Insights from Undercover Boss: White Castle

The economy is going through tough times. Many hard-working 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 shift for a first night. And he's nervous. We're a little bit late. If you can, please try to be on time. Yes, ma'am. I did it again! I destroyed 4,800 buttons. We need help! A couple misses 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. I've been focusing on my culinary arts and school. You made that? Mmm, that is really good on a murders. 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 Reif. 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 Reif. 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'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. I've got a lot of toys. But if I would not have changed some of the habits in 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. Time. Ah! 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, integrity, honesty, job security. I want to go out undercover to make sure that those core principles are still in place today. Because this isn't just a job to me, this is my 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. Of the person I've become. I believe in my heart. There's someone looking down at me, telling me, thinking that I did it 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 coming. 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. Recently, I've made an important decision. And I will be stepping down in my role at the home office. We're going to go undercover and work the front lines and view every aspect of our operation. See what's really happening. David, it's been 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. Bye, honey. Be good. Have fun. Have fun. When I go undercover, my alias is going to be David Allen, an 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. Wow. Maybe leave the door open a little bit. We'll make it do it. 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 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's Dave. I'm here for my first day. Oh, hi Dave. My name's Jen. Hi, Jenny. Hi, Jenny. It's nice to meet you. I'm Jenna Wanniger. 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. I'm going to introduce you to some of the new people. This is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is Dave. This is Mike. That's Rosie. Hi, Rosie. Rose is training. Help me, Candy. Luana. Luana. Luana. Admon. Admon. Donna, this is Dave. You're gonna be training him for the rest of the- How you doing? Not too bad. For the rest of his shift, okay? Taking into consideration he's new. And he's nervous. I am nervous. This way, this right here is all of our condiments, our onions and our cheese. Paula, you know you can clock in. I didn't know. Miss Donna, can you run over and help him over there for me? Okay, you're gonna 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 I think it's confusing. You all need two cheeseburgers over there? Go ahead. Okay. Where do I go? As a new employee, I don't know what to do. Okay. I can't comprehend all this in one day. Donna, can I take Dave with me for a while? Sure. I'm going to show him how to do the front room and that kind of stuff. Okay, Dave, here's how you do this, honey. You spray it. 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 when you open a new store, upper management, they bring in a lot of new people, a lot of borrowed in help. 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, four. There's four managers standing back there right now. So in that situation, who do they know to listen to? They're trying to listen to everybody, and that's why they're all like the lost lamb. And if you'll notice while you're working back there with them, they're not happy. Right. 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 when 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. I definitely want to fix this. Coming up, Dave's spirit is crushed. I 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 me. Dave Rife 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 do it? Maybe a little blue box there, take it, stick it in there. Like that? Mm-hm, you too gets to go on break. Can you help him get his lunch ready and help him ring it up as an employee meal? Almost some of the- of those. No fry stuff? No fry stuff. Gosh, she's awesome. I wish I had his willpower. I love food. I had a heart attack in 2003 and almost died from eating food. Stress, anxiety, Donna survived a heart attack, a major heart attack that most people don't survive. I can relate to that. 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. God. 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 a very somber 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 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 spend in 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 am. You ready to get to work? Yes, sir. This is a bag check. These controls up here control all of this. Hold on this side, okay? Once the bugs come down the line, pull your bag up. You want to guide them in the box. So make sure you don't get your hand in the box. Gotcha. And don't get your hand under that hose, because it'll come down and it'll take the skin right off the box. Try it? Yeah! Ready? Get back in the boat! Put your bag chains on. Pull these buns out. These are all messed up. I'm sorry. It's alright. I did it again! What am I doing wrong? Your bag came off early. Okay, got it. That was very frustrating. I don't like messing things up. There you go. Why is that catching that top? I don't like creating havoc, which is what I felt like I was doing. There was product getting destroyed. Steve looked like he was getting a little frustrated with me as well. I got it. I got it. All right, God, let me get out of the way. What am I doing wrong? And then he kept asking me, what am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong? Well, a