male announcer: "Undercover Boss" is back.
[dramatic music]
- How y'all doing?
[laughter]
- This is ten times harder than the boardroom.
- Oh. - This is a disaster.
I would never have found out if I wasn't undercover.
announcer: The most devastating economic crisis
for a generation has been tough on American business
and even tougher on America's workforce.
- We all had to take salary cuts.
- My wife, and my kids, and I were all homeless.
- How many firemen, you think you down?
- 15, just because of the pandemic.
announcer: So there's never been a more important time
to go undercover.
♪
This season...
- Wow!
announcer: The toughest challenges...
- This has gotta be the worst job in the restaurant.
- It is, ugh.
announcer: The biggest shocks...
- I need to rethink everything that we're doing.
- We question whether you are fit for this brand.
announcer: And the most dramatic,
life-changing rewards...
- I mean, that's the greatest thing
you could ever do for me, man.
announcer: In "Undercover Boss" history.
- I need to break cover right now and shut this down.
♪
announcer: Tonight...
- Oh, crap.
announcer: The CEO of one of America's
most popular tourist attractions
leaves behind his corporate comforts...
- I am nervous.
announcer: To go undercover...
- Oh, my God.
announcer: Joining his team on the front line.
- I don't know what my problem is.
announcer: To solve an urgent labor shortage crisis...
- We're mopping up urine.
announcer: That is costing his company millions of dollars.
- If you're slow, then the line is gonna get backed up.
- What kind of job is this?
announcer: You'll hear uncomfortable truths...
- The pay just freezes in time. It can never go up?
- No.
- It's something that is gonna be fixed.
I'll tell you that right now.
announcer: Before offering some life-changing rewards.
- You serious?
announcer: All this next on "Undercover Boss."
- That just changed our lives.
[upbeat rock music]
- My name is Andrew Simon,
president and CEO of the Fremont Street Experience.
The Fremont Street Experience
is an entertainment destination
in Las Vegas, Nevada.
♪
It's the second busiest public street
in the United States,
second only to Times Square,
and it attracts 25 million people a year
from all over the globe.
♪
And earns revenues
of approximately $50 million a year.
♪
[upbeat music]
announcer: Situated in the Downtown district,
Fremont Street is the historic heart of Las Vegas.
The licensing of Fremont Street's first casino in 1931
helped put Vegas on the map as a tourist destination.
♪
But from the 1950s,
as casinos began merging into mega-resorts
on the strip five miles away,
visitors deserted downtown.
But Fremont Street came back fighting.
♪
- In 1995,
the Fremont Street Experience opened with a brand-new canopy,
which now has 50 million LED lights.
We have a zip line that extends five city blocks.
And we have a 600,000 watt sound system,
and also three stages that feature more live music
than any other place on Earth.
♪
I am from Long Island, New York,
and my parents run a summer camp.
So from three years old,
I was at summer camp every year.
I learned all the different jobs
and really learned how to make people's experiences great.
So growing up there, I realized entertainment
was something I was passionate about.
Since graduating in hospitality management
from Cornell University,
I've worked in all kinds of businesses
from casinos to cable TV.
People took chances on me.
And what that really did was give me the confidence to go in
and solve business problems in any environment.
And it was my range of entertainment experience
and long-term history in Las Vegas
that got me the CEO role here at Fremont Street.
I joined the company in September of 2020
in the middle of the pandemic.
There was no entertainment going on.
I was frankly a little bit scared,
but I was really excited about the opportunity
to make the street better than it's ever been.
That said, currently, the labor shortage here is tough.
The day I started working here,
we had 100% staff turnover.
What I mean is, no matter how many new people we hire,
the same number quit.
The majority of our revenue comes from our zip line,
but we currently take the lower line out of service
for six days a week,
costing us a half million dollars a month,
all because we have this labor shortage issue.
I need to figure out why people are leaving
and also what can I do to attract more people
to want to work here?
♪
I'm going undercover as Ken Masters,
who is a summer camp counselor.
- Do you think you'll have the experience for that
if they ask you questions?
- I know everything there is about summer camps.
♪
Hello there. - Hey.
- This is real important for me to do
because I've only been here 10 or 11 months,
and without the ability to bring people together
during COVID, I'm not sure that employees have felt heard.
And I want to change that and change that now.
That's why I'm going undercover.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Ah! - Here comes Ken Masters.
