doing? So today we got several services and sales lined up.
Today we're gonna start off with the bees that you see right there.
[Bees buzzing.]
Bees? I'm gonna be testing Bob on how he reacts dealing with angry bees.
I'm gonna see if he's gonna sweat, if he's gonna panic, because he's gotta stay cool, calm, and collected at all times.
All right, so obviously we got a hive in here.
These guys are really mad.
Yeah.
This hive has been there for about 12 years.
It's quite extensive.
Probably about 10,000 individuals - in this hive right now.
- Really? - Yeah.
- How can you tell that? Well, it's based on years.
This hive has never been treated.
Think of it as just growing in sections, and every year it just gets a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger.
I have been stung by a bee, but I've never had hundreds, if not thousands, of 'em buzzing all around me.
That was a little disconcerting, to say the least.
The owner here doesn't want to deal with 'em anymore, so we're gonna help her alleviate her problem here today.
- Okay.
- All righty? - Sounds good.
- All right.
- So, Mrs.
avila.
- Yes? Got some good news for you.
That hive can be treated.
Excellent.
It's gonna cost us about 250.
At some point, you may wanna think about having that post removed, all righty? Awesome, yes.
My first impression of Aaron was that he really presents a good image.
Get your signature for me right there for me.
He's friendly.
He's outgoing.
He explained it well to the customer Wonderful.
So now that you've done that, it's your job to disappear.
And we're gonna do the dangerous part.
Okay, awesome.
Thank you.
Excellent.
And then he implemented his plan.
So you ready for fun? - I'm ready.
- All right.
Let's get your suit on.
Have you ever been stung? I've been stung in the eye, doing an inspection just like we were just doing.
- Oh, really? - Yep.
You hadn't been stung through this suit, have you? - Never.
- No? You have nothing to fear.
[Dramatic music.]
All righty.
Let's go back there and have some fun.
Aaron, how long you been working here? I've been with Orkin for three years.
- Yeah.
- Um I went to school for zoology with an emphasis in entomology.
So - really? The next best thing for me, other than research, would be to work in pest control, which is a multibillion dollar industry.
Mmhmm.
So, before we get started, let's get our lids on.
'Cause once we start playing near their home, - they're coming for us.
- All right.
This is a crazy outfit.
It's heated.
All right.
We're gonna move some of the bricks away.
So do you know anything about bees? - Not really.
- We don't treat 'em unless they are a danger to human beings.
So if they're in a structure, or in this case, in a backyard where little girls are running back and forth, unfortunately we do have to treat 'em.
The customer has children that could be in danger? The customer has a child.
And of course, they sting, we don't know her reaction rate to the venom.
- Sure.
- So why take the chance? Her children are the most important thing.
Absolutely.
Now we have exposed the hole, you see? Oh, yeah.
It's quite a large hole.
They're starting to come out.
Man, they're really buzzing now.
Oh, they are they are livid with us right now.
[Rapid violin music.]
Our weapon of choice is gonna be we call it the bazooka.
It's used for injecting dust.
I feel pretty well protected because I'm in this bee suit, but I know my ankles are exposed by about that much.
The last thing I wanted to do is get stung and cry like a baby.
So you're just pumping that thing? Yep.
The dust actually dries 'em out.
What that bee is trying to do right there, he's trying to get that dust off.
But once it absorbs through the chitin, which is their skin, it's just gonna remove all the moisture from them.
So it dries 'em from the outside in? Yep, literally.
'Cause insects, as we know, they wear their skeleton on the outside of their body.
Unlike us, where our skeleton's - on the inside out.
- Mm-hmm.
You can see we got dead bees already starting to amass here.
Every bee that touches this, unfortunately is gonna die.
A lot of the bees are actually trapped in here.
They're scared of coming out of this hole.
And if you pay attention here, every couple minutes you'll actually see a bee come squeezing out of there real fast.
And that's a second this is definitely a secondary entry and exit point.
So, Aaron, how did you learn so much about these bees? Classes, classes, classes.
So you mentioned your college degree.
I didn't finish my degree quite yet.
I gotta finish it up.
When my other half she did get pregnant.
And we ended up having a son.
At that moment, I realized I couldn't go to school - and be a full-time parent.
- Yeah.
The obvious choice was get a real job and put bread on the table.
So my job is actually to work here at Orkin.
And I wanna eventually finish my degree, continue.
'Cause this is the love of my life.
To leave school had to be tough.
I respect that decision a great deal.
You know, it's about doing what you have to do to take care of your family in the moment.
So are you ready for our next adventure? I'm ready.
What are we gonna do? We're gonna do some crawling this time.
Crawling? Yeah, we're gonna look for rodents.
Okay.
Having people in our company like Aaron, who seem to have a real passion for the bug business, is really important to our brand.
And I'd love to find a thousand like him.
We're gonna take these off, and we're gonna head to the next stop.
I'm ready to take it off.
I know you are.
[Chuckles.]
[Rock music.]
I am in Peoria, Arizona, this morning.
And I will be working with one of our termite reinspectors.
I will be working with one of our female pest specialists today.
I don't believe, in my whole career, I've ever been out on the job with a female technician.
We don't have that many, but the ones we do have relate well with our customers.
We have attracted more over the recent years.
And I hope to keep expanding that.
Hi.
How are ya? - I'm well.
I'm Bob.
- How are you doing, Bob? - Paisley.
- Hi, Paisley.
I'll be the termite reinspector, - helping you out today.
- Okay.
This house had some termite issues.
I'm really pumped up.
We're gonna do a lot of stuff with it, you know, look around, make sure there's no activity.
- It should be a good time.
- Okay.
So we need to grab some tools.
I was kinda surprised when I saw Bob.
Kinda was expecting someone maybe a little bit younger.
[Doorbell rings.]
- And you're my trainee today.
- Okay.
All right.
Both: Hi.
- Are you Danielle? - I am.
- Hi.
Paisley with Orkin.
- Nice.
- This is my trainee today.
- Hello.
I'm Bob.
- Hi.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
So how's everything been? Since you treated the termites, it's actually looked really good.
We haven't found any other tracks in the house, which has been great.
Do you mind if we start on the inside? - Wonderful.
Come on in.
- All right.
So, um, basically, what you're gonna wanna look for are those little dots.
- Little dots? - It's gonna be about a pinhole.
Yeah, pinhole size.
And it'll have dirt around it, because termites are constantly carrying dirt.
Okay.
What other kinds of pests do you encounter here? - Got a lot of scorpions.
- Scorpions come into - Houses.
- Houses? - Oh, yeah.
- Yeah? And let me tell you, that sting hurts.
You ever been stung by one? I have not.
Maybe that'll be a part of your training.
Really? [Chuckles.]
No.
Bob seems to be a little boring.
He's a stiff, man.
[Thud.]
Whoops.
Yeah, try not to break the customer's stuff.
Bob needs to loosen up.
Bob needs to let his inner Bob out.
How do you feel you'd be handling customers? I don't know.
