the economy is going through tough times many hardworking Americans blame wealthy CEOs out of touch with what's going on in their own companies but some bosses are willing to take Extreme Action to make their businesses better each week we follow the boss of a major corporation as they go undercover in their own company this week America's oldest fast food company White Castle with its own restaurants bakeries and food preparation plants it sells more than 550 million Burgers each year the boss is going to trade in his executive office and fast cars for a hairnet and
an apron he'll assume a new identity here's your name tag and pose as a new recruit you picked a bad ship for first night and he's nervous noticed you were a little bit late if you can and please try to be on time yes ma'am did it again I destroyed 4,800 buns we need help couple Miss is coming it's intimidating when you're not sure what you're supposed to be doing by working on the front line he'll find out what's really going on inside his company I come in every day and say well I'm not getting
fired today he will find the good been focusing on my culinary arts and school you made that M that is really good on the birs he will find the bad do they look like they're enjoying their jobs it's our fault all the way up to me and he'll discover the unsung heroes that make his company run talking to people that's the first thing you have a great evening I do a lot of that at home I got a son he's visually impaired how will his co-workers react when they find out he's really the boss I'm
Dave re I'm one of the owners of White Castle I never thought anything like this would happen to me no and how will it change their lives I've learned that things are not always as easy as they appear find out next on Undercover Boss headquartered in Columbus Ohio White Castle is America's oldest hamburger chain owned and operated for 88 years by one family but now a new generation is poised to take over the family business my name is David R I'm the oldest member of the fourth generation of the Ingram family and I'm an owner
of White Castle we have grown from one restaurant in 1921 to 421 restaurants 88 years later my great grandfather Billy Ingram founded this company based on the belief that people are the most important asset that we have we've taken something that was started 88 years ago and grown into this wonderful business and family Dave is very proud to be part of the White Castle family some of our early dates were at White Castle that that's where he loved to be and that's where we went what color roof do you think we're going to get whatever
color you want my wife Lynn she's my rock she keeps me grounded she keeps me going my boys I love them both to death make sure that this bracket's tightened up and that bracket's tightened up okay being part of the family that owns White Castle has enabled me to have a pretty nice lifestyle um I've got a lot of toys but if I would not have changed some of the habits of my life I probably wouldn't have been around very long in the last two years I've undergone this metamorphosis at my heaviest I was 271
I had high blood pressure high cholesterol I was a heart attack waiting to happen and I just one day woke up and decided it was time to make a change so we did ready go come on I've worked very hard in the last couple years to go from that me to the me I am now I think I've saved my own life push push push push die nice piece of cake it took a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication to succeed at it now I want to take that same hard work and
dedication and what I learned from that transformation to see what I can do to benefit this company and my family my great grandfather started this company with some core principles um Integrity honesty job security I want to go out undercover to make sure those core principles are still in place today because this isn't just a job to me this is my life life this is my family's life I would hope that my grandparents would say that they're proud of me of the man I've become um of the person I've become I I believe in my
heart there's somewhere looking down at me telling me thinking that I I'm I did it [Music] right right now I'm about to go into a family meeting and address the other owners of White Castle on the adventure that I'm about to partake in they have no idea that this is Comming you're probably all wondering about the cameras we all know as family members that when we go out into the restaurants into the plants we see the best of the best um recently I have made an important decision and I will be stepping down in my
role at the home office I'm going to go undercover and work the front lines and view every aspect of our operation see what's really happening Dave it's been uh 15 years since you worked in a restaurant I mean you think you can hack it it may take me a little while but then again I shouldn't look like I've been doing this every day my plan is that when we wrap up this undercover adventure to report back to you as owners and family members what I'd found and with that let's just adjourn all right I'm off
well bye honey good good job have [Music] fun when I go undercover my Alias is going to be David Allen a employee from a heavy equipment company that's been laid off and I'll be telling my co-workers that I'm being followed by a TV crew documenting what it's like to be at an entry-level position at White Castle while I'm undercover I'll be staying in Budget Motels hi there I'm checking in they're in line with somebody who's new to town and working in an entry-level position well wow maybe we leave the door open a little bit we'll
