And once again, Undercover Boss makes me cry.

Ticket on the Brent/Caite hate train, please. I will be so glad to see them go. Has there been a beauty queen on this show who has not been an entitled brat? I know there must be some perfectly lovely beauty contestants out there, but Caite is definitely not one of them. Maybe next week, we'll be lucky?

The police officers are definitely a surprise. It's tough to win three legs in a row. I'm still all about the cowboys, but I respect the cops racing ability. I have to give it up to dad and daughter, too. The duct tape auto repair job was badass. Dad just was not going to let that car beat him.

I have a strong suspicion that these particular ladies will not be the first all female winners of the race, no? The only reason they grabbed second was that so many other teams had navigation challenges.

Undercover Boss- I think that girl Danielle got a job at Southern California Edison and has been put in charge of answering all of my calls. She was heinous. I don't think I ever figured put what that company actually does? It wasn't exactly 7-11 or Hooters in terms of name recognition.

UB: They do internet commerce, distribution and shipping. So you buy something from mlb.com, right, the baseball people don`t actually do Ll that work, They just have that guy`s company do it for them, warehouse, take orders, man the phones. I enjoyed it because I did inventory control once upon a time. But again I felt like there were more individual and no procedural changes.
 
TAR: I was so relieved the cowboys made up both their delays. Also love that their bad day did not dampen their spirits. "Hey, people pay thousands of dollars to take a tour like this."
 
I am loving the detectives. "I can find cocaine up someone`s butt, I can find a bunch of grapes." And grid search was smart. I love that they`re methodical.
 
I also agree that Brent and Caite can go right freaking now. Although that glasses crash was a thing of beauty.

PR: I loved the winning looks so much! I need that dress. I could rock that dress. I loved the inspiration too and could totally see it as a modern day Billie Holiday. Plus they were so cohesive. I thought it was great they got a double win. I was really glad to see them work together so well.

TAR: I was so relieved the cowboys made up both their delays. Also love that their bad day did not dampen their spirits. "Hey, people pay thousands of dollars to take a tour like this."

I am loving the detectives. "I can find cocaine up someone`s butt, I can find a bunch of grapes." And grid search was smart. I love that they`re methodical.

I also agree that Brent and Caite can go right freaking now. Although that glasses crash was a thing of beauty.

All of this. And Jeff is extremely likeable, and it is a miracle Jordan can dress herself, but I still like her! Poor dumb Jordan. I also really like their attitude -- I mean, they've already won a ton of money for not doing much of anything, so this was just for fun and adventure.

Jeff & Jordan are dumb but good natured and Jeff is pretty freaking funny. brent and caite are nails on a chalkboard annoying. Can't wait to see them go!

But again I felt like there were more individual and no procedural changes.

I have a feeling that the show asks them to do that, so there are concrete and "heartwarming" things to air, but I bet the longer term things do happen.

One of the most interesting things to me is how the bosses realize how hard some of the "easy" job are; I can't imagine that doesn't translate to at least a change in attitude down the line.

Yeah, I think that's true. And the biggest takeaway is that there are *people* doing those jobs, not just functionaries. Like with the Waste Management one, where the CEO realized that the "oversight" he gave the supervisors over the garbage truck drivers was coming off more like stalking, with bonus fear of firing. It seemed like a good policy from behind his desk because it meant there was some sort of metrics, some accountability, but he hadn't ever thought about how it would feel to a person. But once he'd realized it, that would have to make a real directorial shift. I would like to see more empowerment tools, like workers getting a channel to suggest improvements up the chain.

The picking stuff was interesting to me and I wish they'd gone into more detail there. When we set up our new distribution center, I set up all the warehousing locs. We shifted from a product line based order to a completely random one because of some studies done that said that it increased accuracy without decreasing speed of picking. So, like, a product named NVJ-114B wasn't on the shelf next to a product named NVJ-114P, making it prone to pick errors.

But I always wondered if that failed to take into account how excellent long-term employees memorized locations and always knew exactly where to go to pick their order. Obviously for them it was easier (and thus faster) if they could go to the NVJ aisle and work it out from there. We tried to improve stuff like, how intuitively the racks were named and labeled, but I was never able to get a clear enough answer from the pickers, mostly because they knew I was responsible for the change.

The LA Times had an article in this morning's Calendar section about what happens to those "normal" people featured on UB after the show: The rewards of hanging with the "Undercover Boss"

It was interesting to see how all of these folks were pre-vetted to make sure they got some good stories for the masses. It also did my cynical little heart good to see that the bosses did wind up following through - at least on the individual aspects - on their show induced Aha! moments. (Apologies to Oprah for using her trademarked phrase. Eyes rolling until they fall out of my head) That Ukranian dude didn't just get a luxury vacation for some alone time with the wife. He is getting his own 7-11 franchise. What a country, indeed.

If I could, I would watch the first half of UB and then change before the CEO reveals himself. It is interesting seeing the bosses dealing with the "real work" but the selective rewards and minimal comeuppance bug. It is wonderful to donate money to a kids football league or contribute to someone's wedding, but these folks are just a small fraction of the people working their asses off for the company.