Undercover Boss with Herschend's Manby reviewed by EW

Disney was just added for April 18th episode.

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If they wanted to show people who give 150% for their jobs they could do Holiday World, but I don't think the Kochs could go undercover in their park. Not only would the employees recognize them right away but also many of the guests!

That was a decent show, and that is a great company. How many employees do they have to go through to find 4 good 'hardships'?

For the record, the Kochs work very hard,, but not any harder than other park owners. They can't, and don't do it all. All owners are surrounded by an exceptional management team.

No offense to HW, they were very friendly for sure, but in my opinion, Dollywood has something extra. The people aren't only friendly, but engage the guests. People at HW were definitely friendly and tops for what they do, but every time I've been to DW, the employees go out of their way to just talk to you and make your day have fun.

Except the Dizzy Disk woman.

Good show. I liked the kid's RCT design. How long before we see it in the park?

I had to chuckle at the RCT reference. How many times have people on this and other sites said you can't run a park like you do on RCT? Here some "random" guy gets to show his coaster design to the boss. I realize that running a park and designing a coaster are two different things but I find it funny that the RCT guy will likely go further with his career in amusement parks than any of us.

Agent Johnson said:
That was a decent show, and that is a great company. How many employees do they have to go through to find 4 good 'hardships'?

For the record, the Kochs work very hard,, but not any harder than other park owners. They can't, and don't do it all. All owners are surrounded by an exceptional management team.

I have to take you task on this one

Other than this show how many CEO's pick up trash in their park ?

I know Will does I watched him do it.

I was sitting down and the wall and the trash can had cups on them

Did he get one the radio or go find someone to clean it. Nope he picked up the area himself.It shows they are not asking any employee's to do something they will not do themselves.

Kevin38

If that's the metric, then apparently Kinzel is a top-notch CEO too, because I've seen him do this as well.

And, we all know how well Kinzel has been doing of late.

Every park owner I know will pick up trash. Our owners are relentless about it. Its Will's job to set the example. And by the way, its all manager's duties to pick up trash.

If one of the owners see us walk by trash, we hear about it, either email, radio, or a verbal shout out. If Disney can clean up after all those guests, so can we.

I have to agree. Every park's higher ups pick up trash. Even Six Flags has taken to giving their people those pinchy pick-up grabber things. Not a good litmus.

Hey kpjb, tell RH I have a mint Super Round Up for the Top Spin spot.

I thought the show was good.

I would have liked to see him load and unload a coaster all day though.

I must say, I was at SFoG this past week and saw at least five or six "upper-ranked" salary people out there cleaning up trash together. The park was spotless (not just because of them, but example).

I also have seen MANY CF exec's doing this, along with Holiday World, Dollywood, etc...

I agree with Tokwardo as well, I think the "hospitality" at Dollywood is MILES over Holiday World. HW is not bad, no, but something special about Dollywood and their employee's.

Does anybody think Joel Manby looks like a cross between George Clooney and Antonio Banderas? He sounds exactly like George Clooney too.

I was thinking the same thing TerraCoaster as far as the George Clooney look. It seems some of the ladies on that ferry boat liked his looks.

This was the first episode of Undercover Boss where the CEO didn't run into any problem employees or major issues. I never realized Herschend had so many different forms of entertainment properties.

Chitown said:
This was the first episode of Undercover Boss where the CEO didn't run into any problem employees or major issues. I never realized Herschend had so many different forms of entertainment properties.

This is why I call BS on this episode.. I am sorry, but I have been in this business for over 15 years, at multiple parks, and every park has a fair share of "under achievers" working for them. 90% of theme park jobs are low wage, and low skill positions. There is no way that the 4 workers highlighted in the HFE episode are respresentative of their entire work force. No way. Yes, as a group, HFE proerties may be very "friendly", but I believe that there was some "PR" management in this episode that shined a very positive light on HFE. Probably more than they deserve. Yes they are a great company, and yes they run some of the best properties in the industry, but come on....how good can a $8-$9 an hour worker be???

If your $8-9 worker sucks, perhaps you're hiring the wrong ones or they're being managed by the wrong people.

Hanging n' Banging said:

but come on....how good can a $8-$9 an hour worker be???

Just about ALL of the Cast Members at the Walt Disney World Resort (including myself) work for sub-$10. I personally have been with Disney for about 3 years now and only make about $9.

I would not want it any other way. it filters out who really wants to be there.

And that's why I never went to work at Disney. I love Disney, I wanted to work there after college. I also didn't want to make the 'then $7/hr' rate of pay. My choice.

I know several ex employees who made the jump to Orlando for Disney/Universal, and they love it, but have to work 60/hr a week to 'get by'. I am too old now to 'get by'. Well, not that old, but after 18 seasons, I am NOT going to load Space Mountain trains for $8/hr.

Yes, there are not many good $8 or $9/hr employees. Very few in the seasonal parks see it more than a job with a lot of gung-ho managers directing a mass traffic of decisions. But, for the handful that love this business, thats where you build your best management team.

Its a different era today, then the early 90's when I 'seasoned'. I was surrounded by many kids who loved Cedar Point, and also many more who saw it as a giant social outing, the 'in' crowd. When I interned at Conneaut Lake Park, there where only tourism-type interns there, and then workers needing the money in a semi-depressed market. Not much of a 'in' crowd, but always dedicated.

Nowadays, there are way more chain restaurants, shopping areas, they parks fight for staff with air-conditioned cashier jobs at outlet malls, etc. Its a tough sell to share your vision of the mission of amusement parks with family fun and enthusiasm. And even more recently, with the influx of displaced workers seeking any job available for the short term, its more of a challenge to build a team.