make it do it is what it is I'm really nervous about going undercover I didn't sleep well last night my biggest concern is being discovered people recognizing who I am my second biggest concern is probably making a fool out of myself we're here at a new restaurant we typically open 10 to 12 new restaurants a year it's it's a huge investment in both time and resources I'm here to make sure that this one's starting off the way we believe it should hi my name is Dave I'm here for my first day oh hi Dave uh
my name's Jenny hi Jenny it's nice to meet you I'm general manager uh step around and I'll give you your uniform we've been waiting on you okay when you open a new restaurant you have a lot of team members that come from the old location to the new location then you also bring new team members in I want to see how they interact and get to know each other and work together okay Dave here's your name tag um I'm going to introduce you to some of the new people this is Elizabeth Elizabeth this is Mike
that's Rosie Rose is training uh help me candy Lana Lana Donna this is Dave you're going to be training him for the rest of the for the rest of his shift okay take into consideration he's new and he's nervous I am nervous you got come back this way this right here is all of our condiments our onions and our cheese Paula you know you can CL in I didn't know Miss Donna can you run over and help him over there for me okay you going to stay here with him yep you go back with Donna
as soon as she gets done what I've seen so far on the shift first of all there's way too many people back there everybody's kind of given Direction and it it I think it's confusing you all need two cheeseburgers over there go ahead okay where do I go as a new I don't know what to do you can't comprehend all this in one day Donna can I take Dave with me for a while I'm going to show him how to do the front room and and that kind of stuff okay Dave here's how you do
this honey you spray it m one towel wipes the table got it so why did you decide to get into fast food I was kind of looking for something different so I thought everything I've heard about this company seems to be pretty good actually it is a good company but um when you open a new store upper management they bring in a a lot of new people a lot of borrowed in help that they're sort of standing around like tell me what to do how many people work here right now I've got probably 70 wow
right right I'm actually the general manager of the store but there's one two three for there's four managers standing back there right now so in that situation who do they know to live listen to they're trying to listen to everybody and that's why they're all like little lost lamb and if you'll notice while you're working back there with them they're not happy I mean look at them guys do they look like they're enjoying their jobs I mean now seriously it's obvious that the extra help is doing more harm than good sometimes I think where there
is a disconnect between the home office and the people in the field they know what they need you do a little better job of listening to what they're telling us uh I definitely want to fix this coming up Dave's spirit is crushed did it again among other things kept asking me what am I doing wrong what am I doing wrong well a lot and Dave connects with an employee like he never thought he would I do care what happens to [Music] me Dave rif is a boss undercover in his own company his shift continues with
Donna a White Castle employee of 23 years would you like the box one sure how do I have your little blue box there take it stick it in there like that mhm you too get to go on break can you help him get his lunch ready and help him ring it up as an employee meal I want some of those of those no fry stuff no no fry stuff gosh she's awesome wish I had his willpower I love food I had a had a heart attack 20 3 and almost died from eating food stress Donna
survived a heart attack a a major heart attack that most people don't survive um I can relate to that I I was at that point myself a couple years ago my husband gets disability I work I'm mainly the only one there he always tells me I don't know what I'll do if anything happens to you he loves me and I do want to live a long time and the way I go I know I'm not going to you know sounds to me like you just you got a lot of stress it's scary and I don't
want to die when I went into this I was kind of approaching it from a procedural mindset I really didn't expect to connect with some of his team members if we found out Donna had a heart attack two months from now I'd have a lot of guilt if I wouldn't have made the changes I made a couple years ago I don't know if I'd be here right now it's kind of uh very somber [Music] [Applause] [Music] thought many things at White Castle Run 24 hours including Dave's undercover Mission as night falls he's on to his
second shift in one [Music] day this is the bakery one of the things that my great-grandfather believed was serving a quality product you do a better job when you control as many variables as possible so we bake our own buns I have not had a great deal of time to spending the bakeries I'm not very familiar with them so I'm very much looking forward to getting in here and seeing what our Frontline people go through I'm Dave Dave Steve Martin I'll be your production lead person nice to meet you you ready to start as a
