Undercover Boss (2010) s02e06 Episode Script
Chiquita
Male announcer: America is struggling to shake off the recession.
Public distrust of wealthy CEOs remains high.
But more and more bosses are looking for radical ways to reconnect with their workforce in order to find out what's really going on in their companies.
Each week, we follow the boss of a major corporation as they go undercover in their own company.
This week on Undercover Boss, the Chairman and CEO of Chiquita Brands International, one of the largest producers and distributors of fruits and vegetables in the world, poses as an out-of-work immigrant pursuing the American dream.
- Manuel.
- Nice to meet you.
I just got my citizenship last year.
The boss will trade in his luxurious corner office for a field job and a forklift license.
Well, that didn't sound right.
I think I broke the pallet.
Come on, you got to bring it.
While working on the front line, he'll get an insider's look at his own company.
The system is set up for us just to print the bills.
You have to manually do every one of 'em.
- Why? - Don't know.
And he'll discover the unsung heroes that make his business run.
- Do you like bananas? - I don't like bananas, no.
You are kidding me.
How will his coworkers react when they find out he's really the boss? I had a most challenging week of my professional career.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, with more than 20,000 employees on six different continents, Chiquita Brands International is one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables in the world.
And at the head of this four-billion-dollar company is one man.
Hi, I'm Fernando Aguirre, and I'm Chairman and CEO of Chiquita Brands International.
Chiquita's a great global company.
We are in more than We sell more than 100 million boxes of bananas a year.
You know, bananas are really good for you.
I love bananas.
This is--excuse me.
This is my favorite food.
Yeah, come on in.
Want to show you the new corporate responsibility report.
As the Chairman and CEO, I see my role as a motivator of our people to achieve our goals as a company.
Although we're best known for bananas, five years ago we acquired Fresh Express, which is a market leader in prepackaged salads.
This is a very hard job, no question about it.
I wanted to take a few minutes and review the CEO summit agenda with you.
Okay.
But it's fun.
It's unique.
Every day's different.
Every day is full of challenges.
This is the best job I've ever had.
I was born and raised in Mexico City.
Grew up in a very modest family.
When I was 17 years old, I decided that I wanted to come to the United States to play baseball and to learn the language.
I saved the equivalent of about $850, and I came back home one day, and I told my parents, I said, "I'm going to the U.
S.
," and my mom said, "we can't pay for it, so, no, you can't go," and I said, "well, I've already paid for it.
" I got recruited by Southern Illinois university to play baseball, and I got a scholarship from them, and eventually I actually got a letter from the Reds inviting me to a training camp.
But I said, "I got to finish my college education.
" You know, my parents want me to finish, I want to finish, and I wanted to start working.
I no longer play baseball, but I'm fortunate enough to have a small piece of ownership in the Cincinnati Reds.
And here I am, over 30 years later, a U.
S.
citizen, married with two beautiful kids.
- Salud.
- Salud.
Salud, flaquito.
Cheers.
Mmm, the guacamole's good.
Surprising me? Yeah.
Yeah, I think we should do that.
Fernando works a lot.
He's a workaholic.
And he's always with a Blackberry on his hand.
My biggest regret is that I have not spent as much time with my family as I wish I could have.
The family suffers, particularly when you have kids that are growing up in a young age.
That's very tough to deal with.
At the same time, I'd like to say, I want to be the very best executive that I can be.
I'm very disciplined and strict, and I place a lot of emphasis on people doing their jobs right.
I see this as a tremendous opportunity for me to find out if my employees really perform at the level I expect.
It is very important for me to help Fernando with his disguise, because he cannot grow a lot of beard or mustache.
I don't even want to look.
My surprise.
This color is not that bad.
I'll be posing as Manuel Gonzalez, an out-of-work car salesman originally from Mexico.
My coworkers will be told that I'm taking part in a television program where an immigrant is being tested to see if he has what it takes to earn a dream job at Chiquita.
I'm outside Boston, Massachusetts, in one of our largest distribution centers where we distribute more than to service the northeastern part of the United States and Canada.
The distribution centers are the last stop in the supply chain before the bananas reach the stores.
I'm here to see if there's any way to increase the productivity in this last step of our distribution system.
Fernando, this is Manuel.
Manuel, Fernando.
- Fernando.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- How you doing? - Good.
Manuel's gonna be here for the day.
Basically show him everything we do, from soup to nuts, all right? No problem.
- Great.
Thanks.
- Yep.
Thank you.
And how many do you check? Oh, okay.
Okay.
And that's good? Where--where you born? In Portugal? Yeah - Oh, really? - Yep.
Do you still know Portuguese? You do? Are you married? You're married? - Yes.
- How many kids do you have? - Three.
- Oh, that's nice.
All right, we're gonna take all these.
We're gonna stack 'em just the way they are-- straight up.
Just like that? Yep.
They're not heavy.
Okay.
Bananas bruise easily and ripen quickly.
Now, this is pretty physical work.
If the bananas aren't handled properly, they will be rejected by our customers.
You finished already your side? Manuel doesn't strike me as being any kind of a produce person.
I'm too old for this.
Would I trust Manuel with my bananas? Uh, probably not.
This truck just got here.
How many of these trucks do you a day? Two to three, four.
It all depends what day it is.
I got a forklift license, so maybe you can get me to use one of 'em.
We'll definitely put you on it.
Oh, all right, good.
I trained on the forklifts to be able to get a license, and I did about 45 minutes of driving, and that was enough.
I understood it.
So I was very excited to do a good job.
Grab it from that side, right? Grab it just the way it is.
Grab it just the way it is.
Should I take the one on the right? Yeah, you can take the one on the right.
Put the forks down.
How come it's not going down? Tilt it forward.
Middle one.
- Middle one.
- Yep.
Oh, there we go.
Oh, yeah, right.
Now--now tilt it back.
Middle.
Tilt it back.
Raise it up.
Your left one.
He didn't look like he was familiar with the controls at all Too many shifts here.
Which, if you're certified, you should definitely know.
I got a bad feeling right from the beginning that he was not comfortable.
All right, now drive under it.
Go ahead.
Raise it up some more.
Tilt it.
Tilt it back a little bit.
Tilt it back a little bit.
Back? Tilt it back.
Middle.
Middle.
Go ahead.
This way.
I think I broke the pallet.
Yeah.
- I think I broke the pallet.
- Yeah.
Hearing that wood sound, you know something's not right.
He was too high with the forks.
I think he should have seen that right from the beginning.
Now start lowering it down.
Lower it down as you're coming out.