- You don't know? - I don't know.
How do you think I would be? II think you need to loosen up.
- Think I need to loosen up? - Yeah.
Paisley told me to loosen up a little bit.
And my first thought was, I was about as loose as I ever get.
You remind me of my wife [Chuckles.]
Who yells at me all the time.
That's what we women are good for.
That and killing bugs.
So do you feel like you've got a good understanding of what we're doing here? Yeah, I think I'm getting there.
Um I think I should just watch you do my job.
I would enjoy that.
- Would you? - Yeah.
- So you have at it.
- Okay.
I'm just gonna watch you work.
You already messed up.
How did I mess up? - You went - I haven't even moved.
Oh, yeah, you did.
See, you went from this wall and instantly, boom, you went here.
- The wall goes this way.
- Mm-hmm.
So you wanna stay along that path.
Stay with where you're going, okay.
Paisley has a bit of a take-charge personality - Check that wall? - I have not.
I got sidetracked, Paisley.
There's too many walls converging.
It's all right.
My beauty does that to people.
Okay.
[Chuckles.]
But she does it with a lot of fun and she seems to be having fun with what she does.
- How's it going? - Oh, good.
How are you? Everything's looking really good so far.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Does that look like anything to you? It doesn't look like anything to me.
Does it look like anything to you? No, it doesn't.
That was a trick question.
Pass.
[Laughs.]
See, you're picking this up.
- I got Bob to laugh - I'm sensitive, Paisley.
That was my goal of the day You're sensitive.
[Laughs.]
Now how long have you been with Orkin, Paisley? I've been with Orkin for a while now.
It's been over a year.
- Over a year? - Yeah.
And I used to be in the pest control division, but now I'm doing termite reinspections and inspections 'cause of the pregnancy.
- I see.
- So - you're expecting a baby? - Sure am.
- Are you really? - Yeah.
Congratulations.
You know, I'm the only one in my branch that's a female.
Are you really? It's unusual enough that we have a female technician.
It's even more unusual that we might have one that's pregnant.
Everything looked really good.
If you'd like, we can just go ahead and go over the paperwork with you.
Sure, that sounds good.
We only have 100 or so female technicians in our entire company.
And if Paisley's an example of what those 100 are like, I'd love to have a lot more.
- Enjoy the rest of your day.
- Thank you, you too.
I'm actually gonna have you ride along with me - for this next one.
- Okay.
- All right.
- All right.
Thank you.
You've been with Orkin about a year? - Mm-hmm.
- How'd you get into this? You know, I was really needing more stability in the job I had, and they wouldn't give it to me.
So finally, I ended up just posting my resume on career builder, and Orkin was one of the first ones that decided to interview me.
It's a pretty good job.
There's things about it that are really rough, like, so many rules.
Like, A/C in the summertime when it's in the dead of the heat, we are not allowed to idle our trucks.
So if I throw my truck into park and I'm at a customer's house, I have to shut it off.
Even if you're not ready to get out.
Even if you're not ready to get out.
Or, they have time limits.
You have to be there 25 minutes.
- Mm-hmm.
- So let's say it takes me Well, technically, I need to be there for 10 minutes still.
I cannot get back in my truck and start it and sit in the A/C - until that 10 minutes is up.
- Mm-hmm.
They are very valid business reasons for not allowing trucks to idle when you've got thousands of trucks on the road.
A lot of people that have never lived in this state don't really comprehend how hot it is.
Yeah.
But sometimes we can be a little bit insensitive.
We have policies, but there ought to be some common sense exceptions to those sometimes.
So how far along are you? I'm 18 weeks.
I'll be 19 weeks on Sunday.
And I just found out yesterday that it's a girl.
Well, congratulations, awesome.
I have a son that's about to be three.
So are you a single mom? - I am, unfortunately.
- Yeah? I'm still technically married, but, um, we split up.
That's part of the reason why I work as hard as I do.
You know, it's really a difficult deal when you're a single mom and trying to do that all on your own.
I'm kind of stressed out about it.
I mean, my car is a piece of crap.
It'll drive on its own without me even pressing the throttle down.
The other day I was on the freeway, and it was going about Really? You know, my father gained custody of us when we were very little.
And he was pretty serious about taking care of us.
And Paisley seems just as serious about taking care of her children.
And I think that's really admirable.
And here we are.
My week undercover has come to an end.
It's been a long, tiring journey, but I think well worthwhile.
Boy, that always feels good, to get that facial hair off each night.
I've learned a lot about the company.
Still a little sticky.
I've learned a lot about some very dedicated employees that we have.
And I've learned a lot about myself.
I'm ready to get back to work on Monday, working on some of the things that I've seen and heard.
Announcer: Coming up The employees think they're going to give feedback on whether or not Bob deserves to win his own business.
How will they react when the boss reveals his true identity? My name is John Wilson.
I'm the president and C.
O.
O.
of Orkin.
Huh? Today, all of the employees have been called to Los Angeles.
They think they are coming to meet with a wealthy investor to advise her on how worthwhile it would be to invest in my business.
Johnny, how are you? Fine.
How about yourself? - I'm doing well.
- Great, great.
So how do you think Bob did? Bob did well with the bees.
I think Bob did a really good job.
He seemed nervous in the beginning.
Have we ever met before? I'm beginning to think that we have.
Well, I have something to tell you.
My name's not really Bob.
Huh? My name's John Wilson.
And I'm the president and C.
O.
O.
of Orkin.
Really? And I was also Bob.
You were Bob.
You are Bob.
Hi, Bob.
[Laughs.]
Wow.
I can't believe I'm sitting here with Mr.
Orkin himself.
My [Laughs.]
The commander in chief.
Oh, wow.
Have you ever heard of Undercover Boss? - Yes.
- You have? I have.
Well, you're on Undercover Boss.
I am? All right.
[Both chuckle.]
Well, how did I do, boss? Tell me.
[Both laugh.]
Chris, I thought you did well.
That was a tough situation.
- Right? - Yeah.
Take a look under.
You can see under there a lot of dead ones and a lot of live ones.
Uh, you mentioned feeling like, you know, that you're really not sure maybe what you wanna do with the rest of your life.
I enjoy working the route, because I'm able to generally help people out, you know, even though they're paying for a service.
Well, I I see something in you.
I know there's tremendous opportunity in our company for you and whole host of people that wish to progress and do well for their family.
And I know that's important to you.
Yes.
I have a couple children myself.
Orkin has allowed me to provide well for them.
And I'd be very willing to host you on a trip to Atlanta, and let you meet some people who are holding very high positions with our company that started right where you are today.
I'd love to.
Thank you.
You have a couple kids.
You showed me their pictures they're taped to your dashboard.
Eli and Abby, my heart and soul.
That's what I look forward to at the end of the day, is going home with them.
You know, I know it's difficult to save for college or think about saving for college.
We are trying to put a game plan together.
I wanna make that easy for you.
And we've set aside $15,000 for each child for their college education.