White Castle team member I'm I [Music] am you ready to get to work yes sir 921 lb of dough at a time you go through over 50,000 lb of flower a day wow this the bag CH these controls up here go all of the on this side okay got watch the bus come down the line pull your bag up you want to guide him in the box so make sure you don't get your hand in the Box gotcha and don't get your hand under that hoe cuz it'll come down and it'll take the right [Music]
over try it yeah ready bur the back chain on P these buns out give the garbage ah these are all messed up I'm sorry that's all right did it again what am I doing wrong actually your bag came off early okay got it that was very frustrating I I don't like messing things up there you go go go go go go why is that catching that top I don't like creating Havoc which is what I felt like I was doing there was there was product getting destroyed Steve looked like he was getting a little frustrated
with me as well I got it I got it got it got it all right got it let me get out of the way what am I doing wrong and then he kept asking me why what am I doing wrong what am I doing wrong well a lot shut it off hold them out Hold It Back [Music] ah what [Music] happened all right at least I finished on a high note it surprised me how angry I got at myself that I could not master the packing machine I destroyed 4,800 buns you probably smashed 20 25
cases but the good thing about that is all of our waste comes back here and barrels and a hog farmer comes and picks it up and he feeds it to his Hogs you fed the pigs really well this [Music] week I guess if there's one thing I can learn from this is that you know it's okay to make mistakes I just don't accept it well in myself and I always tried to make sure that I was doing things just one step above to make sure that I never disappointed my family I want my family to
be proud of me and I want everybody to be proud of this company today I'm going to be working a night shift at one of our restaurants most of our restaurants are open 24 hours a day and right now we're in the process of evaluating the profitability one of the things I really want to look at tonight is an operations manual which tells all of our employees a standard way of doing everything a lot of time and resources have been invested in the creation of that manual I want to go out and see if it's
being utilized to its [Music] fullest hi I'm Dave hi I'm Tina I'm going hand you your uniform if you want to just go in the restroom and change and when you're done come back here and I'll show you around I'll be right back all right then darling this is Dave sh manager me nice to meet you we're going to start you on the grill as a new employee they always start you on the grill okay okay what I want you to do is take one piece of cheese one pickle put it right on there like
that okay okay do all of those like that okay all right technically we drone it wrong but what's the difference yeah that's proper procedure okay cheese first cheese first then pickle we just do it easier because it's faster I know a lot of processes or procedures that we've created at the home office is intended for the benefit of our team members and the benefit of our customers it does a great job of ensuring that you get a uniform product every time and this this is just some of the shortcuts that we've done over the years
not the office and not the big bosses but us ourselves got bad hereit yes ma'am Dave comeing here okay you do not know who's watching you when you're in here doing bad habits bad habits can get you fired for something like that means not doing white hastle procedures they want the grill laid off a certain way they want fries this way don't over stuff your fryer food don't uh put more chicken rings in here be accountable they come in and actually catch you doing it they have the authority to fire you right then in there
does it make you nervous yeah I come in every day and say well am I getting fired today having been born into this family I've never really worried about my job my grand grandfather built this company on some core principles and core value and built it around people and job security was one of those things Tina should not be afraid for her job every day it's our fault as management all the way up to [Music] me coming up Dave tries his hand at the drive-thru chicken rngs that's the Oh I thought you said chicken wings
stop stop stop stop and later Dave fights a losing battle don't you're WR with the cheese we need help you go I'll trade you Dave R A Boss undercover in his own company has just found an employee who is afraid of losing her job because of strict corporate policies I come in every day and say am I getting fired today he continues is shift as the evening Rush descends on the castle tonight I I assure you from 10:00 to 3:00 in the morning it's non-stop White Castle being a 24-hour operation we're an oasis for our
late night customers we've actually had movies made about people taking that journey to get to that little steam grilled Burger which everybody loves so much Joe this is Dave hey how you doing you going to see a stampede of people just come parading down the block right and they only going to wonder what the Grill Master is doing that's you see you going to be chilling and Grilling they going to be looking at you for they food making me a little nervous first things you say is Hi welcome to White Castle can I take your
