Sunday night after the Super Bowl, CBS aired a new show titled Undercover Boss. The concept is a high level executive goes undercover to experience the day to day jobs in their company. I would not consider myself an avid tv watcher, but I was intrigued by the concept and I could not find the remote, so I watched.
The first episode featured President and CEO of Waste Management Corp, Larry O’Donnell, where he spent time working in a recycling center, cleaning port-a-potties, picking up trash in a dump, and several other positions that changed his view of corporate policies. Where I was most impressed with Mr. O’Donnell was not the fact he did these jobs, but he learned from them. Equipped with these experiences, Larry brought them back to the headquarters and made changes that will affect the lives and families of those individuals in the Waste Management Corporation.
I could not help but think, what if universities did this? Imagine your president spending a few days as a Hall Director, Greek Life coordinator, or Academic Advisor. And there are those positions we all tend to ignore in the food service or cleaning areas. If the president of your campus had your job for a week, what would they discover?