Wow.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That'll help a lot.
[Chuckles.]
That's great.
I can't stop smiling now.
[Laughs.]
I'm thankful.
My kids are gonna be able to not have they don't have to worry about going to school.
And it's really gonna make things easier for us.
I just can't wait to go to go tell everybody.
John definitely opened my eyes to some new opportunities.
And I'm gonna embrace it.
And I'm gonna see what happens.
You know, I mean, not everybody hardly anybody gets this kind of opportunity.
I'm very grateful for it.
Johnny, well, I gotta tell you, being with you was the absolute highlight of my trip.
I thank you very much.
I mean, you did a great job for miss Percy.
Obviously you two have a great relationship.
Miss Percy keep a clean house.
[Laughs.]
That's the most important thing.
She surely sees you, I think, - as part of her family.
- Absolutely.
You know, your health is a serious situation.
I wanna make sure that while you're out for your hernia surgery, that we pay you fully during that time.
And I want you to know that I intend to pay for your surgery.
Wow.
You gonna do that? Man, that's great.
The good lord gonna bless you.
That's a blessing.
I did a good job at miss Percy's house, huh? [Both laugh.]
You also mentioned to me about your family liking to go to the beach.
And so I wanna send you to the beach your choice, your whole family.
The whole family? Wow.
The good lord is working, huh? [Laughing.]
[Both laughing.]
Grandkids gonna love that.
I think you earned it, Johnny.
Thank you.
Well, I've got one final thing.
I have a longevity bonus I wanna pay you - of $30,000.
- Do what? Repeat yourself I mean, repeat that again.
I wanna pay you $30,000.
$30,000? Man, that's great.
When are we gonna do this again? [Both laughing.]
Tears was coming out my eyes, all the blessings John give me out today.
I'm very happy.
Aaron, I was really impressed with your passion for what you're doing.
I wanna eventually finish my degree, continue.
'Cause this is love of my life.
I'd like to arrange a couple of trips for you.
- Really? - Yeah.
I'd love to have you come in to Atlanta to see our training center.
That would be amazing.
[Laughs.]
While you're there, I wanna introduce you to, uh, Greg Baumann.
He's our vice president of training.
And sort of get an idea about how to plot your future.
Thank you.
You know, while you're back east, I'd also love to send you and your family on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.
C The Smithsonian to visit the O.
Orkin insect Zoo at the Smithsonian, and get a behind-the-scenes tour.
Yes! [Laughing.]
That is freakin' amazing.
Thank you, sir.
Oh, the Smithsonian, it holds a special place in my heart, just dealing with insects and Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much.
You know, in talking to you, it was apparent to me that, you know, you're really committed to your family.
Mmhmm.
I know education is important to you.
So here's what I'd like to do for you.
I would like to establish a college scholarship fund for your son worth $15,000.
Wow.
[Crying.]
Ahh, thank you.
That just takes one less thing off the plate that I have to worry about.
And I know it's really tough for you to go back to school to finish your education.
So I'd like to help you with that.
And I'd like to give you $15,000 to finish your education.
That'll take care of a lot of schooling.
Thank you, sir.
Oh, my gosh.
When I woke up this morning, I definitely did not calculate in any shape, way, or form that I was gonna be able to finish school.
Thank you so much.
This is definitely, definitely gonna change my life.
Paisley, I spent a good day with you.
Even though you've only been with our company a short time, I think there's a future for you.
Thank you.
There were a lot of people kind of skeptical of me at first.
I would encourage you to ignore the skeptics.
There are women in our company, there aren't many.
I think it takes a unique individual to take to our business.
- What do you think? - I love it.
I like proving people wrong, so you brought up a few things - that were sort of an issue.
- Mm-hmm.
You brought up the idling issue.
In the summertime when it's in the dead of the heat, we are not allowed to idle our trucks.
So these GPS rules were developed generically to apply nationwide, we really need to, especially in the heat of the summer, think about having some local rules.
- Right.
- And that's something that when I get back to work Monday, I'll see what can't be done about that.
Any kind of consideration helps.
There's a couple things I'd like to do for you.
- Mm-hmm.
- You have one child.
And you have one on the way.
Paisley, my dad was a single father from the time I was six.
So, you know, I know firsthand how hard it is to do what you're trying to do.
Are you able to put anything away for their college education? No.
Paycheck to paycheck, unfortunately.
I'd like to set up a college fund for your children, $15,000 for each child.
Wow.
Thank you so much.
[Crying.]
Every mom wants their kids to go to school.
Thank you.
You know, to better themselves, so that's really good.
And I appreciate that so much.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
[Whispers.]
Bob.
[Both chuckle.]
That's amazing.
Thank you.
Tell me a little bit about your home, where you live.
It's not in the nicest of areas, but the rent is reasonable.
It's just difficult thinking about bringing another baby in, because I really just don't have the room.
Well, in order to help you out of that situation, I'd like to give you $20,000 to get moved.
What? Are you are you trying to make me cry again? Are you serious? That's crazy.
Well, I have one last thing for you.
What's this? That's the key to a Ford escape.
[Laughs.]
You're joking with me, right? I'm not joking.
Didn't you see Bob didn't joke? Bob was very serious.
[Laughs.]
[Exhales.]
Thank you so much.
[Crying.]
Well, I want you to know, the Orkin family, we're here to help you.
And I love working for Orkin.
[Sniffles.]
I'm proud to say that I kill bugs for a living.
I'm proud to say you're an Orkin woman.
Would you like to go see your new car? I would love to go see my new car.
Well, it's right out front.
Thank you so much.
Oh, my God.
[Laughs.]
Oh, my God.
Just a few days ago I was worried about, you know, what I was gonna do and how I was gonna take care of this or that.
And it's just, like, a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.
I can't believe this.
I thought I was here to do something for someone else.
It's gonna be easier for me now.
It's just amazing.
I couldn't have ever asked for anything like this.
This is crazy.
Announcer: Sends their president and C.
O.
O.
undercover.
He'll pose as a contestant on a reality show, competing to win funding for his own business.
How you doing? I'm Johnny the Orkin man.
- How you doing, Johnny? - Doing great.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Bo.
All righty.
Let's go back there and have some fun.
Announcer: By going undercover, this second generation Orkin man sees if he still has what it takes to make it in the field.
- Do you ever get tired? - No.
[Thud.]
Whoops.
Yeah, try not to break the customer's stuff.
Bob needs to loosen up.
Bob needs to let his inner Bob out.
You remind me of my wife [Chuckles.]
Who yells at me all the time.
Announcer: Along the way, he'll face everything from bees Man, they're really buzzing now.
- Announcer: To rodents.
- Hey, Chris, I found this behind the sink.
Announcer: But how will he react when he's confronted with the worst infestation he's ever seen? We got a lot.
Everywhere I look, I'm surrounded by cockroaches.
I can see under there a lot of dead ones and a lot of live ones.
It was almost overwhelming.
They're in the walls, pretty much the sign of a major infestation.