- [laughing]
- What do you guys think? - Wow!
Look at the hair.
- Can I fool people with this? - Yes.
You do not look like Andrew. I'll tell you that.
- Our employees think they're on a documentary
called "Starting Over"
about someone looking for a new career.
They have no idea it's "Undercover Boss."
- Bye.
- In my career, I've never faced a problem
as big as the one I'm facing right now.
I'm down 90 employees,
a half million dollars of revenue,
and declining employee morale.
If I don't fix this now, we're in deep trouble.
♪
[upbeat rock music]
♪
Today, I'm going undercover with the custodial department.
It's up to this department to keep the mall clean
with 20 to 30,000 people a day coming.
It is a big task.
I'm working with Emmie.
And she's been here for 20 years.
I'm hoping to find out that this team
is getting what they need to get their job done.
They're essential to our success.
♪
[soft music]
Hello, I'm looking for Emmie.
- Hi, What is your name? - Ken.
I understand you're training me today.
- I am, and we will be going on the mall,
and we're gonna focus on gum.
- Oh. - Yup.
- I'm a bit of a germaphobe, so I'm not that excited
to clean up other people's gum.
So lots of gum, you say there's--
- Lots of scraping. Have you ever done this before?
- I've never done this before.
- It's a tough job, but we're gonna have fun.
So if you'd like to go and change.
- All right. - And then we'll get started.
I can tell Ken doesn't like to get his hands dirty.
- Thank you. - Okay.
But he'll get down and dirty with us.
♪
- All right.
♪
Do you see gum a lot?
- Oh, you know what? It's never-ending.
If you see the little black spots,
that's the gum.
We can go ahead and get our tools.
We're gonna need the scraper, and this is the gum remover.
Okay, so this is what we're gonna do.
- Okay. - We're going to spray the gum.
See how it just kind of like dissolved it a little bit?
- Right, right.
- And whatever residue you have,
then you can use your brush.
- So should I try this one?
- You can definitely try that one.
- Okay.
♪
- You're not scraping hard enough with your scraper.
♪
- Am I going fast enough?
- I think you're taking a little--
- Little too long? - Too much--yeah.
We have to move quickly. - Okay, okay.
- I think he needs a little more muscle.
- This is nasty.
This has, like, still some moisture and chew to it.
- Because there are some pieces that are, like, really tough.
- Ooh. - It's a lot of work.
It's two and a half hours a day.
[dramatic music]
- So you spend two and a half hours
a day getting gum off the mall?
- Yes, our whole crew.
- The fact that we have to spend so much time
cleaning up gum,
two and a half hours per day per person is outrageous.
Is this the easiest way to do this?
- We have a gum machine.
The only thing about that,
you have to find a power source.
- Okay.
- And it could be a trip hazard.
They would have to spend a little more money on one
that doesn't have cords.
- Yeah.
The gum cleaning machine might save our employees hours
of wrist issues and knee issues.
I need to look into this to make sure
because our people should have the tools
they need to keep this mall clean
and do it in the least amount of time possible.
- I know I work hard, but I love my job.
Actually been doing this for 20 years.
- Wow, 20 years here.
- 20 years here. I don't get any more raises.
- Your pay just freezes in time forever?
It can never go up?
- No, never.
- I was shocked to hear about any employee's pay
is frozen at a certain rate.
We're in the middle of a staffing crisis.
We may have a policy in place that's not very motivating
and kind of punishes employees for staying a long time.
It's outrageous.
It's something that is going to be fixed.
I'll tell you that right now.
announcer: Coming up...
- Don't let it splash on you. Just do it slow.
announcer: The boss smells trouble.
- Oh, my God.
- Ken has done the gum.
But he hasn't seen anything yet.
- That sounds awful.
- That's just the tip of the iceberg.
- Wow, we're mopping up urine.
♪
[dramatic music]
- So if you want to push this. - Okay.
It's my first day undercover,
and I'm cleaning up Fremont Street with Emmie...
- So our next job is pulling trash.
- Okay.
One of the leads of our custodial team.
- So we're going to start at this first trash can there.
- Okay. - We'll back it in like this.
- Okay.
- Then we're going to take this off.
- Okay. - Take both bags.
♪
- That smell is pretty good. Wow.
[soft music]
When I picked the lid up off this first trash can,
I almost got knocked out.
- There you go.