lot. Stop. Shut it off. Hold it back. Alright, at least I finished on a high note. It surprised me how angry I got. myself that I could not master the packing machine. I destroyed 4,800 buns. You probably smashed 20 to 25 cases. But the good thing about that is all of our waste comes back here in barrels and a hog farmer comes and picks it up and he feeds it to his hogs. You fed the pigs really well this 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 into the creation of that manual. I want to go out and see if it's being utilized to its fullest. Hi, I'm Dave. Hi, I'm Tina. Come on, hand you your uniform. If you wanna 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. Darlene, this is Dave, he's my employee. Hi Darlene, I'm Dave. She's the shift manager. Nice to meet you. We're gonna start you on the grill, as the 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. Alright, technically we're doing it wrong, but... What's the difference? That's proper procedure. Okay. Cheese first. Cheese first, then pickle. Yeah. We just do it easier because it's faster. Cheese first. 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 is just some of the shortcuts that we've done over the years. Not the office and not the the big bosses, but us ourselves. We've got bad habits. Yes, ma'am. Dave, come in 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 castle procedures. They want the grill laid off a certain way. They want fries this way. Don't overdo it. overstuff your fryer food. Don't 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 and there. Does it make you nervous? Yeah. I come in every day and say, well, I'm going to get fired to 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 build 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 me. Coming up, Dave tries his hand at the drive-thru. Chicken wings. That's these. Oh, I thought you said chicken wings. Stop, stop, stop, stop. And later, Dave fights a losing battle. Tell him you're on with the cheese. We need help. Here you go. I'll trade you. Dave Reif, 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 his shift as the evening rush descends on the castle. Tonight, I assure you from 10 o'clock to 3 o'clock in the morning, it's nonstop. 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. A little steam grilled burger, which everybody loves so much. Joe, this is Dave. Hey, how you doing? You're going to see a stampede of people just come parading down the block, right? And they're only going to wonder what the grill master is doing. That's you, see? You're going to be chilling and grilling. They're going to be looking at you for their food. Making me a little nervous. First thing you say is, hi, welcome to White Castle. Can I take your order? Or, hi, can I take your order? Okay. All right. Welcome to White Castle, can I take your order please? I'm ordering chicken wings. Order what? Chicken wings. That's the- I thought you said chicken wings. Chicken wings. Cheese only. White cheeseburgers. Who's next? Two, three cheeseburgers. Okay, as soon as I find it. Cheese on those? They've got the cheeseburger combo. Oh. I need cheese on my chicken sandwiches. Pardon? With what? Stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop. You picked a bad ship for first night. Yay! I couldn't hear that. Working a night shift, you really have to be the king of multitasking because you're taking orders, making drinks, handing out food, collecting money. No, I just don't think so. Is that okay? All right, that's no problem. Thank you. Would you like anything to drink with that? Is that all? Please pull around. This is like, this is like This is White Castle. People expect the friendly tone and all that. So you don't have to be all formal with it. Just be polite with it. Like, check this out. Okay, so you got a sack of fries, a five-piece cheese stick, and six cheeseburgers playing? Yep. You need anything to drink with that? Yeah, that'll be it. All right, it's going to be $10.43. Perfect. Take that. Straws in the bag. There you go. Y'all 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 card. Perfect. 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. 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 could do that. It takes 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'd have to paint this whole White Castle in a verbal picture. I've met people that would be in your situation and would be down. I depend on this job to take care of my family and stuff. That's why I worked so hard. My whole experience so far has been Joe. He's just got this attitude that just pulls you up to his level. We've got to do something to help this young man fully utilize his skills. We all need to try to be more like 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. My name's 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. You're gonna probably get a lot of meat. So is that all we're getting? No. Now we got the fries, cheese sticks, meat, more chicken rings. Alright. We'll just take out the trash right now, okay? So what made you decide you wanted to come and work here? I was looking for a job. Bob, about you, what do you like to do when you're not working? Well, I've been focusing on my culinary arts and school. So that's what I want to be. I want to grow up to be a chef. A chef? Yes. Just grab a ladle with the onions and just fill it up until just about right there is fine, okay? Got it. So when you say you want to be a chef, I mean... Like gourmet meals? Like owning my own restaurant kind of things. Those opportunities aren't here? Well, they are, but I just want to do this on my own. You know, make my own start. I brought my salsa and some chips. I don't know if you want some, but I'm hungry, so go for it. Want to try it? Try it. Sit down over here. All right. You made that? Yes, I did at my house. I just made it yesterday, so here you go. All right. Give me a shot. It's spicy. It's spicy, just so you know. I like spicy. It's kind of like a little secret. 