Announcer: Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 4x15 - Orkin Original air date May 3, 2013 [Upbeat music.]
Announcer: Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Rollins Corporation, along with their signature brand Orkin is a pest control giant that keeps nearly 2 million customers pest-free around the world.
Bringing in revenues of over $1.
3 billion a year, and sitting atop this anthill of nearly 8,000 employees is one man.
I'm John Wilson, president and Chief Operating Officer of Rollins Incorporated.
Rollins is the parent company for a family of eight pest control brands, Orkin being the largest and essentially the flagship brand.
For bugs, Americans rely on one company far more than any other.
All: Orkin! Call the Orkin army number one against pests Orkin was founded by Otto Orkin in 1901.
And he sold rat poison door-to-door to build his business.
To control your pest Orkin is best Call Otto the Orkin man The Orkin man is everything to our brand identity, maybe the most recognizable brand in the country.
I believe the Orkin brand has lived for over 100 years because of our employees.
I believe they're the best trained in the industry.
American cockroaches I mean, these guys are really tough to control.
Aah! [Laughter.]
Oh, my God.
Look at that.
I don't know where it went, John.
[Chuckles.]
I think he went down your pants.
Oh, he okay, yes.
There he is.
[Laughter.]
America is such a large country with varying climates, and each region has its own different types of pests.
The most common pests that our customers encounter are ants, roaches, rodents, fleas, mosquitoes, millipedes, sowbugs, and termites.
We provide the pest control services that keep them out.
Doing so provides a safe and clean living environment.
I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the oldest of three boys.
My father was an Orkin man from the time I was two years old.
I would go to work with my dad on Saturdays.
And I guess you could say that's how I got started in this business.
My dad and my mother divorced somewhere during that time, and my dad gained custody of me and my two brothers.
He was a single father from the time I was six.
As he moved up through the ranks with Orkin, we moved around a fair amount.
We moved 12 times in the 12 years I was in school.
He taught me some important lessons about commitment and valuing, you know, your family, and taking care of your responsibility.
The way that Orkin treated my father really impacted the decision for me to come to work here.
I started as a branch manager trainee.
We did well well enough for me to be promoted to operate a region.
When my father passed away, I was a division manager.
He didn't live long enough to quite see you know, see me to this level.
Orkin really treated my father well late in his career.
They valued his contributions, and I believe we're still that kind of company today.
Come on, dad, we're hungry.
All right.
Here comes a burger.
My wife's name is Alison.
We've been married over 20 years.
My daughter's name is Sydney.
And my son is John the fourth.
So have you decided on your name? I thought Bob would be a nice abridgment of Bubba.
How about that? What's your last name gonna be, any idea? - Watson.
- Bubba Watson? - Like the golfer.
- Yes.
Oh, are you ready for your makeover? I am ready.
The last time I was in the field was when I was a regional manager, about 12 years ago.
I'm excited about the opportunity to learn from our employees.
We've been around for 100-plus years, and we wanna be around for another 100-plus years.
The bugs are certainly going to be.
While I'm undercover, I'll be posing as a contestant on a reality show who dreams of starting his own business.
Throughout my undercover journey, my employees will think they are on a hosted reality show where I am trying to earn money to start my own business.
I'm your host Tracy Stumpf.
Today, we're in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
And I am here with Johnny the Orkin man.
- Johnny, how are you feeling? - I feel fine.
- You feel fine? - Great.
The woman pretending to be the host of the fake show will keep asking about whether Bob deserves the money, so my employees will have no idea that this is secretly Undercover Boss.
Today I'm in Lafayette, Louisiana, and I'll be working as a pest control service specialist.
A pest control service specialist is really the face of our company.
Our customers let our service specialists into their homes.
And I really look forward to see how the service specialist here in Lafayette interacts with his customer, and establishes that rapport.
[Dog barking.]
- How you doing? - Hey, how are ya? - I'm Chris.
- I'm Bob.
- Nice to meet you, Bob.
- Nice to meet you.
- Welcome to the world of Orkin.
- Awesome.
You ever done pest control before? - I have not.
- All right.
Well, it's an exciting job.
Might get a little dirty.
Well, that sounds good.
I used to go on these job sites as a little boy.
I did some of this work in college.
However, it's been a long time since I've been out in the field.
So I'm excited.
I'm excited about it.
Hey, how you doing, Mr.
Henson? - How you doing? - All right, man.
How's everything going since the last service, man? Uh, we're still having some activity.
Yeah, still in the kitchen, the cabinets, and stuff.
- Having some problems? - Yes, sir.
Okay.
Mind if we take a look? - No, I'd love for you to.
- All right.
Hi.
Come on in, Bob.
First thing I wanna do is go ahead and put our gloves on here.
So, we're gonna just assess the situation here.
Try and take a look down here.
All right.
Now, whoever did the first initial service on this here, they put what's called a tin cat trap.
There should be a glue board in here, right? It's gonna tell us if we've captured anything.
As you can tell, we have a German roach problem.
They're a particular tough breed to try and contain.
Looks like our heaviest concentration is up here.
[Tense music.]
Pretty much running wild up in here.
Wow.
We're gonna try and kill as many as we can, 'cause as you can tell, we got a lot.
Everywhere I look, I'm surrounded by cockroaches.
I can see under there a lot of dead ones and a lot of live ones.
- Wow.
- Major problem.
TV's probably loaded with 'em.
They just kept coming and coming.
They're in the walls.
Pretty much the sign of a major infestation.
It was almost overwhelming.
Got some work cut out for us today.
[Eerie music.]
This is a really bad situation.
This seems to be our most heavily concentrated area.
And this can be a health issue as well.
Cockroaches give off a very distinctive odor.
I could smell that cockroach infestation, so I knew we were in for a battle.
There's no mouse, but there's droppings.
Chris, I found this behind the sink here.
Let me guess.
We got a critter in there, huh? This is a pretty big job that we're on right now.
It's not impossible to fix it, but this, by far, is one of the biggest ones that I've been on.
All right, Mr.
and Mrs.
Henson.
What we have is a major infestation.
You got 'em pretty much everywhere.
They're in the walls, underneath the sink.
They're in the pantries.
You guys have probably had 'em on you at night crawling, I'm sure.
You have everything that a German roach would want.
You got food debris on the countertops.
You got trash and stuff everywhere and clutter.
We're gonna flush 'em out a little bit.
You guys keep cleaning, and I'll keep baiting.
- Okay.
- And over a period of time, you can reclaim your home again.
Terrific first impression of Chris.
He communicates well with his customers.
He's begun to the lay the foundation for the part that they need to play in this.
He's done a great job.
So, we're just gonna kinda spot as we go.
As you see 'em, you just get 'em.
[Vacuum whirring.]
There's so many roaches everywhere, it's, like, where do you start? I thought I had cockroaches in my hair there at one time.
It brought back some memories from from times where I had to shake my clothes out to get cockroaches out of 'em.
Ooh, sorry.