order or how can I take your order okay welcome to white quarter White Castle can I take your order please a daughter of chicken rings of what chicken rings that's the Oh I thought you said chicken cheese cheese only cheese only yes sir one cheeseburger who's next two three cheeseburgers uh okay soon as I find it cheese on those they come with cheese they're double cheese oh I cheese on the chicken sandwich pardon with what stop stop stop stop you picked a bad shift for first night seven cheesburger a large black I couldn't hear that
working a night shift you really have to be the king of multitasking CU you're taking orders making drinks handing out food collecting money no AI no pickles is that okay all right that's no problem thank you would you like eating the drink with that is that all please pull around this is like this is White Castles people expect the the friendly tone and all that so you don't have to be all formal with it just be polite with like check this out okay so you got a sa of friiz of five piece cheese stick and
six cheeseburgers PL yes you need anything to drink with that yeah that'll be it all right it's going to be $104 all right thank you take that straws in the bag there here you go y have a nice evening you have a great evening take it easy man okay they got a credit card okay use the machine right here you select your payment option first then swipe your car matter of fact I'll handle that for you all right now see me understanding that I'm here for them they so far away from the I reach out
and swipe for him because I just want him to be comfortable okay Joe just makes you want to do more you know I watched him work the drive-thru and he just makes it look so effortless and I was getting so frazzled over there you have a great evening you always make sure have a nice day great evening it's people like Joe that I think epitomize what my great-grandfather was talking about all right what you did on the drive-thru there's no way I can do that it take a special type of person to handle drive-thru I
was getting flustered just with one order well talking to people that's the first thing you know I do a lot of that at home I got a son he's visually impaired so all I do is talk to him 24/7 if he was standing right here I'll have to paint this whole White Castle in a v a verbal picture I've met people that would be in your situation would be down I depend on this job to take care of my family and stuff that's why I work so hard at it the highlight of my whole experience
so far has been Joe he's just got this attitude that just pulls you up to his level we got to do something to help this young man fully utilize his skills we all need to try to be more like [Music] Joe as an owner and a family member I've always known about the opportunities available to me we have a lot of young people with extraordinary abilities and I want to make sure we're doing everything we can do to keep them from falling through the cracks hi I'm Dave I'm here for my first day nice to
meet you Dave name is Jose hey Jose it's nice to meet you we need to stock up on everything this is where the Buns go this is where the onion rings go the chicken rings and the chicken this is where the meat goes just so you know we going to probably get a lot of meat so is that all we're getting no I now we got the fries cheese sticks meat more chicken rings all [Music] right we'll just take out the trash right now okay so what made you decide uh you wanted to come and
work here uh was looking for a job about you what do you like to do you're not working well I've been focusing on my culinary arts and school so that's when I want to be I want to grow up to be a chef and Che yes just grab a loh with the onions and just fill it up until just about right there is mine okay got it so when you say you want to be a chef I mean like gourmet meals typ owning my own restaurant kind of things those opportunities aren't here well they aren't
but I just want to do this on my own you know make my own start um I brought my salsa and some chips I don't know if you want some but I'm hungry so go for try it try it sit down over [Music] here all right you made that yes I did at my house I just made it yesterday so you all right give me a shot it's spicy it's spicy just so you know [Music] spicy it's kind of like a little secret so that's really good on the burgers that is really good on the
burgers that's awesome that's good stuff thank you your parents did they support your cooking or they don't support you I mean um they tell me you know this is not what you want this is just something that you're just doing for the heck of it but my mind's so focused on what I'm doing right now that I don't really see myself changing that if my parents aren't going to help me then I'm doing this on my own and that's pretty much it you're very driven you're very focused that's very rare in somebody your [Music] age
my experience is almost over and it was very stressful trying to live the undercover life that I created the hours were stressful lack of sleep is is really wearing on me right now I've gone beyond tired I'm kind of numb [Music] we're at the Frozen hamburger division it's a way of getting our product into the hands of our customers that don't live in the regions where we operate our restaurants my great-grandfather Billy believed that happy employees made for happy customers well principal or that belief happy employees should also be productive employees how you doing I'm