You got to watch the top.
No, no, not the-- no, lower it.
Oh, this is harder than I thought.
When we do get a new guy in here, I'm very cautious about the equipment.
I want to take care of the equipment.
I don't want the equipment to break 'Cause without the equipment, we're in trouble.
Don't jerk it.
You're gonna tip it.
Oh, that didn't sound right.
Something broke.
What happened? Load the damn thing.
All right, lower 'em down a little bit.
Tilt it.
And we saved the pallet.
You saved the pallet.
Oh, where are you going? You know what I'm saying? Just to give you a heads-up, like, when I unload a truck like this, I usually have the whole truck unloaded in about 15, 20 minutes.
- Oh, boy.
- So that--that's Very slow.
Go ahead.
Grab--grab the one on the left.
In the 2 1/2, 3 hours that it's taken us to unload this truck, and it still isn't unloaded, I'd have four trucks done, and they'd be gone.
This guy was still sitting here.
We got to get this truck out of here right now.
Easy.
Put it down.
- Oh.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Down or? All right, down.
Put it down.
All right, man, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna get on.
I got to get this guy out of here.
You can just jump off.
You're done for the day.
Fernando's really, really pissed at me.
I can just see it.
I slowed him down.
He wants me out of here.
We're behind because of Manuel today.
Guy's been here too long.
Oh, I bet you the driver's really, really mad, though.
I'm gonna have you go give him the paperwork.
- No way.
- It's good for you.
Keeps your blood going.
I'd say.
I don't think Manuel's cut out for this kind of work.
I hope I didn't slow you down too much.
Uh, yes, you did.
Today was horrible.
I just slowed this operation down quite dramatically.
I know I'm not gonna apply a job here.
This is just too hard.
It was very humbling, if nothing else.
I wouldn't hire me, and it feels terrible not to do a good job.
I'm here in Salinas, California, the heart of our Fresh Express business, where we produce more than 300 million bags of prepackaged salads a year.
Once the lettuce is harvested in the fields, it comes here, where it's cleaned, checked, dried, and packaged.
Fresh Express is only in the United States.
If we could have Fresh Express in more places in the world, that would be terrific.
So I'm here to see what makes our flagship factory work so efficiently.
- Hey.
- Manuel Gonzalez.
- Miguel Angel Partida.
- Miguel Angel.
- Aka Magic.
- How are you? - You ready to work? - Yeah.
Okay.
Boy, this is a lot of steps, huh? Well, we got to get ready.
We're gonna go into battle right now.
Just make sure both of your hands are in there.
So our job today, or your job today is gonna be-- we're gonna be drying product that's gonna be coming out of some machines that's like a waterfall.
So we're gonna be sticking these big barrels into dryers and let the dryers dry their product.
We're gonna pull 'em out with some hoists, and dump 'em into some hoppers, which is where all the product goes, so we might give you-- make you sweat.
Good.
Okay.
Okay.
Make sure it's good.
Okay.
Ready? There you go.
Now raise it up a little.
That's it? Hard! There you go.
That's hard.
No, yeah.
Whoa.
Come on.
The lettuce is coming out very quickly, very, very fast.
Before you know it, you're emptying one, you're drying another, and then you turn around, and the other bin is filled up already.
Go over there.
I think the toughest part of this job is to be taking care of so many different things at once.
Come on, you got to bring it.
Anything you see on the floor, if it's a product, that's money just laying there on the floor.
If he wants to be here, he needs to put a little more focus into those barrels, 'cause we can't be just throwing away all that product.
Come on, Manuel.
Manuel, Manuel.
You got to hurry up.
I'm tired.
I'm exhausted.
It doesn't close! It is very, very, very physical and hard.
You have a lot of different things that you have to worry about.
You got to be Me.
Why is this not closing? Sounds good.
I clearly couldn't handle Magic's job, so he took me to another side of the factory, where he thought it was more my speed.
This side is mostly a lot of the ladies doing the packaging.
Okay.
Okay, ready? Here it comes.
Could you do it a little bit faster? - Faster? - A little bit.
No, I can't do it faster.
Are you kidding? I know.
I could see Manuel's getting really frustrated.
This is going fast.
He needs to watch his attitude.
She's telling me I'm too slow.
If I was a supervisor, he would be in the office with the write-up, 'cause that's just a big no-no.
I think Manuel, he's more built for an office job than a physical job.
And that was just maybe 15 minutes.
It feels like it was three hours.
So maybe we can give him a good office job, and he can actually watch us do the hard work.
So this is where you typically take your breaks? You can take your break outside or inside, but everybody's just so tired of being cooped up, so everybody just comes out here.
So how long did it take you to learn? It takes you, like, at least one day.
One day-- one day? I thought it'd take me a month.
No, it'll only take you one day, 'cause it's something that you get used to, and you find your own method.
You find your own ways of doing the job.
How many people do you hire, you know, every month? Well, right now--right now the way things are going, you know, the economy's a little low, and we actually did some cutbacks, and we-- they let some people go.
We got people that got demoted to different jobs.
So I was fortunate to stay in the company, and I got demoted back to my old job.
It was a pay cut, but it was either, you know, you're here, or you're out there on the unemployment line.
And that's how we're trying to keep the company going, I guess.
Yeah.
It's hard to see that someone like Magic has to take a step back, where he has the capacity to do even more.
You have a wife? I'm married.
- You're married? - I have two kids.
I got a nine-year-old, and I got a four-year-old.
Now, do you speak Spanish to your kids? I speak, um-- I speak more Spanish to my little one, 'cause my mom kind of is taking--is raising him, and my mom speaks only Spanish, you know.
My wife, she works for the school district.
She goes in real early, and I get out real late, so I either sleep in the morning, and she gets 'em ready for school, and they're the ones keeping me going here.
They're the ones kind of keeping me hot when I'm in there, you know, freezing.
Magic is a very positive person.
He's a good trainer.
He wants and likes his job.
Magic is definitely the kind of employee I want to have on my team.
And the most important question I want to ask you is, would you hire me - Um, that's - Packing those bags in the box? Um When I think about the time I've spent with Magic, uh, it was really moving to hear him talk about his young family.
In a way, I think what we all want is to have our children become better than we are.
I do what I do today to help my family succeed, my kids succeed, and as a Latin, as a Hispanic, as a Mexican, uh, families are very important to us.
And I saw it in Magic.
I saw it in the way he described his family and his kids, and And that was really very moving and very important to me.
Coming up Slow down.
The boss gets some humbling news.