- It really was disgusting.
- If there's any liquid, don't let it splash on you.
So just do it slow.
♪
- Oh, wow. That's rancid.
- Get it back in there. - Right.
Oh, my God, whoo.
- Give Ken a year, and he would be used to it.
So now look at this.
There's a wet spill here because this is leaking.
- Uh-oh.
- It's been overused.
- And so when we put liquid in again later,
is it always going to just go right through?
- Yeah, so we have to keep an eye on that.
- To hear that, I mean, that just pissed me off.
I'm like, I picked up this sludge liquid
at the bottom, almost puked.
I turned it over, and then it's like coming
out the bottom of the bin,
and then I got to start mopping it all over.
This is like a bad routine.
But is that going to leak through the whole mall?
- It might. - Okay.
This job is hard enough
without having equipment that's failing and leaking.
- Okay. - Whoo!
But when we need new equipment, that needs to get to my desk.
- Turn it around.
Ken has done a great job,
but he hasn't seen anything yet.
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
[upbeat rock music]
Grab one of these masks.
- Okay.
♪
- So we're gonna clean a bio, which is human waste.
- Right. - Feces, vomit.
- Okay.
[soft music]
I'm not excited about cleaning up biohazard
or whatever she's calling it.
This sounds awful.
- That's urine. - Okay.
- Some people like to use the street as a restroom.
This is bleach.
- I'm just amazed that people would do that.
I'm thinking this is pretty disgusting.
We're mopping up urine.
♪
Yup.
This biowaste seems
to take up a little bit more of an area
than anybody would ever think.
- This is urine, so right where your foot is.
- Oh, great.
I really feel for people that are doing this every day.
♪
- So we're done for the day. - Let's go.
- So let's go.
♪
And we'll just park it right over here.
♪
- Tell me a little about yourself.
How did you end up in Las Vegas?
- My dad was in the Navy.
So we moved around a lot until we moved to Hawaii.
Hawaii was my home.
The weather was beautiful, the beaches, everything.
And we came here-- - When was that?
- That was in 1973. - Oh, wow, okay.
- Yeah. And I've been married 40 years.
- Wow, and does he work? - No.
My husband has leukemia now.
- Oh, my God. - Yeah.
We always try to stay positive.
♪
Every time I talk about this--but it's good
to talk about it.
- I'm sorry.
♪
When Emmie told me about her husband,
I was so upset to hear that he's ill,
and her positivity is so overwhelming,
but yet she's going through so much.
- My husband, I want to take him to Hawaii.
He's never been. That's my dream.
Maybe one day I'll hit the lottery.
Who knows? - Yeah.
- [laughs]
- It's hard to see people go
through the struggles that she's going through right now.
I want to make sure the company's there for her.
Thank you so much.
- Good luck. - I appreciate your time.
- Thank you for your hard work today.
- I really enjoyed working with Emmie,
but I discovered problems with equipment
I would never have known about if I hadn't gone undercover,
and I need to make sure all our people have the tools
they need to do their jobs.
♪
[upbeat rock music]
It's 1:30 a.m.,
and my workday has never begun this late at night.
♪
Having discovered problems in our custodial department,
I'm hoping things are better
for our highly skilled technicians.
They're crucial to keeping our attractions running.
Part of the reason people come to Fremont Street Experience
is the world's greatest canopy.
♪
It costs $50 million, has 50 million LED lights,
and it provides 24-7 entertainment to our visitors.
Today I'm working with Ronald, who is the assistant manager
of the attractions maintenance department
because if there are issues, I need to know about them.
♪
[soft music]
♪
Hello. I'm here to see Ronald.
- I'm Ron. - Ken.
- Ken, how are you? - Good.
I'm here to follow you around for the day.
- All right. What's your background?
- Well, I worked at a summer camp,
and the last two years, summer camps have been closed.
So I'm looking for a new job and trying out
all the different things Fremont Street might have.
- Well, great. There'll be a lot to learn.
And we're going to be going up on the canopy today.
We get a lot of debris,
so we'll be walking on the canopy,
looking for some of that trash and making sure
that it's cleared and safe for everybody down below.
- Okay.
- So I got to get you in a uniform.
You're not afraid of heights, right?
- Oh, I'm a little afraid of heights.
- Okay, I had a guy up there once before
that actually froze in a position
where his hands were up top.
