Hooter’s Undercover Boss
The other night “Undercover Boss” highlighted the President and CEO, Coby Brooks, of the Hooters Restaurant chain. He went to several restaurant locations and tried his hand at entry-level jobs. He seemed to understand that working in a restaurant is very fast paced but he didn’t realize how demanding the jobs were. A manager of one of the restaurant wasn’t going to hire him because he was too slow – that’s too funny!
The most memorable moment happened when he was an Assistant Manager working with the manager Jimbo. Jimbo is your typical misogynist. He is a disgrace as a manager working with women. He didn’t fire Jimbo. He gave him one more chance to straighten up and be respectful of his employees. I wouldn’t have done that – he would have been gone in a New York minute!
He then worked as part of a marketing team to find out what us regular folks thought about Hooters. He was surprised that most women felt that being a Hooters’ girl was demeaning. He said that he would allow his two daughters to work for Hooters and couldn’t understand this. As a result, he promoted the two girls he worked with to do a positive marketing of the restaurant chain. We’ll see how far this goes.
The bright spot was the lady Manager. All the employees in her restaurant loved working with her. She was encouraging and understanding. Mr. Brooks learned a lot from her and gave her long vacation to anywhere she wanted to go with her family. He also put her in charge of policy making for managers in the company.
Mr. Brooks visited the plant where all the sauces where made. He was boo-hooing about how much his father was loved by all the workers there. However, when his father died and he became President and CEO, the morale of the workers in the plant was low. They didn’t know who he was and what type of boss he would be. Mr. Brooks said that he would make a better effort to frequently visit the plant and talk with the employees there. This part of the program seemed unbelievable to me.
You see I knew beforehand that the Hooter’s chain is reportedly up for sale. The chain is desperate for cash, as business has fizzled. Sales have dropped because of the economy. Hooters tied itself to the business-travel market in some ways, placing some of its 450 restaurants near convention centers and other business meeting sites. Businesses have curtailed business trips and Hooters took a hit.
No matter how much Mr. Brooks showed how concerned he was with employees and plant workers of Hooters, it seems as though he was just enjoying the privileges of being a CEO and President of Hooters. I don’t know why he was surprised about the perception of his Hooters’ girls, it has been there for a long time.
Maybe he will turn the company around or maybe he’ll just sell if off and walk away richer than before.
Until later,
Linda
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