You think I could really do this job? You'd be good for here here-- not for my job, no.
And later Fernando brings the operation to a grinding halt.
Are you falling behind? Yes, this is going too fast.
Hey.
Fernando Aguirre, the CEO of Chiquita Brands International is a boss undercover in his own company.
You just threw, like, a bag right there.
His employees think he's a recent out-of-work immigrant pursuing the American dream.
His journey continues in Wilmington, Delaware.
Bananas grow within so the port is the first place they reach American shores.
This is our most efficient and largest port in the United States.
We distribute more than I want to find out what it takes to make all the rest of the ports this efficient.
Anna? Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
- Manuel.
How are you? Have a seat.
Welcome to Chiquita.
This is what we're gonna be doing.
We have to print our ELRs-- equipment lease receipt-- to go with every container.
When they go out the gate, they get checked.
They make sure that the container is right.
So the drivers are now waiting for the? For this.
Yes.
The system is set up for us just to print the bills.
Okay.
So we type in our order numbers.
Now, before I came, they had a system that actually printed the ELR out itself.
Now you have to manually go in and do every one of 'em.
- Why? - Don't know.
But that sounds like it's less efficient, isn't it? I think so.
Yeah.
Okay, so five, six, seven And that was a duplicate, so come back.
- What--what do you mean? - Because it came up red.
Oh, so I'm supposed to watch the screen? Kind of, yeah.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Hit dispatch.
Okay, so we're gonna go downstairs.
- Okay.
- And I'm gonna show you how the rest of it works.
Okay.
Ugh.
Oh, really? Oh, wow.
These are all the trucks that are waiting for our bills.
Okay.
They come in here to see Kevin.
- Okay.
- Hi, Kevin.
How you doing, Anna? - This Manuel.
- Hey, Kevin.
I got some stuff here for you.
I just take this and stick it over here then I pass them out to the drivers.
- Okay.
- All right, you take care.
And here comes somebody bringing one back.
So that's--they're bringing that one back? Bringing it back-- already delivered.
Well, they're really making us exercise here, aren't they? I'm telling ya.
I'm not really liking that.
Anna's job is very detail-oriented.
Right here is our container number.
You could potentially be sending the wrong food to the wrong customer.
Okay.
Got it.
And then we flip it over.
- Okay.
- Now we do this one.
That's a sin in our-- in our business.
How long have you worked here? - 3 1/2 years.
- Do you like it? You know, we don't get a lot of the perks that they do in Cincinnati, which is the headquarters.
Like--like what perks? They get smoothie days and stuff.
How about-- do you get bananas? No! Do you eat bananas? - At least once a day.
- Really? - Do you like bananas? - I don't like bananas, no.
You are kidding me.
And if you say that loud, they don't care? Let's try a few things.
So banana cream pie.
How about banana bread? Banana ice cream? What? No.
How about banana chewing gum? They make that? I am enjoying working with Manuel.
He's a great guy.
We had fun.
We were talking about all kinds of things.
So what do you do in your spare time? I have puppies, two puppies.
You don't like bananas.
I don't like dogs.
- You don't like--ugh! - They bite me.
That's a violation.
We didn't get a lot of work done.
And that's what-- that's what we do.
Hey, Sergio.
- Hola, Anita, how are ya? - Okay.
Hanging in there.
Let me ask you this-- did something happen that delayed the dispatch of something earlier this morning? Um, we're running behind.
It may be a little bit.
If you can do ten today, we'll be great.
Yeah, I-- I would ju--yeah.
We'll at least have six.
- UhOkay.
- Okay.
Thanks.
Bye.
Bye.
- Oh, Manuel.
- How much faster can you do-- Manuel, we would have been done and talking about lunch.
You're in trouble.
We're kind of late.
Kind of run a little behind.
We were running a little behind.
Well, more than a little.
I don't like it when that happens.
The truck drivers need to get out.
They're not getting out.
So you're going to look this number up.
We make sure that container is 3582.
Can you handle this part? All right Ah, ah, slow down! I wasn't feeling very good about slowing Anna down.
Uh How the heck do you find the-- tell me just one more time.
I didn't quite get it.
As a CEO, I want the company to run better, faster, quicker.
This is a little harder than you would think Although she uses a computer, there's a lot of the task on the job that is done manually.
Let me see if I can help you.
You helped me with this one.
That one--49.
Bottom line is, Manuel is not the multitasker.
I'm sure it'll only take me, like, three years to get this.
I don't believe that he is able to do my job on a daily basis.
I think it would be stressful, and he would be overwhelmed.
Do you think I could really do this job? You'd be good for here here-- not for my job, no.
Mm-hmm.
I'm here in Salinas, California, to meet one of our Hispanic managers who supervises the harvesting of lettuce.
Are you Leo? Yeah.
And Manuel? - Manuel.
- Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
About half our our employees are Hispanic.
In these fields, many of them make the first step towards their American dream.
All right.
So what are we gonna do? I'm gonna show you how to cut lettuce.
We're gonna look for defects on the quality.
Okay.
We're gonna look for insect damage.
- Okay.
- We harvest romaine, iceberg, cabbage, red leaf-- everything.
- Wow.
- So this field's gonna be harvested tomorrow.
That's why we're here doing this.
Just don't go on top of the lettuce.
Yeah, I don't want to mess up the lettuce.
Yeah.
There you go.
Now, get your knife.
First thing what I do-- you just cut it and core it and clean it.
We take the first six or seven leaves off.
- Okay.
- And then I'll start checking for any quality problems.
This turns black.
- So we don't want that.
- Exactly.
- What's that called? - Core.
That's the core.
Okay.
You have to get it Let's start checking them here.
Same thing--looking for any defects.
All those look pretty good.
Okay, now you want to try it? Yeah.
The knife is difficult to handle.
Oops.
Almost lost my finger out of that one.
So you got to be very careful that you don't cut your fingers off.
With my five that I did, I didn't find anything.
Did you find anything? Nope.
Okay.
Let's walk through the machine.
Okay.
This machine, the product It goes through there.
That's a washing system.
Okay.
- It goes to the elevator - Okay.
- Into the bin.
- Okay.
My guys--they do 24 bins in one hour.
Wow.
And we do the same thing that we did over there.
You just cut it and core it and clean it and place it down.
We just want it to be clean and no core.
- Okay.
- That's what we need.
Manuel, for you to be able to be on our crew, you need to cut it and core it between two to three seconds.
- Ha ha! - And if you're good enough, we'll see if you can be part of our team.
Okay.
- Two seconds per head.
- Per head.