Dave nice to meet you I'm here reporting for work this is your time card you will clock in you want to put a hair net on all your hair must be covered and you must let wear a apron you want to be here and you want to clock in 5 minutes before 5 minutes before start of the ship I noticed you were a little bit late so if you can please try to be on time yes [Music] ma'am right now we're running 17,000 Burgers an hour between two shifts that's Vicki she's going to be showing
you the wrapper what are we doing you just slide two in every other slot slide two burgers in if you get a single you just let it go down the belt okay you want to give it a try yeah every other one right yeah oh lost that one no ah it's pretty rough this is just an accident waiting to [Music] happen water on the Belt pop messed them up damn it got a jam up over here Gage the rapper was uh quite challenging for me you got a lot happening all around you and you got
a lot coming at you all at once I got no business over here oh all right got it now we're getting somewhere maybe that's it you did pretty good for your first 10 minutes that seemed like it was an hour need you two go take a little break for a little bit how long a break do we get 15 minutes what's the general morale like is it pretty good could it be better this is the kind of place I want to come and work and put in 20 years or whatever I got left to work
and when I first started here 8 years ago things just ran a lot smoother the quality of the product was a lot higher the supervisors are in the break room a lot they don't help out and people picking up the slacker getting more aggravated every day okay Vicki doesn't seem to be very happy as the oldest member of the fourth generation and an owner it was difficult for me to take that step back and just listen and and not want to try to address some of her concerns and issues right away after you ma'am thank
you hi Dad you get to learn something else new now this is Bonita right here she's going to be showing you cheese inspection met I'm Dave nice meet you all right what am I doing here and now you're watch how big he does just straightening the cheese in the middle of the burger like that yep I'm not keeping up very well here those are a mess and I'm not doing a very good job two right there I messed up I got it we're getting there oh no something's wrong with the cheese oh they're a mess
now oh wow I'm having a heck of a time keeping up he let me get in front of you you go I'll trade you we need help I I did notice when the line was starting to back up Brenda is one who's not readily available to jump in and help out I missed couple Miss is [Music] coming we're all back to normal all right so we're kind of self-reliant huh pretty much okay it's good to know supervisors should know it's part of their responsibility to pitch in when their team members need help that's one of
the things that we were missing here with Brenda she recently got promoted to supervision she needs to have a better understanding that there's times when she's going to have to jump in and pitch in [Music] I had many challenges on this Odyssey when I started this journey one of my goals was to do right by my great-grandfather my grandfather in the beginning I was pretty defensive and always kind of looking for the positive side of things we're not a perfect company I know this is the kind of information that they would want I really got
to believe that right now they're looking down and they're very pleased with what I've just done coming up Dave takes back the corporate reins and summons his co-workers to home office oh I'm hoping not to get fired he'll shock his co-workers and reveal his true identity I'm Dave re I'm one of the owners of White [Music] Castle after spending a week undercover I'm about to go back and report to my family members everything I found the good and the bad we're not a perfect company anybody who believes that they are it's their loss well thank
you uh for joining me there were a couple things that that frustrated me there was an instance where I actually got kind of angry um with what I found I was working in a restaurant and we had a general manager who was training me I come in every day and say well I'm I getting fired today it bother me a lot to see one of our team members afraid of losing her job over procedural issues I know it would bother Billy it would bother Edgar all of us one of the things that we had talked
about was not being overstaffed not being understaffed at Hamilton there were probably a few too many it's a new store it's only been open for less than 30 days I mean look at them guys do they look like they're enjoying their jobs I mean now seriously from our team members perspective you have multiple people telling them what to do they weren't sure who to follow we've got to take what what we've learned from this and figure out what we need to do just to make us a better stronger company now it's time for me to
reveal my true identity to each person I've worked with for the past week they have no idea why they're coming I've tossed and I turned and I couldn't sleep good last night so just wondering what's going to happen oh I'm hoping not to get fired [Music] recognize me yeah I do just not in the suit and tie I'm Dave re I'm one of the owners of White Castle am I being punked or something I'm actually the great grandson of our founder Billy INR oh Lord you got me I did for the past week I've been
working undercover trying to get some realistic Insight of what goes on in our operations on a daily basis what you and our other team members work through live with and what it's like to be in your shoes Donna there's a lot of people that depend on you you're very important to a lot of people I wouldn't have believe that it's true because of our chance to talk no fry stuff no no fry stuff go she's awesome wish I had his willpower that gave me an idea and what we're working on right now is putting a