I had to walk him through being able to make a step.
♪
- Well, hope I'm better than that.
- When I first saw Ken, he looked a little,
maybe too nerdy,
not like the physical person for climbing and so forth.
Can you bend like this?
It's not for everybody.
There's a good chance that he may get a little weak
at the knees.
♪
Do you think you're ready for this?
- Let's do it.
I'm real nervous about going up on the canopy.
I've never climbed that high in my life.
- Take these. There's a flashlight in there.
- Okay.
And I have no idea what's going on
with these clips and all these harnesses.
So a lot of trepidation and fear.
This is not my normal day.
How high does this go?
- To get up to the platform, we got to go about 85 feet up,
and then we'll be free climbing
the rest of the way to about 100 feet.
♪
- A little nervous, but my life is in your hands.
- Go on the far side.
Try to keep at least one to two-hand contact
at all the time when you're climbing.
And then you got to hook into here.
There you go. - Great, thank you.
- Power it up.
All right, so yes. You should be good.
He seemed like he was a little shaky, very shaky.
You look a little nervous.
- I'm feeling way outside of my comfort zone
right this moment.
[dramatic music]
Oh, crap.
Okay, okay, okay.
♪
- So we're going to climb out on this railing.
This could be a little hairy for you.
Now open the gate.
I'm going to hook onto this rail.
Basically, I'm just gonna walk right out.
- Oh, my God.
- Go ahead and now hook your other one into here.
Watch your fingers.
- Starting to freak out a little.
- Stepladder it out.
- Oh, crap.
Whoa. Holy [...].
♪
[dramatic music]
- Okay, okay.
I'm undercover with assistant maintenance manager, Ron.
- Stepladder it out.
- Oh, crap.
And we're about to clear trash 100 feet above the ground.
Whoa, okay, okay. I am nervous.
- I'll keep you safe.
- Despite being latched in,
you can't help to think you're going to fall through
and end up on Fremont Street.
- Let's hook you up. Right to there.
This rope's going to come with you.
And when you get to the top,
you'll hook into another lifeline like this one.
- Okay.
- And then we'll be able to walk farther
down the other way.
[soft music]
Look at that. He's already going without me.
- Oh, my God. My heart is beating.
I've never climbed even a jungle gym in my life.
So to be 100 feet above Fremont Street, wow.
Whoo.
- You're doing good.
There you go.
Stand on there and bring the other foot through.
- Okay.
- And then just continue on your way.
- Okay.
- We're going to go get that trash.
- Let's go do it.
- See, I already found a dirty towel.
There's a glove right there. We can pick that up.
- I'll get that one.
- So the importance of what we're doing is we got thousands
of people down below on a daily basis.
If we have stuff that could fall,
we do not want it to go down on top of the people.
- We got it. - All right.
Now here's a big piece of glass I need to pick up.
Look at that.
Up in front there, you'll see a can.
- I see that. We got this.
Oh, my God.
- And then try to one-step all the way down.
We find all sorts of things up here from purses,
food being thrown out, clothing, all sorts of stuff.
- Hey. - Here, I'll take it.
- This trash picking is not a fun job for me.
- Look, there's trash down there.
Do you want a challenge? Do you want to go get it?
- I'd rather get the next piece, to be honest.
- You got it, you got it.
- Wow, oh, my Lord.
Whoo.
- There it is. - Nice.
- One of the worst things I found
was a diaper that was filled.
- Oh, how would that get up here?
- Generally, this trash comes from people
throwing stuff out the windows.
Mostly comes from guests from the hotels.
I'd love for the casino to screw their windows shut.
- You ever talked to them before?
- I bagged the trash and gave it to risk management,
and it was their job to talk to them about it.
So yeah. - Okay.
I'm going to talk to the owner of the hotel
and find out why those windows still open.
The ability to throw trash
on our $50 million investment is ludicrous.
So I'm going to talk to that hotel owner right away.
[upbeat music]
How long have you worked here, Ron?
- I've been here since 1995.
Since COVID, they combined two departments.
They've put this canopy department here
under the umbrella of the entertainment,
like the rides.
So my pay got cut. And I was blindsided.
I'm like 18 years I give you, and you don't even consult me.
[dramatic music]
I'm proud of this product,
which is the Fremont Street Experience.
This is a product that I believe in,
that I've lived now 25 years for.
And that was a pretty, pretty big blow.