- Okay.
- Now, this is the problem.
All of these 30 people, if there's one people that doesn't do it fast enough, everything's-- everyone is in trouble.
Exactly.
Dale normal, ¿eh? Normal.
We're just gonna do it like we're harvesting in the field.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna time you to see how fast you can do it.
A thousand one, a thousand two, a thousand three, a thousand four, a thousand five.
A thousand one, a thousand two, a thousand three, a thousand four This is harder than I thought.
Damn.
They go fast, and the machine is going too fast.
Very difficult to pick, core, clean, and put it on the belt in two seconds.
I don't know how they do it.
This is a good workout.
Are you falling behind? - Yes.
- Get closer to the machine.
The machine seems to be moving very slowly.
It's going too fast.
Huh? It's going too fast! But when you go down, you pick the lettuce, you core it--all of a sudden, you turn around, and the belt is already three or four steps ahead of you.
Way too fast, way too fast.
Feels like I'm going slower now.
Okay, Manuel.
Hey.
My guys-- they do it in two seconds.
Now, here, you missed one Two, three.
- I missed those? - Yeah.
- I got to catch my breath.
- Let me show you something.
You see a problem? Oh, I left the core there.
That's not good.
- Another core.
- There's another core.
- Now, you tell me-- - it's horrible.
If there's bad product going in the bin, we'll reject the whole load.
That's very strict.
That's very strict.
Because we want our best in our salads.
We want the best in the bag.
That's what we want.
What the harvester needs, they need good speed and production.
Let's take a little break.
Okay, good, I need a break.
If I had to put Manuel on my crew right now, he'll fall behind.
How long did it take you to be good at it? Uh, it took me-- it just took me a-a-- it just took me a couple of weeks.
Mm-hmm.
And how long ago did you come to the United States? - I was two years old.
- Yeah.
Wow.
I came 11 years ago to the United States, and, you know, I got my green card, and then I got my--I just got my citizenship last year.
- Oh, nice.
- Have you thought about citizenship in the United States? Because that's really important - Oh, no, yeah.
- To do eventually.
That was very important for my family.
- Nice.
- We have two boys, and it was very important for us to get the citizenship.
- I got one daughter.
- Oh, you have one daughter.
- Yeah.
- How old is she? Six years old.
- Six? - Yeah.
Are you gonna have any more children? - No.
- No? - Matter of fact, I adopted.
- Oh.
Oh, really.
You adopted? Oh! Yeah, she was two years old when Oh, that's nice.
What's your daughter's name? Paula.
- Paula.
- Yeah.
- That's a good name.
- Yeah.
Do you think she's gonna grow up to be in agriculture as well? UmI would like her to have a job working from Monday to Friday, you know, 'cause, I mean-- agriculture is tough? It's a little bit on the difficult side.
Yeah.
And your wife, she's also from Mexico? Yes.
She's from Mexico.
But she just work only in Arizona.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, so you live there.
You just come here part of the year and work? Uh-huh.
Six months here and-- and you work on the weekends as well too? Yeah.
It's a little bit on the difficult side.
His family lives in Arizona.
He spends six months of the year here in Salinas.
He's working every day.
How far did you go into school? How long did you go into school? Uh, only high school.
Only high school.
And I'm sure you've studied other things.
Have you studied any more after high school? - No.
- No.
No, because once I got into the produce business, I was like, you know, working from 7:00 in the morning till 7:00, 9:00 at night, so it's hard.
Essentially, he's not seeing his family.
It's a major sacrifice-- huge, huge sacrifice.
- Now you want to try it again? - Yeah.
Let's try it again.
This has been a great journey, a great week.
It was tiring.
I'm tired.
I'm very tired, physically as well as mentally.
It makes me appreciate more what I have.
You know, my dream was to become a U.
S.
citizen, and I've achieved that now.
And yet I see many of these hispanics around me that also want to do the same thing.
And at the same time, it also makes me feel a bigger responsibility over so many people.
This is the land of opportunity, and many times we forget about that.
And I'm gonna do whatever it takes to give those opportunities to others.
Coming up Fernando summons his employees to company headquarters.
It's a little weird having that kind of power in your hands.
Somebody else's job depends on you.
How will they react when he reveals his true identity? I'm the CEO of the company.
I'm Fernando Aguirre.
After my time undercover, there are some things I want to share with my executive team.
Good morning.
Good morning.
W-what's the matter with you guys? We didn't know you were gonna go through a time machine.
Yeah, I cut off at least As you know, I spent the last week undercover.
Essentially, I've never done any of those jobs, and I was out of control.
Literally, I was out of control.
I did ask the question, "would you hire me?" At least two of them said no.
But I was floored by the passion of our people.
They're proud people.
You know, as we say in Mexico, "la camiseta puesta.
" You got the shirt on, and no one's gonna take it from you.
But I think there's a real opportunity for us to improve our business.
At our port in Wilmington, the computer system needs a major upgrade immediately.
So, Kevin, maybe you can lead us through that.
Yeah.
And in the next week or so, if you can give me a plan.
Okay.
Throughout, essentially, every one of these jobs, the training that I received was terrific.
Leo is a just a perfect example of how to train people.
He took his time.
He was patient.
We got to have good training.
Right.
Throughout the company, we need to develop a system to identify more people with great potential.
And I'm actually looking forward to hearing you guys think about what else can we do to be better.
And we all can improve.
We all can do better.
But how do we take advantage of the expertise that we have and the knowledge they have to share more around the company? My employees think they're coming to Cincinnati to evaluate Manuel.
I just cannot wait to tell them who I really am.
I'm very confident with my decision.
I don't think Manuel is cut out to do my job.
It's a little weird having that kind of power in your hands.
Somebody else's job depends on you.
Morning.
Hi.
Have we met before? No.
No.
No.
I don't think so.
- You look like Manuel! - I look like Manuel? Yeah, without the glasses.
How about with these glasses? You look like somebody I know now.
I'm Fernando Aguirre, CEO of the company.
How you doing? Oh, uh Good now, I guess.
I don't know.
- I'm overwhelmed here.
- All right.
Y-you're fine.
You're fine, you're fine.
Anna, my adventure with you was-- it was fantastic.
You're very dedicated.
You're very funny.
But I really, really, really was shocked to know that you don't like bananas.
Now, Anna That was--that was-- I might start eating them.
It was fun.
It was really a great experience for me to be with you guys there.
I thought you were efficient.
I thought you were just terrific.
So I thought I'd do a few things for you.
- Oh, wow.