Bob doesn't exactly fit the profile of what an Orkin man would be.
He reminded me of a mad scientist look, I guess is what you could say.
[Vacuum whirring.]
[Glass shatters.]
It's okay.
Bob broke a glass.
You kinda have to pay attention to what you're doing, um [Glass shatters.]
We'll pick that up when we're done.
We'll just have to let the customer be aware of that, and give them a free service of some sort to sort of make up for that.
- Okay, you ready? - Yep.
Man, we haven't really gotten to know each other too much, man.
Where are you from? I currently live in Orlando, Florida, - currently.
- Okay, okay.
What about you? Uh, I'm married with two kids.
Keep a picture of 'em on my dashboard here.
You know, they're probably about a year younger - in that picture there, but - That's really- - Those are my babies, man.
So how are things going for you here? Um, I had no intention of even working for Orkin.
When we started renting our house in Lafayette, we noticed some roaches.
"Let's call Orkin," that's the first thing I could think of, Orkin, you know? I wasn't working at the time.
I was staying home with my kids.
And I said, "are you guys hiring over there?" You know, and he was like, "actually, yeah.
" - You know, here we are now.
- Yeah.
You know, I mean, I never really pictured it to be like this.
I can't honestly say I went to six years of college to become an Orkin man, but this is the way things work out, you know? And so far, so good.
- It's it's been good.
- Uh-huh.
I was really impressed with Chris.
Anyone that's that committed to his family, I believe we have a place for.
Let's get in here and finish this job up.
- All right.
- Good talking though.
Same to you.
[Chuckles.]
You know, my father was the same way.
My father worked for Orkin from the time I was two, uh, trying to do better for his family and his boys.
Orkin's provided a good home for my family.
And there's real opportunity for people like Chris, who want to pursue the same Avenue and do a lot of good things.
[Country rock music.]
I'm really excited to be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, today.
I'll be posing as an Orkin man with one of our service specialists.
How you doing? I'm Johnny the Orkin man.
- How you doing, Johnny? - Doing great.
Our team here in Baton Rouge is doing very well.
So I'm looking forward to spending time with Johnny, to see what it is they're doing, and maybe how we can implement it across the system.
We're here to do the inspection.
- Okay.
- We're here to kill the bugs.
Are you scared of bugs? No, sir, not too much.
- Rats and mice? - Maybe rats and mice.
Huh? Oh, well.
Don't worry about it.
- They won't attack ya.
- They won't? - They won't attack you.
- Okay.
You can do it? - I can do it.
- You sure? - I'm sure.
- Okay.
- Let's do it.
- Yes, sir.
[Knocking.]
Hey, miss Percy, good morning.
How are you? Any major problem? - No.
- Okay.
See, I've been servicing miss Percy's house for 12 years.
That means she tells me I'm doing a good job.
Right.
This is the bottom sink here.
We gonna treat this area.
Did you find anything? Everything looked good so far, miss Percy.
Oh, good.
Bugs is under control in here.
You've got a good teacher.
It's pretty under control everywhere.
Miss Percy keep a clean house.
[Laughs.]
That's the most important thing.
Johnny has such a great personality.
It's not often that you see that sort of relationship between a customer and a service person in any business.
How have you been feeling? - Feeling fine, feeling fine.
- You sure? Well, how's your hernia doing? I haven't had the work done yet.
I know you haven't.
I was gonna get it operated on.
That's when they found out the leukemia, when I went and did the blood work.
Did you know he was sick? No, ma'am, I did not.
Well, we wouldn't have known if he hadn't actually been to the hospital.
He never, ever missed a beat.
He worked and we didn't know he was sick.
- Really? - We had to pry it out of him.
- He's a hard worker.
- But he's gotta get the hernia fixed.
Johnny's doing a great job taking care of his customers.
But if he doesn't stop to care of himself a little bit, then he won't be able to take care of his customers.
We gonna go ahead and apply our chemical.
There you go.
All right.
How many customers a day do you use this on? - You ever get tired? - No.
No, not on the strip, move to the bottom.
Keep it low.
You use this backpack every day? Yes, sir.
Man, my arm's getting tired.
Speed up a little faster.
You have 12 houses a day, Bob.
Bob is kinda slow.
But for his very first time, he's doing a good job.
[Clank.]
Whoa, Bob.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We don't wanna break nothing, Bob.
What? I'm glad that didn't break, Johnny.
- Yeah, that's for $150.
- $150? Yeah, for that, yeah.
You don't wanna break it.
- You ever break anything? - No.
No, I be careful.
Bob, he was looking up.
He was not looking down as he was walking.
Do it again, it'll have come out of his pocket.
I'll tell ya, that's not easy.
It's pretty heavy.
[Laughs.]
Johnny worked me pretty hard.
And he acted like it was nothing to it.
I don't know how he does it.
Lord bless the food, bless the cook, amen.
Amen.
So miss Percy knows about your health issues.
Have you been putting off surgery? Well, been so busy.
But you gotta take care of your health, right? I had to get the leukemia out of the way first.
So how's that doing? Are you - Doing great.
- Really? - Medication's working fine.
- That's good.
My dad experienced some health problems late in life.
I always have had a great deal of respect for the way our company treated my father for his 37 years.
Johnny is so devoted to Orkin, I really wanna make sure we are devoted to Johnny.
I've been with Orkin 28 years, man.
- Yeah? - 28 long years.
Through the good times and bad times.
Really? Tell me about the good times.
I ain't gonna stay 28 years for nothing.
I like my job.
- I like meeting customers.
- Mm-hmm.
The good thing about the company we had years ago, we would get a bonus.
You don't get a bonus now? - Oh, they cut that out, man.
- Really? Johnny mentioned to me that we had a customer retention bonus that apparently has been taken away.
I wasn't aware of this bonus program.
That's the whole reason I wanted to go undercover, to learn about these types of things.
That needs to be looked at immediately.
So Johnny, what do you do when you're not working? Where do you go on vacation? Go to different places Atlantic city, and go right there in Biloxi.
I mean, I started years ago.
I have to work 28 years to get three weeks vacation.
And somebody comes and works ten years, they get three weeks.
Why'd the company change it? I don't know.
Johnny mentioned to me our vacation policy.
We added a week to some of our less tenured employees some years ago, but we didn't do the same for our longer tenured employees like Johnny.
So we'll have to take a look at that, see what can be done.
But it's a good company to work for.
- Yeah? - Oh, yeah.
For 28 years, I you know, I guess so, huh? Well, I guess, that's right, yep.
[Laughs.]
My father would really get on with Johnny.
I believe Johnny embodies the spirit of the Orkin man, top to bottom.
He first of all, presents a great image.
Secondly, takes great care of his customers.
Thirdly, he does the little things that really cement the relationship and make them happy for the long term.
He's got it all.
Now we can get going to our next stop.
All right.
I'll see you there.
Okay.
Announcer: Coming up Let's get our lids on, 'cause they're coming for us.
Announcer: The boss gets up close and personal with a swarm of bees.