wellness program in place for the regions to help you and all of our team members that want to be healthy it's because of you we're going to make strides in becoming a healthier better company I'm glad there's people out like you out in this world I really am I'm going to call you I'm going to check on you but it's got to be up to you you're got to keep it going and I know you can do it I want a hug White Castles has went Far and Beyond to show me that they care you
know Jose working with you inspired me your drive and your passion for what you do was very uplifting you don't see that a lot in people your age I believe in you I think you've got a lot to offer one of the things I want to do to try to help you I want to introduce you to our culinary team here at White [Music] Castle the other piece of the puzzle that I would like to do for you is I want to provide you a $5,000 scholarship to the College of your choice because I believe
in you and my castle believes in you [Music] thank you you're very welcome thank you thanks for being part of our team thank you I couldn't believe that Dave was the owner of White Castle I never thought anything like this would happen to me know I am feeling very nervous right now because I'm getting ready to meet with Brenda and Vicky I am going to tell them from my observations there's some room for improvement Brenda Vicky my name is not Dave Allen my real name is Dave re and I'm one of the owners of white
cat and kind of what I will hope to accomplish here today is get you guys working as a team Vicki from your perspective what is the the ideal supervisor like a supervisor that's on the floor working and helping out not someone who's going to stand at a desk or sit in a break room I do help out a lot once in a while we might get a moment to just stay at the desk and rest for a little bit and I want them to help out too not depend on the supervisor to do it all
what I'm asking you for is this you two are going to work together on your end to start building teamwork the other part of this is making sure to listen to what Vicki's telling you okay I'm going to follow up here I'm going to check in I'm going to come back down and revisit you guys you guys are going to work together right yes I will I'll be more than glad to I will do that I do feel better that they finally listened to our problems that they've heard through home office and I know me
and Brenda we can put in an effort to try to do what he wants Joe people like you are why we are so successful you epitomize what we want as part of our extended family and what I would like to do is I want to create a program called leaders for tomorrow and I would like to ask you to help us write the curriculum I would also like for you to be part of the first class of that program what do you think I'm honor [Music] um I'm I'm so touched like I'm trying to get
myself together I can't believe this I would love to do it I'm not done the other thing we want to do Joe is we want to give you $5,000 towards needs for your [Music] son I just never thought when I started at White Castle that there would be these type of opportunities out there for me this will helped me do a lot of things for my family that I didn't think was possible just working at White Castle you know Joe don't lose that Focus man thank you thank you hey Jordan buddy we going to the
toy store my C is hooking you [Music] up right now I'm about to go out and address the entire company and let them know what I've just done I'm starting to feel pretty good about it I'd like to introduce one of our family members his name is Dave r than you my name is Dave R and I have just spent the past week undercover at White Castle because when we as family members go out in the operations we see the best of the best what I wanted to know is what's life really like what do
our team members experience on a day-to-day basis had some really amazing experiences and I met some really inspirational people and i' like to share some of those with you right now and they only going to wonder what the Grill Master is doing that's you welcome to white quarter White Castle can I take your order please you made that yes I did that's awesome that's good stuff thank you D did it again okay ah you fed the pigs really well 88 years ago my great-grandfather founded this company on the belief that happy team members make for
happy customers that still holds true today this experience has taught me it's very important to make sure we have a lot of balance in our lives work life and treat everybody with respect and if we do that I'm very confident that we're going to be around for at least another 80 8 years [Music] [Applause] thanks I'm just glad I work for a company that's willing to go through so much to make the company better it makes me feel secure in my job and make me feel good about what I do I was surprised and excited
and this is probably the best day of my life this journey I've gone on has made me realize that we've got some things to work on as a boss I've learned it's easy for me to sit behind my desk and make decisions based on numbers now every time I look at those numbers I'm going to put a face to them and try to think about how the decisions I make will impact those [Music] faces [Music] [Applause] [Music] stay tuned for scenes from our next episode