- First of all I thought it would be great if we gave a $5,000 donation to the SPCA in your name.
We'll call it the Anna donation.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Thank you.
- Good.
- I'm sure the SPCA will too.
Yeah.
I also saw you going up and down those stairs, and you told me about your car accident.
So what we're gonna do, we're gonna put an elevator for you guys to go up and down without having to go through stairs.
We're gonna start construction, in fact, in the next couple of days.
Thank you.
Good lord.
Okay.
I'm gonna get a elevator, which is really exciting-- and then the SPCA, which is very nice.
You know, I love dogs.
That kind of, like, struck me.
I got touched.
Fernando, I got an interesting thing for you.
I was actually certified.
I actually had my My license.
So I did get my license.
- Okay.
- Okay? Now, I was a little rusty.
I wanted to make sure you knew that I-- that I had been certified.
But what I really love about you is you are one of the most efficient employees that I've ever worked with.
- Well, thank you.
- That was fascinating to see you going a mile a minute to get those bananas out the door.
You take ownership for those bananas.
You take ownership for the product.
Yes, I do.
So I was very impressed with that.
Clearly, I put some wear and tear on the forklift.
So first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get you a new forklift.
- Wow.
- I want to make sure that that facility is running great.
I'm also going to pay for a full week of vacation for you and your wife and family.
Wow.
That's great.
How's that? Does that sound good? Sounds good to me.
Absolutely.
Oh, I can't even believe what just happened.
Fernando said I was one of the most efficient employees he's ever seen.
And that's That's a heck of a compliment.
Magic, you have a lot of skills.
I love to see young people like yourself progressing, and I really want to see you progressing more in the company.
Thank you.
And I want to enroll you in a supervisory training program.
And there could be a real opportunity for you to eventually be a plant manager.
I think that would be terrific.
- That would.
- You would like that? Oh, I would like that.
Okay, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna be your mentor.
Would you like that? Yeah, I would.
I want to know how you're doing.
I want to know how things will start shaping up for you.
And, of course, having that type of a career path would allow you to provide more for your family as well.
- Thank you.
- Not only that, Magic, but we're also going to give a $10,000 scholarship fund for the education of your two kids to help them have a better future.
Magic, it was great to meet you.
It was great to work with you.
It was--it was-- the pleasure's all mine.
It made me feel proud of this company to be trying to teach somebody that didn't have any idea what was going on.
And it was just something real special for me to You know, try to show what I know to somebody else.
And hopefully, I can keep doing this.
You will.
My life is gonna be different.
The way I see things, the way I see the company This is something I would want for my kids To feel what I'm feeling right now-- that's just being proud.
Leo, I truly, truly appreciated your personal commitment to Chiquita and to our consumers.
I had seen a lot of good trainers, but I think you're one of the best trainers I met.
Thanks.
I also know that you go back and forth to Arizona and Salinas, and you spend so little time with your family.
We got to do what we got to do, 'cause We got to feed our family.
We got to feed our families.
But we also got to take some time off.
Oh, no, yeah.
We got to spend a little bit of time with--for ourselves.
So the company's gonna pay for a week of vacation Okay.
Thanks.
Thank you.
So that you can take Paula.
- Yeah.
- You can take your wife.
And you go on vacation for a week, paid by the company.
Now, you know, you know a little bit about my story.
I just became an American citizen, and I want you-- I want you.
To have also the American dream.
This is such a great country, and I want to make sure that we help you achieve that dream.
In fact, we're going to pay for you to file your paperwork - Wow.
- For American citizenship.
Oh, my God.
You know, it cost me somewhere around $15,000.
But I want you to become an American citizen.
Does that-- does that work? That'll work.
Thank you, sir.
I really appreciate it.
I come from a Mexican family, and our goal is to have a better life.
In the United States, you can have whatever you want.
You just have to work hard and be 100% at whatever you give.
I had a good experience.
I'm so happy, I can't-- I mean Our employees at the headquarters think we're having a picnic at the Reds Stadium.
None of them know I've been undercover for the last week, and I can't wait to tell them.
Welcome, Chiquita employees.
Please help me welcome our Chairman and CEO, Fernando Aguirre.
Thank you, miss Chiquita.
I got to tell you that you believe that you're here for a company picnic, but last week I went undercover for Chiquita.
I had the most amazing and most challenging week of my professional career.
I want to share with you some of those details.
Let's roll the tape.
- Are you falling behind? - You're going too fast.
Lower it.
Not--not--not the tilt-- - Oh! - What happened? It doesn't close! Maybe he can give him a good office job, and he can watch us do the hard work.
Yeah, that was great.
Yeah, get him an office job.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
I always thought that productivity and efficiency were the keys to our company's success.
But I found that people are what makes the real difference.
I want you to know that I will continue to go unannounced to the fields and the factories, because I want to continue to feel engaged and connected to the heart and soul of our workforce.
The passion I found in the fields and the factories has inspired me to be a better boss.
Thank you very much.
This whole experience was incredible.
He actually is a real person, and he actually came to do what we do every day, and I'm just still overwhelmed.
This experience has increased my awareness of what we ask our employees to do.
And we tend to forget that these employees make sacrifices every single day to support their families.
I have absolutely no regrets.
This was fun.
This was interesting.
This was challenging, and this was amazing.
Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.
Public distrust of wealthy CEOs remains high.
But more and more bosses are looking for radical ways to reconnect with their workforce in order to find out what's really going on in their companies.
Each week, we follow the boss of a major corporation as they go undercover in their own company.
This week on Undercover Boss, the Chairman and CEO of Chiquita Brands International, one of the largest producers and distributors of fruits and vegetables in the world, poses as an out-of-work immigrant pursuing the American dream.
- Manuel.
- Nice to meet you.
I just got my citizenship last year.
The boss will trade in his luxurious corner office for a field job and a forklift license.
Well, that didn't sound right.
I think I broke the pallet.
Come on, you got to bring it.
While working on the front line, he'll get an insider's look at his own company.
The system is set up for us just to print the bills.
You have to manually do every one of 'em.
- Why? - Don't know.
And he'll discover the unsung heroes that make his business run.
- Do you like bananas? - I don't like bananas, no.
You are kidding me.
How will his coworkers react when they find out he's really the boss? I had a most challenging week of my professional career.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, with more than 20,000 employees on six different continents, Chiquita Brands International is one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables in the world.
And at the head of this four-billion-dollar company is one man.
Hi, I'm Fernando Aguirre, and I'm Chairman and CEO of Chiquita Brands International.
Chiquita's a great global company.