For that, I'm not as trusting of the company anymore
because I don't believe the company values me
the way they used to.
♪
- Ron, after all these years,
feels devalued and underappreciated.
Yeah, it's really difficult to see
because somebody who's so committed to the Street
who feels so slighted,
it doesn't make for a great work environment for them
or for their people.
- I think we need to head back. We're finished up up here.
- If I've been in the same position for 18 years,
and I had to take in a pay cut,
that would make me look for other employment.
And that makes me really concerned.
[upbeat music]
- All right, we're going to take care
of the underside of the canopy with the visual part.
The panels that are out right there,
that's probably a power supply.
And that's what we're going to work on next.
- Lucky that I'm getting the hang of heights now.
- We gotta try to get this done
before too many people get out here.
- Right.
- We'll use our ground spotter
to navigate people away from the lift
as we're going up in the air.
♪
We have a control
that allows me to change the pattern to a test pattern.
There you go. - Nice.
- Now I'm going to use the lift articulation
to get me to that problem.
♪
This is where I need to be.
I need to remove both of these panels
to get to this power supply.
- Okay.
[soft music]
- And I'm just going to take it out like this.
I got it. - Right.
- Unplug it, take the safety off,
pull the panel out.
And the first thing we do is check the fuse.
- Working with Ron today, I feel really proud to know
that he takes pride in Fremont Street.
- So now I'm going to plug it in.
Look at that. This one was just a fuse.
- And being up here makes me realize how hard Ron
and his team have to work to keep this canopy going.
- What I like to do is I like to lean it up here,
so it's bracing it, and then grab it here.
So I've got a good grip on it.
Okay.
- There we go. - There you go.
- Sweet. - Yep, there you go.
- Well, this is incredible, I mean, being up here,
and seeing the amount of work you guys do,
and looking around, there's so much.
- Yes, yeah, me and my crew's job is
to not disappoint our guests,
but I think my department needs to get appreciated
a little bit more.
And our management,
I don't think they appreciate what we have to do
to make sure that they don't have any flaws in our show.
Partly I think because we make it look easy.
Okay? But it's not.
- Ron has an extremely hard job.
I need to make sure he and his team are happy.
- We're done for the day.
And then we'll get back at it tomorrow
and fix more problems.
- One of my primary goals is to make the culture
of Fremont Street a great place to work,
but Ron feels the exact opposite.
- That's the end of our journey.
- Awesome.
As CEO, if Ron and his team
feel unappreciated, that's my responsibility.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
- You got it.
- And that's something I intend to address.
♪
[upbeat music]
Having spent the day on top of our world-famous canopy,
now I'm going to be working on the zip line
that runs directly beneath it.
SlotZilla is one of the top attractions in Las Vegas.
It's the number one thing
that attracts people to Fremont Street.
And it is incredible.
- [screaming]
- That said, we currently have 42 employees.
We need 86.
So we've been forced to close the lower zip line.
This is costing us over $600,000 per month
in lost sales.
Since coming on board, I've raised pay by 40%.
I've offered $2,000 bonuses per year
for zip line employees,
but we're still losing staff
as quickly as we can hire them.
Today I'm going to be working with Josephine,
one of the team leads.
I want to use her insight
to figure out how to solve the zip line crisis.
♪
[soft music]
♪
Looking for Josephine. - Hi, that's me.
- Hi, Ken. - Ken, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
I understand you might be training me today.
- Yes, sir, have you done manual labor before?
Like, lifting a lot.
- I'm in somewhat okay shape. I can try.
- So here's your uniform.
- Great, thank you.
♪
All right. How do I look?
- Oh, look at you. - Do I like a SlotZilla person?
- Yeah, you're gorgeous. - Oh, thank you.
- So we're going to be going to the launch deck next.
- Okay.
- That's where you hook up people
to the ride and send them down.
♪
There you go. Yeah, bring it up.
There you go.
♪
- Up we go.
♪
What are we doing?
- So you see those metal contraptions
on the line right there?
- Right. - Those are called trolleys.
And that's what holds the guests up.
That big door goes down. - Okay.
- The guests are released, and then the operators
put up the next trolley,
and the guests walk in, and then you hook them up.
- How many people go through a night?
- Anywhere between 500 and 1,000.
- A night? - Yeah.
I'm gonna show you what it'll be like.
- Great.