Man, they're really buzzing now.
They are livid with us right now.
Announcer: And later [Thud.]
Whoops.
Yeah, try not to break the customer's stuff.
Announcer: John gets put in his place by a feisty Orkin woman.
You need to loosen up.
- Think I need to loosen up? - Yeah.
You remind me of my wife [Chuckles.]
Who yells at me all the time.
Announcer: John Wilson, president and C.
O.
O.
of Orkin is a boss undercover in his own company.
It's pretty much running wild up in here.
Announcer: His employees think he's competing on a reality show, in hopes of winning money to open his own small business.
[Clank.]
Whoa, Bob.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You don't wanna break nothing, Bob.
Announcer: His journey continues in California.
[Rock music.]
I'm in Los Angeles, California, today.
And I'll be working with a branch sales and service inspector.
A branch sales inspector is able to analyze a situation, prescribe the solution, offer it to the customer, and implement that solution right on the spot.
The Southern California area does very well for our company.
And I'm looking forward to seeing it firsthand.
- Hi, Aaron.
- Hi, Bob.
How you doing? How you doing? So today we got several services and sales lined up.
Today we're gonna start off with the bees that you see right there.
[Bees buzzing.]
Bees? I'm gonna be testing Bob on how he reacts dealing with angry bees.
I'm gonna see if he's gonna sweat, if he's gonna panic, because he's gotta stay cool, calm, and collected at all times.
All right, so obviously we got a hive in here.
These guys are really mad.
Yeah.
This hive has been there for about 12 years.
It's quite extensive.
Probably about 10,000 individuals - in this hive right now.
- Really? - Yeah.
- How can you tell that? Well, it's based on years.
This hive has never been treated.
Think of it as just growing in sections, and every year it just gets a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger.
I have been stung by a bee, but I've never had hundreds, if not thousands, of 'em buzzing all around me.
That was a little disconcerting, to say the least.
The owner here doesn't want to deal with 'em anymore, so we're gonna help her alleviate her problem here today.
- Okay.
- All righty? - Sounds good.
- All right.
- So, Mrs.
avila.
- Yes? Got some good news for you.
That hive can be treated.
Excellent.
It's gonna cost us about 250.
At some point, you may wanna think about having that post removed, all righty? Awesome, yes.
My first impression of Aaron was that he really presents a good image.
Get your signature for me right there for me.
He's friendly.
He's outgoing.
He explained it well to the customer Wonderful.
So now that you've done that, it's your job to disappear.
And we're gonna do the dangerous part.
Okay, awesome.
Thank you.
Excellent.
And then he implemented his plan.
So you ready for fun? - I'm ready.
- All right.
Let's get your suit on.
Have you ever been stung? I've been stung in the eye, doing an inspection just like we were just doing.
- Oh, really? - Yep.
You hadn't been stung through this suit, have you? - Never.
- No? You have nothing to fear.
[Dramatic music.]
All righty.
Let's go back there and have some fun.
Aaron, how long you been working here? I've been with Orkin for three years.
- Yeah.
- Um I went to school for zoology with an emphasis in entomology.
So - really? The next best thing for me, other than research, would be to work in pest control, which is a multibillion dollar industry.
Mmhmm.
So, before we get started, let's get our lids on.
'Cause once we start playing near their home, - they're coming for us.
- All right.
This is a crazy outfit.
It's heated.
All right.
We're gonna move some of the bricks away.
So do you know anything about bees? - Not really.
- We don't treat 'em unless they are a danger to human beings.
So if they're in a structure, or in this case, in a backyard where little girls are running back and forth, unfortunately we do have to treat 'em.
The customer has children that could be in danger? The customer has a child.
And of course, they sting, we don't know her reaction rate to the venom.
- Sure.
- So why take the chance? Her children are the most important thing.
Absolutely.
Now we have exposed the hole, you see? Oh, yeah.
It's quite a large hole.
They're starting to come out.
Man, they're really buzzing now.
Oh, they are they are livid with us right now.
[Rapid violin music.]
Our weapon of choice is gonna be we call it the bazooka.
It's used for injecting dust.
I feel pretty well protected because I'm in this bee suit, but I know my ankles are exposed by about that much.
The last thing I wanted to do is get stung and cry like a baby.
So you're just pumping that thing? Yep.
The dust actually dries 'em out.
What that bee is trying to do right there, he's trying to get that dust off.
But once it absorbs through the chitin, which is their skin, it's just gonna remove all the moisture from them.
So it dries 'em from the outside in? Yep, literally.
'Cause insects, as we know, they wear their skeleton on the outside of their body.
Unlike us, where our skeleton's - on the inside out.
- Mm-hmm.
You can see we got dead bees already starting to amass here.
Every bee that touches this, unfortunately is gonna die.
A lot of the bees are actually trapped in here.
They're scared of coming out of this hole.
And if you pay attention here, every couple minutes you'll actually see a bee come squeezing out of there real fast.
And that's a second this is definitely a secondary entry and exit point.
So, Aaron, how did you learn so much about these bees? Classes, classes, classes.
So you mentioned your college degree.
I didn't finish my degree quite yet.
I gotta finish it up.
When my other half she did get pregnant.
And we ended up having a son.
At that moment, I realized I couldn't go to school - and be a full-time parent.
- Yeah.
The obvious choice was get a real job and put bread on the table.
So my job is actually to work here at Orkin.
And I wanna eventually finish my degree, continue.
'Cause this is the love of my life.
To leave school had to be tough.
I respect that decision a great deal.
You know, it's about doing what you have to do to take care of your family in the moment.
So are you ready for our next adventure? I'm ready.
What are we gonna do? We're gonna do some crawling this time.
Crawling? Yeah, we're gonna look for rodents.
Okay.
Having people in our company like Aaron, who seem to have a real passion for the bug business, is really important to our brand.
And I'd love to find a thousand like him.
We're gonna take these off, and we're gonna head to the next stop.
I'm ready to take it off.
I know you are.
[Chuckles.]
[Rock music.]
I am in Peoria, Arizona, this morning.
And I will be working with one of our termite reinspectors.
I will be working with one of our female pest specialists today.
I don't believe, in my whole career, I've ever been out on the job with a female technician.
We don't have that many, but the ones we do have relate well with our customers.
We have attracted more over the recent years.
And I hope to keep expanding that.
Hi.
How are ya? - I'm well.
I'm Bob.
- How are you doing, Bob? - Paisley.
- Hi, Paisley.
I'll be the termite reinspector, - helping you out today.
- Okay.
This house had some termite issues.
I'm really pumped up.
We're gonna do a lot of stuff with it, you know, look around, make sure there's no activity.
- It should be a good time.
- Okay.
So we need to grab some tools.
I was kinda surprised when I saw Bob.
Kinda was expecting someone maybe a little bit younger.
[Doorbell rings.]
- And you're my trainee today.
- Okay.
All right.
Both: Hi.
- Are you Danielle? - I am.
- Hi.