We are in more than We sell more than 100 million boxes of bananas a year.
You know, bananas are really good for you.
I love bananas.
This is--excuse me.
This is my favorite food.
Yeah, come on in.
Want to show you the new corporate responsibility report.
As the Chairman and CEO, I see my role as a motivator of our people to achieve our goals as a company.
Although we're best known for bananas, five years ago we acquired Fresh Express, which is a market leader in prepackaged salads.
This is a very hard job, no question about it.
I wanted to take a few minutes and review the CEO summit agenda with you.
Okay.
But it's fun.
It's unique.
Every day's different.
Every day is full of challenges.
This is the best job I've ever had.
I was born and raised in Mexico City.
Grew up in a very modest family.
When I was 17 years old, I decided that I wanted to come to the United States to play baseball and to learn the language.
I saved the equivalent of about $850, and I came back home one day, and I told my parents, I said, "I'm going to the U.
S.
," and my mom said, "we can't pay for it, so, no, you can't go," and I said, "well, I've already paid for it.
" I got recruited by Southern Illinois university to play baseball, and I got a scholarship from them, and eventually I actually got a letter from the Reds inviting me to a training camp.
But I said, "I got to finish my college education.
" You know, my parents want me to finish, I want to finish, and I wanted to start working.
I no longer play baseball, but I'm fortunate enough to have a small piece of ownership in the Cincinnati Reds.
And here I am, over 30 years later, a U.
S.
citizen, married with two beautiful kids.
- Salud.
- Salud.
Salud, flaquito.
Cheers.
Mmm, the guacamole's good.
Surprising me? Yeah.
Yeah, I think we should do that.
Fernando works a lot.
He's a workaholic.
And he's always with a Blackberry on his hand.
My biggest regret is that I have not spent as much time with my family as I wish I could have.
The family suffers, particularly when you have kids that are growing up in a young age.
That's very tough to deal with.
At the same time, I'd like to say, I want to be the very best executive that I can be.
I'm very disciplined and strict, and I place a lot of emphasis on people doing their jobs right.
I see this as a tremendous opportunity for me to find out if my employees really perform at the level I expect.
It is very important for me to help Fernando with his disguise, because he cannot grow a lot of beard or mustache.
I don't even want to look.
My surprise.
This color is not that bad.
I'll be posing as Manuel Gonzalez, an out-of-work car salesman originally from Mexico.
My coworkers will be told that I'm taking part in a television program where an immigrant is being tested to see if he has what it takes to earn a dream job at Chiquita.
I'm outside Boston, Massachusetts, in one of our largest distribution centers where we distribute more than to service the northeastern part of the United States and Canada.
The distribution centers are the last stop in the supply chain before the bananas reach the stores.
I'm here to see if there's any way to increase the productivity in this last step of our distribution system.
Fernando, this is Manuel.
Manuel, Fernando.
- Fernando.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- How you doing? - Good.
Manuel's gonna be here for the day.
Basically show him everything we do, from soup to nuts, all right? No problem.
- Great.
Thanks.
- Yep.
Thank you.
And how many do you check? Oh, okay.
Okay.
And that's good? Where--where you born? In Portugal? Yeah - Oh, really? - Yep.
Do you still know Portuguese? You do? Are you married? You're married? - Yes.
- How many kids do you have? - Three.
- Oh, that's nice.
All right, we're gonna take all these.
We're gonna stack 'em just the way they are-- straight up.
Just like that? Yep.
They're not heavy.
Okay.
Bananas bruise easily and ripen quickly.
Now, this is pretty physical work.
If the bananas aren't handled properly, they will be rejected by our customers.
You finished already your side? Manuel doesn't strike me as being any kind of a produce person.
I'm too old for this.
Would I trust Manuel with my bananas? Uh, probably not.
This truck just got here.
How many of these trucks do you a day? Two to three, four.
It all depends what day it is.
I got a forklift license, so maybe you can get me to use one of 'em.
We'll definitely put you on it.
Oh, all right, good.
I trained on the forklifts to be able to get a license, and I did about 45 minutes of driving, and that was enough.
I understood it.
So I was very excited to do a good job.
Grab it from that side, right? Grab it just the way it is.
Grab it just the way it is.
Should I take the one on the right? Yeah, you can take the one on the right.
Put the forks down.
How come it's not going down? Tilt it forward.
Middle one.
- Middle one.
- Yep.
Oh, there we go.
Oh, yeah, right.
Now--now tilt it back.
Middle.
Tilt it back.
Raise it up.
Your left one.
He didn't look like he was familiar with the controls at all Too many shifts here.
Which, if you're certified, you should definitely know.
I got a bad feeling right from the beginning that he was not comfortable.
All right, now drive under it.
Go ahead.
Raise it up some more.
Tilt it.
Tilt it back a little bit.
Tilt it back a little bit.
Back? Tilt it back.
Middle.
Middle.
Go ahead.
This way.
I think I broke the pallet.
Yeah.
- I think I broke the pallet.
- Yeah.
Hearing that wood sound, you know something's not right.
He was too high with the forks.
I think he should have seen that right from the beginning.
Now start lowering it down.
Lower it down as you're coming out.
You got to watch the top.
No, no, not the-- no, lower it.
Oh, this is harder than I thought.
When we do get a new guy in here, I'm very cautious about the equipment.
I want to take care of the equipment.
I don't want the equipment to break 'Cause without the equipment, we're in trouble.
Don't jerk it.
You're gonna tip it.
Oh, that didn't sound right.
Something broke.
What happened? Load the damn thing.
All right, lower 'em down a little bit.
Tilt it.
And we saved the pallet.
You saved the pallet.
Oh, where are you going? You know what I'm saying? Just to give you a heads-up, like, when I unload a truck like this, I usually have the whole truck unloaded in about 15, 20 minutes.
- Oh, boy.
- So that--that's Very slow.
Go ahead.
Grab--grab the one on the left.
In the 2 1/2, 3 hours that it's taken us to unload this truck, and it still isn't unloaded, I'd have four trucks done, and they'd be gone.
This guy was still sitting here.
We got to get this truck out of here right now.
Easy.
Put it down.
- Oh.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Put it down.
Down or? All right, down.
Put it down.
All right, man, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna get on.
I got to get this guy out of here.
You can just jump off.
You're done for the day.
Fernando's really, really pissed at me.
I can just see it.
I slowed him down.
He wants me out of here.
We're behind because of Manuel today.
Guy's been here too long.
Oh, I bet you the driver's really, really mad, though.
I'm gonna have you go give him the paperwork.