[upbeat music]
♪
Wow.
♪
Watching Josephine do that kind
of work is just exhilarating.
It's incredible. Wow.
She is just a pro. That was fast.
- All right. You three come on in.
Lay down, please, onto your front.
♪
Safety is first.
But speed is second
because you got to keep the ride moving.
♪
- So you left hand, right hand. - Left hand, right hand.
- No, no, the other side.
Oh, so up and around, right?
- Yes, so you want to hold this up,
so it keeps it on the line.
- There you go.
- This goes there.
I'm feeling a lot of pressure as I'm trying to get a pin
in a hole and latch something in.
And we get it in there, maybe.
And I am terrible at doing this right now.
Now I'm getting caught by cables.
♪
- Watch, watch. Down, twist, open.
- We gotta double check 'em, double check 'em.
- Here we go.
♪
- What am I doing wrong?
♪
As soon as one person goes off,
the next person is getting connected.
- All right. You three come on in.
- It is hard, and it is relentless.
Now it can't come undone, right?
- Okay. - Come on and lay down.
- You sure that's good? - Yeah, it's good.
- This is just nonstop. There's no time to breathe.
- Yeah, it is, it is. It's very difficult.
- Whoo! - Ahh!
- Right now, we're way behind schedule, right?
- Yeah.
It's just like that, but it's upside down.
- Right, right.
- If you're slow, the line is going to get backed up
to like an hour or two hours.
And if they're backed up over an hour,
they have the right to a refund.
[tense music]
- I think the pressure is getting to me.
Frankly, it's overwhelming.
I'm terrible at this.
- Don't let it get to you.
Don't let it get to you.
♪
Up, turn.
- I don't know what my problem is.
The line is backing up.
- You can lay down there, please.
- Customers are losing their patience.
I'm too slow.
I either get good at this real quick,
or I'm throwing in the towel.
Hold on. - Other way, other way.
- I'm just gonna lose it soon.
♪
[dramatic music]
- [screaming]
- I'm working undercover on our zip line
launch platform with team lead Josephine.
♪
Wow. This is relentless, isn't it?
Right now, we're behind schedule, right?
- Yeah.
- Being CEO is high pressure...
I don't know what my problem is with these.
But this is next level.
I'm ready to be replaced right now.
I'm going to need a second.
- All right, so come on.
- Get ready, and three, two, one!
♪
You did really good. I know it was a little fast.
And you felt a little overwhelmed.
- Yeah.
- But don't be too hard on yourself.
- So that was rough. That was like nonstop.
- Well, let me show you what's next.
- All right. - Let's go.
[upbeat music]
♪
So we're going to run.
Running means that we are taking all that equipment
from after they land, right?
The trolleys, the harnesses
that the guests were wearing back to the launch deck.
- Right.
- This is the most physically demanding position.
- Oh, okay. - So just do what I do, okay?
- Okay, I'll try.
♪
- Come on up.
Right here. - Okay.
- Carry the equipment on your arms.
- Okay.
♪
Oh, my Lord. - One more.
♪
- Then put it right here.
♪
- There we go.
I have never done a job this taxing on your body.
First, I have to pick up trolleys,
which are 25 pounds each.
Oh, that didn't go good.
Little caught here.
Once I did that, I thought, okay, I'm done.
But then Josephine said, let's go run upstairs
and go pick up harnesses.
- All right, so come on.
- Oh, I got to go back straight up here?
Whoo.
- You go all the way back to your shoulders.
Okay.
This job is grueling, demanding,
I'm in a lot of pain,
and overall something I don't want to do again.
- How are you doing? Are you okay?
- [groans]
That's brutal. - It's a lot of physical labor.
Like, it's a lot of muscle pain and stuff like that
if you don't take care of your body.
- Do a lot of people not make it?
- Yeah, a lot of people do quit because they can't handle it.
- Right.
- Usually, the people who leave,
they're like, "My legs hurt, and I can't do this.
"And I can't carry it. It's too much.
And it's not worth it." And then they leave.
So usually running is what makes people leave.
- Right.
I can see why people may not want to stay
and why people might understand real quickly
this is not the job for them.
So I need to come up with a solution
to make this job easier for people
because at the end of the day,
we can't afford the turnover we've been facing.
There's gotta be a better way of doing this.
What a day that was, whoo. - [laughs]
- You did really, really good for your first day.