Paisley with Orkin.
- Nice.
- This is my trainee today.
- Hello.
I'm Bob.
- Hi.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
So how's everything been? Since you treated the termites, it's actually looked really good.
We haven't found any other tracks in the house, which has been great.
Do you mind if we start on the inside? - Wonderful.
Come on in.
- All right.
So, um, basically, what you're gonna wanna look for are those little dots.
- Little dots? - It's gonna be about a pinhole.
Yeah, pinhole size.
And it'll have dirt around it, because termites are constantly carrying dirt.
Okay.
What other kinds of pests do you encounter here? - Got a lot of scorpions.
- Scorpions come into - Houses.
- Houses? - Oh, yeah.
- Yeah? And let me tell you, that sting hurts.
You ever been stung by one? I have not.
Maybe that'll be a part of your training.
Really? [Chuckles.]
No.
Bob seems to be a little boring.
He's a stiff, man.
[Thud.]
Whoops.
Yeah, try not to break the customer's stuff.
Bob needs to loosen up.
Bob needs to let his inner Bob out.
How do you feel you'd be handling customers? I don't know.
- You don't know? - I don't know.
How do you think I would be? II think you need to loosen up.
- Think I need to loosen up? - Yeah.
Paisley told me to loosen up a little bit.
And my first thought was, I was about as loose as I ever get.
You remind me of my wife [Chuckles.]
Who yells at me all the time.
That's what we women are good for.
That and killing bugs.
So do you feel like you've got a good understanding of what we're doing here? Yeah, I think I'm getting there.
Um I think I should just watch you do my job.
I would enjoy that.
- Would you? - Yeah.
- So you have at it.
- Okay.
I'm just gonna watch you work.
You already messed up.
How did I mess up? - You went - I haven't even moved.
Oh, yeah, you did.
See, you went from this wall and instantly, boom, you went here.
- The wall goes this way.
- Mm-hmm.
So you wanna stay along that path.
Stay with where you're going, okay.
Paisley has a bit of a take-charge personality - Check that wall? - I have not.
I got sidetracked, Paisley.
There's too many walls converging.
It's all right.
My beauty does that to people.
Okay.
[Chuckles.]
But she does it with a lot of fun and she seems to be having fun with what she does.
- How's it going? - Oh, good.
How are you? Everything's looking really good so far.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Does that look like anything to you? It doesn't look like anything to me.
Does it look like anything to you? No, it doesn't.
That was a trick question.
Pass.
[Laughs.]
See, you're picking this up.
- I got Bob to laugh - I'm sensitive, Paisley.
That was my goal of the day You're sensitive.
[Laughs.]
Now how long have you been with Orkin, Paisley? I've been with Orkin for a while now.
It's been over a year.
- Over a year? - Yeah.
And I used to be in the pest control division, but now I'm doing termite reinspections and inspections 'cause of the pregnancy.
- I see.
- So - you're expecting a baby? - Sure am.
- Are you really? - Yeah.
Congratulations.
You know, I'm the only one in my branch that's a female.
Are you really? It's unusual enough that we have a female technician.
It's even more unusual that we might have one that's pregnant.
Everything looked really good.
If you'd like, we can just go ahead and go over the paperwork with you.
Sure, that sounds good.
We only have 100 or so female technicians in our entire company.
And if Paisley's an example of what those 100 are like, I'd love to have a lot more.
- Enjoy the rest of your day.
- Thank you, you too.
I'm actually gonna have you ride along with me - for this next one.
- Okay.
- All right.
- All right.
Thank you.
You've been with Orkin about a year? - Mm-hmm.
- How'd you get into this? You know, I was really needing more stability in the job I had, and they wouldn't give it to me.
So finally, I ended up just posting my resume on career builder, and Orkin was one of the first ones that decided to interview me.
It's a pretty good job.
There's things about it that are really rough, like, so many rules.
Like, A/C in the summertime when it's in the dead of the heat, we are not allowed to idle our trucks.
So if I throw my truck into park and I'm at a customer's house, I have to shut it off.
Even if you're not ready to get out.
Even if you're not ready to get out.
Or, they have time limits.
You have to be there 25 minutes.
- Mm-hmm.
- So let's say it takes me Well, technically, I need to be there for 10 minutes still.
I cannot get back in my truck and start it and sit in the A/C - until that 10 minutes is up.
- Mm-hmm.
They are very valid business reasons for not allowing trucks to idle when you've got thousands of trucks on the road.
A lot of people that have never lived in this state don't really comprehend how hot it is.
Yeah.
But sometimes we can be a little bit insensitive.
We have policies, but there ought to be some common sense exceptions to those sometimes.
So how far along are you? I'm 18 weeks.
I'll be 19 weeks on Sunday.
And I just found out yesterday that it's a girl.
Well, congratulations, awesome.
I have a son that's about to be three.
So are you a single mom? - I am, unfortunately.
- Yeah? I'm still technically married, but, um, we split up.
That's part of the reason why I work as hard as I do.
You know, it's really a difficult deal when you're a single mom and trying to do that all on your own.
I'm kind of stressed out about it.
I mean, my car is a piece of crap.
It'll drive on its own without me even pressing the throttle down.
The other day I was on the freeway, and it was going about Really? You know, my father gained custody of us when we were very little.
And he was pretty serious about taking care of us.
And Paisley seems just as serious about taking care of her children.
And I think that's really admirable.
And here we are.
My week undercover has come to an end.
It's been a long, tiring journey, but I think well worthwhile.
Boy, that always feels good, to get that facial hair off each night.
I've learned a lot about the company.
Still a little sticky.
I've learned a lot about some very dedicated employees that we have.
And I've learned a lot about myself.
I'm ready to get back to work on Monday, working on some of the things that I've seen and heard.
Announcer: Coming up The employees think they're going to give feedback on whether or not Bob deserves to win his own business.
How will they react when the boss reveals his true identity? My name is John Wilson.
I'm the president and C.
O.
O.
of Orkin.
Huh? Today, all of the employees have been called to Los Angeles.
They think they are coming to meet with a wealthy investor to advise her on how worthwhile it would be to invest in my business.
Johnny, how are you? Fine.
How about yourself? - I'm doing well.
- Great, great.
So how do you think Bob did? Bob did well with the bees.
I think Bob did a really good job.
He seemed nervous in the beginning.
Have we ever met before? I'm beginning to think that we have.
Well, I have something to tell you.
My name's not really Bob.
Huh? My name's John Wilson.
And I'm the president and C.
O.
O.
of Orkin.
Really? And I was also Bob.
You were Bob.
You are Bob.
Hi, Bob.
[Laughs.]
Wow.
I can't believe I'm sitting here with Mr.
Orkin himself.
My [Laughs.]
The commander in chief.
Oh, wow.
Have you ever heard of Undercover Boss? - Yes.
- You have? I have.
Well, you're on Undercover Boss.
I am? All right.
[Both chuckle.]
Well, how did I do, boss? Tell me.