- No way.
- It's good for you.
Keeps your blood going.
I'd say.
I don't think Manuel's cut out for this kind of work.
I hope I didn't slow you down too much.
Uh, yes, you did.
Today was horrible.
I just slowed this operation down quite dramatically.
I know I'm not gonna apply a job here.
This is just too hard.
It was very humbling, if nothing else.
I wouldn't hire me, and it feels terrible not to do a good job.
I'm here in Salinas, California, the heart of our Fresh Express business, where we produce more than 300 million bags of prepackaged salads a year.
Once the lettuce is harvested in the fields, it comes here, where it's cleaned, checked, dried, and packaged.
Fresh Express is only in the United States.
If we could have Fresh Express in more places in the world, that would be terrific.
So I'm here to see what makes our flagship factory work so efficiently.
- Hey.
- Manuel Gonzalez.
- Miguel Angel Partida.
- Miguel Angel.
- Aka Magic.
- How are you? - You ready to work? - Yeah.
Okay.
Boy, this is a lot of steps, huh? Well, we got to get ready.
We're gonna go into battle right now.
Just make sure both of your hands are in there.
So our job today, or your job today is gonna be-- we're gonna be drying product that's gonna be coming out of some machines that's like a waterfall.
So we're gonna be sticking these big barrels into dryers and let the dryers dry their product.
We're gonna pull 'em out with some hoists, and dump 'em into some hoppers, which is where all the product goes, so we might give you-- make you sweat.
Good.
Okay.
Okay.
Make sure it's good.
Okay.
Ready? There you go.
Now raise it up a little.
That's it? Hard! There you go.
That's hard.
No, yeah.
Whoa.
Come on.
The lettuce is coming out very quickly, very, very fast.
Before you know it, you're emptying one, you're drying another, and then you turn around, and the other bin is filled up already.
Go over there.
I think the toughest part of this job is to be taking care of so many different things at once.
Come on, you got to bring it.
Anything you see on the floor, if it's a product, that's money just laying there on the floor.
If he wants to be here, he needs to put a little more focus into those barrels, 'cause we can't be just throwing away all that product.
Come on, Manuel.
Manuel, Manuel.
You got to hurry up.
I'm tired.
I'm exhausted.
It doesn't close! It is very, very, very physical and hard.
You have a lot of different things that you have to worry about.
You got to be Me.
Why is this not closing? Sounds good.
I clearly couldn't handle Magic's job, so he took me to another side of the factory, where he thought it was more my speed.
This side is mostly a lot of the ladies doing the packaging.
Okay.
Okay, ready? Here it comes.
Could you do it a little bit faster? - Faster? - A little bit.
No, I can't do it faster.
Are you kidding? I know.
I could see Manuel's getting really frustrated.
This is going fast.
He needs to watch his attitude.
She's telling me I'm too slow.
If I was a supervisor, he would be in the office with the write-up, 'cause that's just a big no-no.
I think Manuel, he's more built for an office job than a physical job.
And that was just maybe 15 minutes.
It feels like it was three hours.
So maybe we can give him a good office job, and he can actually watch us do the hard work.
So this is where you typically take your breaks? You can take your break outside or inside, but everybody's just so tired of being cooped up, so everybody just comes out here.
So how long did it take you to learn? It takes you, like, at least one day.
One day-- one day? I thought it'd take me a month.
No, it'll only take you one day, 'cause it's something that you get used to, and you find your own method.
You find your own ways of doing the job.
How many people do you hire, you know, every month? Well, right now--right now the way things are going, you know, the economy's a little low, and we actually did some cutbacks, and we-- they let some people go.
We got people that got demoted to different jobs.
So I was fortunate to stay in the company, and I got demoted back to my old job.
It was a pay cut, but it was either, you know, you're here, or you're out there on the unemployment line.
And that's how we're trying to keep the company going, I guess.
Yeah.
It's hard to see that someone like Magic has to take a step back, where he has the capacity to do even more.
You have a wife? I'm married.
- You're married? - I have two kids.
I got a nine-year-old, and I got a four-year-old.
Now, do you speak Spanish to your kids? I speak, um-- I speak more Spanish to my little one, 'cause my mom kind of is taking--is raising him, and my mom speaks only Spanish, you know.
My wife, she works for the school district.
She goes in real early, and I get out real late, so I either sleep in the morning, and she gets 'em ready for school, and they're the ones keeping me going here.
They're the ones kind of keeping me hot when I'm in there, you know, freezing.
Magic is a very positive person.
He's a good trainer.
He wants and likes his job.
Magic is definitely the kind of employee I want to have on my team.
And the most important question I want to ask you is, would you hire me - Um, that's - Packing those bags in the box? Um When I think about the time I've spent with Magic, uh, it was really moving to hear him talk about his young family.
In a way, I think what we all want is to have our children become better than we are.
I do what I do today to help my family succeed, my kids succeed, and as a Latin, as a Hispanic, as a Mexican, uh, families are very important to us.
And I saw it in Magic.
I saw it in the way he described his family and his kids, and And that was really very moving and very important to me.
Coming up Slow down.
The boss gets some humbling news.
You think I could really do this job? You'd be good for here here-- not for my job, no.
And later Fernando brings the operation to a grinding halt.
Are you falling behind? Yes, this is going too fast.
Hey.
Fernando Aguirre, the CEO of Chiquita Brands International is a boss undercover in his own company.
You just threw, like, a bag right there.
His employees think he's a recent out-of-work immigrant pursuing the American dream.
His journey continues in Wilmington, Delaware.
Bananas grow within so the port is the first place they reach American shores.
This is our most efficient and largest port in the United States.
We distribute more than I want to find out what it takes to make all the rest of the ports this efficient.
Anna? Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
- Manuel.
How are you? Have a seat.
Welcome to Chiquita.
This is what we're gonna be doing.
We have to print our ELRs-- equipment lease receipt-- to go with every container.
When they go out the gate, they get checked.
They make sure that the container is right.
So the drivers are now waiting for the? For this.
Yes.
The system is set up for us just to print the bills.
Okay.
So we type in our order numbers.
Now, before I came, they had a system that actually printed the ELR out itself.
Now you have to manually go in and do every one of 'em.
- Why? - Don't know.
But that sounds like it's less efficient, isn't it? I think so.
Yeah.
Okay, so five, six, seven And that was a duplicate, so come back.
- What--what do you mean? - Because it came up red.
Oh, so I'm supposed to watch the screen? Kind of, yeah.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Hit dispatch.