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 and 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 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 really wearing on me right now. I've gone beyond tired. I'm kind of numb. It's a 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, principle or that belief, happy employees should also be... 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 hairnet on. Yes, ma'am. Your hair must be covered. You must wear an apron. You want to be here and you want to clock in five minutes before. Five minutes before start of the shift. I noticed you were a little bit late. So if you can, please try to be on time. Yes, ma'am. 17,000 burgers an hour between two shifts. That's Vicky, she's gonna 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 wanna give it a try? Yeah, every other one, right? Yeah. Oh, lost that one. No. It's pretty rough. This is just an accident waiting to happen. Messed them up. Damn it, a jam up over here. Garbage. The wrapper was quite challenging for me. You got a lot happening all around you and you got a lot coming at you all at once. Business over here. We're getting somewhere maybe. That's it. You did pretty good for the first 10 minutes. That seemed like it was an hour. You need you to 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. When I first started here eight 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 slack are getting that 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 not want to try to Address some of her concerns and issues right away. After you, ma'am. Thank you. I have to get to learn something else new now. This is Benita right here. She's gonna be showing you cheese inspection. Hi Benita, how you doing? I'm Dave, nice to meet you. This is Dave. All right, what am I doing here? Hey now, watch how Vic does. He's straightening the cheese in the middle of the barbecue. 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. Okay, I got it. We're getting there. Don't drop the cheese. I'm keeping up. Here, let me trade you. 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. A couple misses coming. 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're 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. I had many challenges on this odyssey. When I started this journey, one of my goals was to do right by my great-grandfather and 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 Reif. I'm one of the owners of White Castle. After spending a week undercover, I'm about to go back and report to my family members everything I've 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 all for joining me. There were a couple things that frustrated me. There was an instance where I actually got kind of angry 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, am I getting fired today? It bothered 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 we've got 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 i'm hoping not to get fired so Recognize me? Yeah, I do. Just not in the suit and tie. I'm Dave Rife. 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 Inger. 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 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 believed that. It's true. Because of our chance to talk. No fry stuff? No fry stuff. Gosh, she's awesome. I wish I had- his willpower. That gave me an idea. And what we'll work 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 and become... becoming a healthier, better company. I'm glad there's people 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 going to keep it going, and I know you can do it. I want a hug. White Castle 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 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 White Castle believes in you. 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, you 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 that there's some room for improvement. Brenda? Vicky? My name is not Dave Allen. My real name is Dave Reif, and I'm one of the owners of White Castle. 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 ideal supervisor like? A supervisor that's on the floor working and helping people. 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 stand 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 Vickie's time. 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 the 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 honored. I'm honored. I'm so touched, like, I'm trying to get myself together. I can't believe this. I would love to do it. The other thing we want to do, Joe, is we want to give you $5,000 towards needs for your son. I just never thought... When I started at White Castle, there would be these type of opportunities out there for me. This has 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're going to the toy store. White Castle is hooking you up. Right now I'm about to go out and address I'll bless 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's Dave Reich. My name is Dave Reif 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 want to know is what's life really like? What do our team members experience on a day-to-day basis? I had some really amazing experiences, and I met some really inspirational people. And I'd like to share some of those with you right now. And they're only going to wonder what the grill master is doing. That's you. Welcome to White Castle. Can I take your order, please? You made that? Yes, I did. That's awesome. That's good stuff. Thank you. I did it again. Okay. He 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 88 years. 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 faces. Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.