- You were such a great teacher.
- Thank you so much.
- Did you start as a lead, or you moved up?
- It took me ten months to get lead,
and I think I'm one of two trans people
who's ever worked at SlotZilla.
I'm the first trans lead though,
which is pretty cool.
- Congratulations. - Representation.
- There you go. Congratulations.
As a trans woman and being on the team,
did you find the team was accepting?
- Sometimes they're not as understanding
as I want them to be.
I've been medically transitioning
since January of 2020
and socially transitioning since 2013 or 14.
- Wow.
- So the hardest days I've had here are
when I'm misgendered so many times by the guests
that it weighs on me,
and then I start thinking, like, I hate my body.
I hate this, I hate this. And I just spiral.
- Right.
- There've been days when I've cried in the break room
because of that, so it's hard.
But one of the things that I really want is a name tag
with my pronouns on them.
Like, just Josephine, she/her.
It's hard to explain to someone how much that means to me,
especially since I get misgendered all the time.
- It's hard for me to hear how tough it is for Josephine
to be misgendered sometimes
because I can't even imagine how much that hurts,
and an employee shouldn't have to go through that.
I really have to take a look and see what we can do.
Josephine, I wanted to thank you
for being such a good mentor.
I learned so much.
- It was really, really lovely meeting you, like truly.
- Same here. Well, thank you.
I appreciate it. All right.
I need to make sure that we're doing everything we can
to keep our zip-line operators happy,
and working on the ride this evening
has given me a lot of insight into changes
we can make to help reduce employee turnover.
This is our number one moneymaker
and our number one priority for me to fix.
[soft music]
♪
Going undercover has been one of the most intense challenges
of my whole life,
but it's also been an eye-opening experience.
I've learned things from my employees
that I never would have known about as CEO,
and it's time for me to get to work
solving the issues that I discovered.
♪
[dramatic music]
Our employees have been told they're meeting here
to help us with some research for the documentary.
- I trained this guy who was looking for a job.
- I'm about to reveal my true identity
to the team members I shadowed this week.
- I would love for him to be on my team.
- No one has any idea this is "Undercover Boss."
♪
[soft music]
♪
Hi Josephine. - Hey, Ken.
- You remember me? - I do.
- I'm not Ken. - Oh no.
- I'm Andrew Simon. - Oh.
- President and CEO of Fremont Street Experience,
and you are on "Undercover Boss."
- Shut up. [laughing]
- Wow.
announcer: Coming up...
- You serious?
announcer: The boss delivers life-changing news.
- Oh, my gosh.
- This is the most validating thing
anyone's ever done for me.
I am eternally grateful.
♪
[dramatic music]
- So, Josephine, I spent the last week undercover,
and I'll tell you what,
your job is the most physically demanding job
that I did all week.
- It's the most physically demanding position
at the job, for sure.
- So based on our conversations,
I want to do a couple of things.
We're going to invest $75,000
into figuring out a good pulley elevator/dumbwaiter system
to lower the zip line trolleys from the landing pad.
So you and the team won't have to carry them
down all those stairs.
So would a system like that be helpful--
- Yes. - To people in ride operations?
Would they appreciate it, you think?
- Yes, that would be extremely helpful.
Wow, thank you.
- I was so happy that you felt comfortable
to share your personal journey with me.
But one of the struggles was
that sometimes people didn't address you correctly.
- Misgender me, yeah.
When guests misgender me a lot, or they call me sir,
or say he, et cetera, it weighs on me
because I feel society just doesn't see me as I am.
They don't see me as a woman.
And it can be really heartbreaking.
- I may have a solution. - Okay.
- Why don't you take a look at this
and tell me what you think.
- Ahh, oh, my God!
It says "lead ride operations,
Josephine, she/her."
[upbeat music]
This is amazing.
This is the most validating thing
anyone's ever done for me.
- Well, we appreciate you.
The company is so lucky
to have somebody like you on the team.
There's one more thing I want to do for you.
I'm going to give you $20,000
to show how much we appreciate
and care about everything you do for Fremont Street.
- That's a lot. That's a lot.
♪
I am eternally grateful.
- My pleasure.
- I feel like my entire life just changed,
and...
♪
I can't even comprehend $20,000.
- Hey Ron. - Hi, Andrew.
- So Ron, you told me you and your team
don't always feel appreciated.