[Both laugh.]
Chris, I thought you did well.
That was a tough situation.
- Right? - Yeah.
Take a look under.
You can see under there a lot of dead ones and a lot of live ones.
Uh, you mentioned feeling like, you know, that you're really not sure maybe what you wanna do with the rest of your life.
I enjoy working the route, because I'm able to generally help people out, you know, even though they're paying for a service.
Well, I I see something in you.
I know there's tremendous opportunity in our company for you and whole host of people that wish to progress and do well for their family.
And I know that's important to you.
Yes.
I have a couple children myself.
Orkin has allowed me to provide well for them.
And I'd be very willing to host you on a trip to Atlanta, and let you meet some people who are holding very high positions with our company that started right where you are today.
I'd love to.
Thank you.
You have a couple kids.
You showed me their pictures they're taped to your dashboard.
Eli and Abby, my heart and soul.
That's what I look forward to at the end of the day, is going home with them.
You know, I know it's difficult to save for college or think about saving for college.
We are trying to put a game plan together.
I wanna make that easy for you.
And we've set aside $15,000 for each child for their college education.
Wow.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That'll help a lot.
[Chuckles.]
That's great.
I can't stop smiling now.
[Laughs.]
I'm thankful.
My kids are gonna be able to not have they don't have to worry about going to school.
And it's really gonna make things easier for us.
I just can't wait to go to go tell everybody.
John definitely opened my eyes to some new opportunities.
And I'm gonna embrace it.
And I'm gonna see what happens.
You know, I mean, not everybody hardly anybody gets this kind of opportunity.
I'm very grateful for it.
Johnny, well, I gotta tell you, being with you was the absolute highlight of my trip.
I thank you very much.
I mean, you did a great job for miss Percy.
Obviously you two have a great relationship.
Miss Percy keep a clean house.
[Laughs.]
That's the most important thing.
She surely sees you, I think, - as part of her family.
- Absolutely.
You know, your health is a serious situation.
I wanna make sure that while you're out for your hernia surgery, that we pay you fully during that time.
And I want you to know that I intend to pay for your surgery.
Wow.
You gonna do that? Man, that's great.
The good lord gonna bless you.
That's a blessing.
I did a good job at miss Percy's house, huh? [Both laugh.]
You also mentioned to me about your family liking to go to the beach.
And so I wanna send you to the beach your choice, your whole family.
The whole family? Wow.
The good lord is working, huh? [Laughing.]
[Both laughing.]
Grandkids gonna love that.
I think you earned it, Johnny.
Thank you.
Well, I've got one final thing.
I have a longevity bonus I wanna pay you - of $30,000.
- Do what? Repeat yourself I mean, repeat that again.
I wanna pay you $30,000.
$30,000? Man, that's great.
When are we gonna do this again? [Both laughing.]
Tears was coming out my eyes, all the blessings John give me out today.
I'm very happy.
Aaron, I was really impressed with your passion for what you're doing.
I wanna eventually finish my degree, continue.
'Cause this is love of my life.
I'd like to arrange a couple of trips for you.
- Really? - Yeah.
I'd love to have you come in to Atlanta to see our training center.
That would be amazing.
[Laughs.]
While you're there, I wanna introduce you to, uh, Greg Baumann.
He's our vice president of training.
And sort of get an idea about how to plot your future.
Thank you.
You know, while you're back east, I'd also love to send you and your family on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.
C The Smithsonian to visit the O.
Orkin insect Zoo at the Smithsonian, and get a behind-the-scenes tour.
Yes! [Laughing.]
That is freakin' amazing.
Thank you, sir.
Oh, the Smithsonian, it holds a special place in my heart, just dealing with insects and Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much.
You know, in talking to you, it was apparent to me that, you know, you're really committed to your family.
Mmhmm.
I know education is important to you.
So here's what I'd like to do for you.
I would like to establish a college scholarship fund for your son worth $15,000.
Wow.
[Crying.]
Ahh, thank you.
That just takes one less thing off the plate that I have to worry about.
And I know it's really tough for you to go back to school to finish your education.
So I'd like to help you with that.
And I'd like to give you $15,000 to finish your education.
That'll take care of a lot of schooling.
Thank you, sir.
Oh, my gosh.
When I woke up this morning, I definitely did not calculate in any shape, way, or form that I was gonna be able to finish school.
Thank you so much.
This is definitely, definitely gonna change my life.
Paisley, I spent a good day with you.
Even though you've only been with our company a short time, I think there's a future for you.
Thank you.
There were a lot of people kind of skeptical of me at first.
I would encourage you to ignore the skeptics.
There are women in our company, there aren't many.
I think it takes a unique individual to take to our business.
- What do you think? - I love it.
I like proving people wrong, so you brought up a few things - that were sort of an issue.
- Mm-hmm.
You brought up the idling issue.
In the summertime when it's in the dead of the heat, we are not allowed to idle our trucks.
So these GPS rules were developed generically to apply nationwide, we really need to, especially in the heat of the summer, think about having some local rules.
- Right.
- And that's something that when I get back to work Monday, I'll see what can't be done about that.
Any kind of consideration helps.
There's a couple things I'd like to do for you.
- Mm-hmm.
- You have one child.
And you have one on the way.
Paisley, my dad was a single father from the time I was six.
So, you know, I know firsthand how hard it is to do what you're trying to do.
Are you able to put anything away for their college education? No.
Paycheck to paycheck, unfortunately.
I'd like to set up a college fund for your children, $15,000 for each child.
Wow.
Thank you so much.
[Crying.]
Every mom wants their kids to go to school.
Thank you.
You know, to better themselves, so that's really good.
And I appreciate that so much.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
[Whispers.]
Bob.
[Both chuckle.]
That's amazing.
Thank you.
Tell me a little bit about your home, where you live.
It's not in the nicest of areas, but the rent is reasonable.
It's just difficult thinking about bringing another baby in, because I really just don't have the room.
Well, in order to help you out of that situation, I'd like to give you $20,000 to get moved.
What? Are you are you trying to make me cry again? Are you serious? That's crazy.
Well, I have one last thing for you.
What's this? That's the key to a Ford escape.
[Laughs.]
You're joking with me, right? I'm not joking.
Didn't you see Bob didn't joke? Bob was very serious.
[Laughs.]
[Exhales.]
Thank you so much.
[Crying.]
Well, I want you to know, the Orkin family, we're here to help you.
And I love working for Orkin.
[Sniffles.]
I'm proud to say that I kill bugs for a living.
I'm proud to say you're an Orkin woman.
Would you like to go see your new car? I would love to go see my new car.
Well, it's right out front.
Thank you so much.
Oh, my God.
[Laughs.]
Oh, my God.
Just a few days ago I was worried about, you know, what I was gonna do and how I was gonna take care of this or that.
And it's just, like, a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.
I can't believe this.
I thought I was here to do something for someone else.
It's gonna be easier for me now.
It's just amazing.
I couldn't have ever asked for anything like this.
This is crazy.