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 shift for a first night. And he's nervous. We're a little bit late. If you can, please try to be on time. Yes, ma'am.

I did it again! I destroyed 4,800 buttons. We need help!

A couple misses 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. I've been focusing on my culinary arts and school. You made that?

Mmm, that is really good on a murders. 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 Reif. 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 Reif.

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'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. I've got a lot of toys. But if I would not have changed some of the habits in 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. Time. Ah!

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, integrity, honesty, job security. I want to go out undercover to make sure that those core principles are still in place today.

Because this isn't just a job to me, this is my 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.

Of the person I've become. I believe in my heart. There's someone looking down at me, telling me, thinking that I did it 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 coming. 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. Recently, I've made an important decision.

And I will be stepping down in my role at the home office. We're going to go undercover and work the front lines and view every aspect of our operation. See what's really happening.

David, it's been 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.

Bye, honey. Be good. Have fun. Have fun.

When I go undercover, my alias is going to be David Allen, an 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.

Wow. Maybe leave the door open a little bit. We'll make it do it.

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 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's Dave. I'm here for my first day.

Oh, hi Dave. My name's Jen. Hi, Jenny.

Hi, Jenny. It's nice to meet you. I'm Jenna Wanniger.

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.

I'm going to introduce you to some of the new people. This is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is Dave. This is Mike. That's Rosie.

Hi, Rosie. Rose is training. Help me, Candy.

Luana. Luana. Luana.

Admon. Admon. Donna, this is Dave.

You're gonna be training him for the rest of the- How you doing? Not too bad. For the rest of his shift, okay? Taking into consideration he's new. And he's nervous.

I am nervous. This way, this right here is all of our condiments, our onions and our cheese. Paula, you know you can clock in.

I didn't know. Miss Donna, can you run over and help him over there for me? Okay, you're gonna 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 I think it's confusing. You all need two cheeseburgers over there? Go ahead. Okay. Where do I go?

As a new employee, I don't know what to do. Okay. I can't comprehend all this in one day. Donna, can I take Dave with me for a while?

Sure. I'm going to show him how to do the front room and that kind of stuff. Okay, Dave, here's how you do this, honey. You spray it.

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 when you open a new store, upper management, they bring in a lot of new people, a lot of borrowed in help. 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, four. There's four managers standing back there right now. So in that situation, who do they know to listen to? They're trying to listen to everybody, and that's why they're all like the lost lamb.

And if you'll notice while you're working back there with them, they're not happy. Right. 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 when 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.

I definitely want to fix this. Coming up, Dave's spirit is crushed. I 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 me. Dave Rife 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 do it?

Maybe a little blue box there, take it, stick it in there. Like that? Mm-hm, you too gets to go on break.

Can you help him get his lunch ready and help him ring it up as an employee meal? Almost some of the- of those. No fry stuff? No fry stuff. Gosh, she's awesome.

I wish I had his willpower. I love food. I had a heart attack in 2003 and almost died from eating food. Stress, anxiety, Donna survived a heart attack, a major heart attack that most people don't survive.

I can relate to that. 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. God. 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 a very somber 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 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 spend in 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 am. You ready to get to work? Yes, sir. This is a bag check. These controls up here control all of this.

Hold on this side, okay? Once the bugs come down the line, pull your bag up. You want to guide them in the box. So make sure you don't get your hand in the box.

Gotcha. And don't get your hand under that hose, because it'll come down and it'll take the skin right off the box. Try it?

Yeah! Ready? Get back in the boat!

Put your bag chains on. Pull these buns out. These are all messed up.

I'm sorry. It's alright. I did it again! What am I doing wrong?

Your bag came off early. Okay, got it. That was very frustrating.

I don't like messing things up. There you go. Why is that catching that top?

I don't like creating havoc, which is what I felt like I was doing. There was product getting destroyed. Steve looked like he was getting a little frustrated with me as well.

I got it. I got it. All right, God, let me get out of the way. What am I doing wrong? And then he kept asking me, what am I doing wrong?

What am I doing wrong? Well, a lot. Stop.

Shut it off. Hold it back. Alright, at least I finished on a high note.

It surprised me how angry I got. myself that I could not master the packing machine. I destroyed 4,800 buns. You probably smashed 20 to 25 cases. But the good thing about that is all of our waste comes back here in barrels and a hog farmer comes and picks it up and he feeds it to his hogs.

