My Own Undercover Boss!

Recently, I was looking forward to seeing a new television show: Undercover Boss. I know it was probably heavily edited and sappy, but the premise was appealing -- an executive goes undercover to work with the hourly employees of the company.

I missed the show, but I had my own "Undercover Boss" experience. A new customer has been having some problems and it required the coordination of Sales (me), Manufacturing, Quality, Transportation and Customer Service to try to resolve the situation.

After weeks of making a little headway and having a bigger setback, I felt as if I had exhausted all of my skills and resources trying to fix the many problems that cropped up. I had nothing else to throw at the situation. I told my boss I needed him to get into the trenches and manage a specific situation. To his, credit, he immediately stepped in.

He had no idea it would, literally, consume 2 days. He took on the responsibility of exchanging phone calls and emails, waiting for data, coordinating resources, etc. You get the idea. All this went on while I just observed. After all was said and done, he said: Before, I knew what you went through, now I really know.

Now, unlike the show, my situation didn't involve secrecy, but my boss did have to get involved in the day-to-day details of my work. It felt good to be validated and have my hard work acknowledged.

A raise would be good, too.