- We are the guys that do everything during the off hours
where it's not noticed as much.
So my guys sometimes feel like the executive offices
don't necessarily appreciate them.
- But we do appreciate you and your team.
And I want to see what we can do
to give you guys a fun night out on the town.
So I called my friends over at the Golden Knights,
and they're going to put together a VIP experience
for you and your team to go
to a Knights game later this year.
- That sounds like fun. It really does.
I've never been to a Knights game, and that'd be awesome.
Thank you.
- When we were on top of the canopy,
the job we were doing was picking up trash.
- Some of it just is
unfortunately being thrown out open windows.
- Yeah. Well, I have some good news.
I made a phone call to one of our board of directors
who has a hotel
that seems to be the one where the garbage gets thrown out of.
And as of today, they're starting to bolt
all those windows shut,
so garbage won't be thrown out there anymore.
- Wow, that would be very good. I appreciate that.
And my guys will, too.
- So, Ron, you're one of our longest-standing employees.
- Yeah, I've seen a lot of changes,
some good, some bad.
When I came back to work last May,
I came into a different role as an assistant manager,
and my pay was reduced because of that.
- What if I were to say,
because you've been so dedicated
and such a great employee,
we want to reward you with $20,000
to help you with that [indistinct]...
- Wow.
- And to give you that stability.
- You serious? - I'm serious.
- [sighs] It makes me feel good.
It makes you feel like you're giving me hope that,
you know, I am still valued,
and that's all I ever asked for.
And I thank you for it.
- I really appreciate everything you do.
- Thank you very much.
I haven't felt like anybody's taken, you know,
that kind of interest in what I do in quite a while.
And I'm very surprised and very elated.
♪
- Hi Emmie. - [laughing]
The first job you had me do
was scraping gum off the ground.
- Yes.
- I actually had a lot of fun doing it,
but I don't know how I'd feel
if I did that three hours a day.
- It's exhausting.
- You talked a little bit
about a gum machine.
- Yeah, that makes it so much easier.
You could do a half a block
within maybe an hour with that machine.
- On top of that, the bins we were using were leaking.
- Yes.
- Having done that job now,
it gives me a new appreciation of how frustrating
- Yes.
- That could be to pour the liquid into the bin,
And then you push the bin away,
and now you got to mop the floor.
- Right.
- So I want to give you $10,000 to get new equipment.
- Do you know how happy these guys are going to be?
- Yeah.
- You know, that makes me happy
because it makes our job so much better.
That's great. That's amazing.
- Where did you grow up again?
- Hawaii. It was wonderful.
I loved Hawaii. That's my home.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- When he told me about your husband,
it broke my heart.
- He has leukemia.
I found out about a few months ago.
- How would you feel if I paid $10,000
for you and Pernell
to go to Hawaii, have a week off with pay,
and have the trip of a lifetime to show him where you're from?
- Oh, my gosh.
Whoo!
[laughing]
Oh, my gosh. Thank you.
- There's one more thing I want to do for you.
I was really pissed, if I'm going to be frank,
to hear that your wages were capped.
- Yep.
- I want you to know,
having found this out,
I'm never going to let that happen again--
- Oh, my gosh. - At the company.
- It's great.
- And, Emmie, to show appreciation
for 20 years of service here,
I'm going to give you $2,000 for all 20 years
you've been at Fremont Street Experience
for a total of $40,000.
- Oh, my gosh.
Andrew. Oh, my God.
Oh, my God, you don't know how that's going to help.
♪
Andrew, thank you so much.
That has changed our lives. It's just changed our lives.
♪
- You're gonna make me cry watching you,
just to know that that makes such a difference.
- It does. Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- I have always wanted to take my husband to Hawaii.
With him being sick,
he's going to enjoy himself.
That means a lot to me to see my husband, Pernell, happy.
[soft music]
- I started out on this journey
to find out why people were leaving our company.
What I've learned this week is it's not always about money.
It's about feeling appreciated.
And I need to make sure that all our people
have the tools necessary to get their jobs done.
I'm going to go back to the office
and make sure we implement some changes
that is going to make Fremont Street Experience
a better place to work, keep employees from leaving,
and attract new people to joining the team.
♪
My job is to make Fremont Street Experience
the number one place to visit when you come to Nevada,
and thanks to going undercover,
I now know how to make it
the number one place to work, too.
♪
[upbeat music]
♪