You fed the pigs really well this 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 into the creation of that manual. I want to go out and see if it's being utilized to its fullest. Hi, I'm Dave. Hi, I'm Tina. Come on, hand you your uniform.

If you wanna 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. Darlene, this is Dave, he's my employee. Hi Darlene, I'm Dave.

She's the shift manager. Nice to meet you. We're gonna start you on the grill, as the 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.

Alright, technically we're doing it wrong, but... What's the difference? That's proper procedure.

Okay. Cheese first. Cheese first, then pickle.

Yeah. We just do it easier because it's faster. Cheese first.

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 is just some of the shortcuts that we've done over the years. Not the office and not the the big bosses, but us ourselves.

We've got bad habits. Yes, ma'am. Dave, come in 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 castle procedures. They want the grill laid off a certain way. They want fries this way.

Don't overdo it. overstuff your fryer food. Don't 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 and there.

Does it make you nervous? Yeah. I come in every day and say, well, I'm going to get fired to 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 build 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 me. Coming up, Dave tries his hand at the drive-thru.

Chicken wings. That's these. Oh, I thought you said chicken wings. Stop, stop, stop, stop.

And later, Dave fights a losing battle. Tell him you're on with the cheese. We need help.

Here you go. I'll trade you. Dave Reif, 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 his shift as the evening rush descends on the castle. Tonight, I assure you from 10 o'clock to 3 o'clock in the morning, it's nonstop. 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.

A little steam grilled burger, which everybody loves so much. Joe, this is Dave. Hey, how you doing?

You're going to see a stampede of people just come parading down the block, right? And they're only going to wonder what the grill master is doing. That's you, see? You're going to be chilling and grilling. They're going to be looking at you for their food.

Making me a little nervous. First thing you say is, hi, welcome to White Castle. Can I take your order?

Or, hi, can I take your order? Okay. All right.

Welcome to White Castle, can I take your order please? I'm ordering chicken wings. Order what? Chicken wings.

That's the- I thought you said chicken wings. Chicken wings. Cheese only.

White cheeseburgers. Who's next? Two, three cheeseburgers. Okay, as soon as I find it. Cheese on those?

They've got the cheeseburger combo. Oh. I need cheese on my chicken sandwiches.

Pardon? With what? Stop.

Stop, stop, stop, stop. You picked a bad ship for first night. Yay! I couldn't hear that. Working a night shift, you really have to be the king of multitasking because you're taking orders, making drinks, handing out food, collecting money.

No, I just don't think so. Is that okay? All right, that's no problem.

Thank you. Would you like anything to drink with that? Is that all?

Please pull around. This is like, this is like This is White Castle. People expect the friendly tone and all that. So you don't have to be all formal with it.

Just be polite with it. Like, check this out. Okay, so you got a sack of fries, a five-piece cheese stick, and six cheeseburgers playing? Yep.

You need anything to drink with that? Yeah, that'll be it. All right, it's going to be $10.43.

Perfect. Take that. Straws in the bag. There you go. Y'all 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 card. Perfect.

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. 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 could do that. It takes 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'd have to paint this whole White Castle in a verbal picture. I've met people that would be in your situation and would be down. I depend on this job to take care of my family and stuff.

That's why I worked so hard. My whole experience so far has been Joe. He's just got this attitude that just pulls you up to his level.

We've got to do something to help this young man fully utilize his skills. We all need to try to be more like 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. My name's 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.

You're gonna probably get a lot of meat. So is that all we're getting? No.

Now we got the fries, cheese sticks, meat, more chicken rings. Alright. We'll just take out the trash right now, okay?

So what made you decide you wanted to come and work here? I was looking for a job. Bob, about you, what do you like to do when you're not working?

Well, I've been focusing on my culinary arts and school. So that's what I want to be. I want to grow up to be a chef. A chef? Yes.

Just grab a ladle with the onions and just fill it up until just about right there is fine, okay? Got it. So when you say you want to be a chef, I mean... Like gourmet meals?

Like owning my own restaurant kind of things. Those opportunities aren't here? Well, they are, but I just want to do this on my own.

You know, make my own start. I brought my salsa and some chips. I don't know if you want some, but I'm hungry, so go for it.

Want to try it? Try it. Sit down over here. All right.

You made that? Yes, I did at my house. I just made it yesterday, so here you go.

All right. Give me a shot. It's spicy.

It's spicy, just so you know. I like spicy. It's kind of like a little secret. 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 and 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 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 really wearing on me right now. I've gone beyond tired. I'm kind of numb. It's a 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, principle or that belief, happy employees should also be... 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 hairnet on. Yes, ma'am. Your hair must be covered.

You must wear an apron. You want to be here and you want to clock in five minutes before. Five minutes before start of the shift. I noticed you were a little bit late. So if you can, please try to be on time.

Yes, ma'am. 17,000 burgers an hour between two shifts. That's Vicky, she's gonna 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 wanna give it a try? Yeah, every other one, right? Yeah.

Oh, lost that one. No. It's pretty rough.

This is just an accident waiting to happen. Messed them up. Damn it, a jam up over here. Garbage.

The wrapper was quite challenging for me. You got a lot happening all around you and you got a lot coming at you all at once. Business over here. We're getting somewhere maybe.

That's it. You did pretty good for the first 10 minutes. That seemed like it was an hour. You need you to 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. When I first started here eight 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 slack are getting that 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 not want to try to Address some of her concerns and issues right away.

After you, ma'am. Thank you. I have to get to learn something else new now. This is Benita right here. She's gonna be showing you cheese inspection.

Hi Benita, how you doing? I'm Dave, nice to meet you. This is Dave.

All right, what am I doing here? Hey now, watch how Vic does. He's straightening the cheese in the middle of the barbecue.

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. Okay, I got it. We're getting there.

Don't drop the cheese. I'm keeping up. Here, let me trade you.

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. A couple misses coming. 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're 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. I had many challenges on this odyssey. When I started this journey, one of my goals was to do right by my great-grandfather and 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 Reif. I'm one of the owners of White Castle.

After spending a week undercover, I'm about to go back and report to my family members everything I've 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 all for joining me. There were a couple things that frustrated me. There was an instance where I actually got kind of angry 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, am I getting fired today? It bothered 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 we've got 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 i'm hoping not to get fired so Recognize me?

Yeah, I do. Just not in the suit and tie. I'm Dave Rife. 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 Inger. 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 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 believed that.

It's true. Because of our chance to talk. No fry stuff?

No fry stuff. Gosh, she's awesome. I wish I had- his willpower.

That gave me an idea. And what we'll work 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 and become...

becoming a healthier, better company. I'm glad there's people 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 going to keep it going, and I know you can do it. I want a hug.

White Castle 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 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 White Castle believes in you. 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, you 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 that there's some room for improvement. Brenda? Vicky?

My name is not Dave Allen. My real name is Dave Reif, and I'm one of the owners of White Castle. 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 ideal supervisor like?

A supervisor that's on the floor working and helping people. 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 stand 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 Vickie's time. 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 the 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 honored. I'm honored.

I'm so touched, like, I'm trying to get myself together. I can't believe this. I would love to do it.

The other thing we want to do, Joe, is we want to give you $5,000 towards needs for your son. I just never thought... When I started at White Castle, there would be these type of opportunities out there for me.

This has 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're going to the toy store. White Castle is hooking you up. Right now I'm about to go out and address I'll bless 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's Dave Reich. My name is Dave Reif 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 want to know is what's life really like? What do our team members experience on a day-to-day basis?

I had some really amazing experiences, and I met some really inspirational people. And I'd like to share some of those with you right now. And they're only going to wonder what the grill master is doing. That's you.

Welcome to White Castle. Can I take your order, please? You made that? Yes, I did. That's awesome.

That's good stuff. Thank you. I did it again. Okay.

He 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 88 years. 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 faces. Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.

Transcript for:Insights from Undercover Boss: White Castle

Transcript for:
Insights from Undercover Boss: White Castle