Okay, so we're gonna go downstairs.
- Okay.
- And I'm gonna show you how the rest of it works.
Okay.
Ugh.
Oh, really? Oh, wow.
These are all the trucks that are waiting for our bills.
Okay.
They come in here to see Kevin.
- Okay.
- Hi, Kevin.
How you doing, Anna? - This Manuel.
- Hey, Kevin.
I got some stuff here for you.
I just take this and stick it over here then I pass them out to the drivers.
- Okay.
- All right, you take care.
And here comes somebody bringing one back.
So that's--they're bringing that one back? Bringing it back-- already delivered.
Well, they're really making us exercise here, aren't they? I'm telling ya.
I'm not really liking that.
Anna's job is very detail-oriented.
Right here is our container number.
You could potentially be sending the wrong food to the wrong customer.
Okay.
Got it.
And then we flip it over.
- Okay.
- Now we do this one.
That's a sin in our-- in our business.
How long have you worked here? - 3 1/2 years.
- Do you like it? You know, we don't get a lot of the perks that they do in Cincinnati, which is the headquarters.
Like--like what perks? They get smoothie days and stuff.
How about-- do you get bananas? No! Do you eat bananas? - At least once a day.
- Really? - Do you like bananas? - I don't like bananas, no.
You are kidding me.
And if you say that loud, they don't care? Let's try a few things.
So banana cream pie.
How about banana bread? Banana ice cream? What? No.
How about banana chewing gum? They make that? I am enjoying working with Manuel.
He's a great guy.
We had fun.
We were talking about all kinds of things.
So what do you do in your spare time? I have puppies, two puppies.
You don't like bananas.
I don't like dogs.
- You don't like--ugh! - They bite me.
That's a violation.
We didn't get a lot of work done.
And that's what-- that's what we do.
Hey, Sergio.
- Hola, Anita, how are ya? - Okay.
Hanging in there.
Let me ask you this-- did something happen that delayed the dispatch of something earlier this morning? Um, we're running behind.
It may be a little bit.
If you can do ten today, we'll be great.
Yeah, I-- I would ju--yeah.
We'll at least have six.
- UhOkay.
- Okay.
Thanks.
Bye.
Bye.
- Oh, Manuel.
- How much faster can you do-- Manuel, we would have been done and talking about lunch.
You're in trouble.
We're kind of late.
Kind of run a little behind.
We were running a little behind.
Well, more than a little.
I don't like it when that happens.
The truck drivers need to get out.
They're not getting out.
So you're going to look this number up.
We make sure that container is 3582.
Can you handle this part? All right Ah, ah, slow down! I wasn't feeling very good about slowing Anna down.
Uh How the heck do you find the-- tell me just one more time.
I didn't quite get it.
As a CEO, I want the company to run better, faster, quicker.
This is a little harder than you would think Although she uses a computer, there's a lot of the task on the job that is done manually.
Let me see if I can help you.
You helped me with this one.
That one--49.
Bottom line is, Manuel is not the multitasker.
I'm sure it'll only take me, like, three years to get this.
I don't believe that he is able to do my job on a daily basis.
I think it would be stressful, and he would be overwhelmed.
Do you think I could really do this job? You'd be good for here here-- not for my job, no.
Mm-hmm.
I'm here in Salinas, California, to meet one of our Hispanic managers who supervises the harvesting of lettuce.
Are you Leo? Yeah.
And Manuel? - Manuel.
- Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
About half our our employees are Hispanic.
In these fields, many of them make the first step towards their American dream.
All right.
So what are we gonna do? I'm gonna show you how to cut lettuce.
We're gonna look for defects on the quality.
Okay.
We're gonna look for insect damage.
- Okay.
- We harvest romaine, iceberg, cabbage, red leaf-- everything.
- Wow.
- So this field's gonna be harvested tomorrow.
That's why we're here doing this.
Just don't go on top of the lettuce.
Yeah, I don't want to mess up the lettuce.
Yeah.
There you go.
Now, get your knife.
First thing what I do-- you just cut it and core it and clean it.
We take the first six or seven leaves off.
- Okay.
- And then I'll start checking for any quality problems.
This turns black.
- So we don't want that.
- Exactly.
- What's that called? - Core.
That's the core.
Okay.
You have to get it Let's start checking them here.
Same thing--looking for any defects.
All those look pretty good.
Okay, now you want to try it? Yeah.
The knife is difficult to handle.
Oops.
Almost lost my finger out of that one.
So you got to be very careful that you don't cut your fingers off.
With my five that I did, I didn't find anything.
Did you find anything? Nope.
Okay.
Let's walk through the machine.
Okay.
This machine, the product It goes through there.
That's a washing system.
Okay.
- It goes to the elevator - Okay.
- Into the bin.
- Okay.
My guys--they do 24 bins in one hour.
Wow.
And we do the same thing that we did over there.
You just cut it and core it and clean it and place it down.
We just want it to be clean and no core.
- Okay.
- That's what we need.
Manuel, for you to be able to be on our crew, you need to cut it and core it between two to three seconds.
- Ha ha! - And if you're good enough, we'll see if you can be part of our team.
Okay.
- Two seconds per head.
- Per head.
- Okay.
- Now, this is the problem.
All of these 30 people, if there's one people that doesn't do it fast enough, everything's-- everyone is in trouble.
Exactly.
Dale normal, ¿eh? Normal.
We're just gonna do it like we're harvesting in the field.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna time you to see how fast you can do it.
A thousand one, a thousand two, a thousand three, a thousand four, a thousand five.
A thousand one, a thousand two, a thousand three, a thousand four This is harder than I thought.
Damn.
They go fast, and the machine is going too fast.
Very difficult to pick, core, clean, and put it on the belt in two seconds.
I don't know how they do it.
This is a good workout.
Are you falling behind? - Yes.
- Get closer to the machine.
The machine seems to be moving very slowly.
It's going too fast.
Huh? It's going too fast! But when you go down, you pick the lettuce, you core it--all of a sudden, you turn around, and the belt is already three or four steps ahead of you.
Way too fast, way too fast.
Feels like I'm going slower now.
Okay, Manuel.
Hey.
My guys-- they do it in two seconds.
Now, here, you missed one Two, three.
- I missed those? - Yeah.
- I got to catch my breath.
- Let me show you something.
You see a problem? Oh, I left the core there.
That's not good.
- Another core.
- There's another core.
- Now, you tell me-- - it's horrible.
If there's bad product going in the bin, we'll reject the whole load.
That's very strict.
That's very strict.
Because we want our best in our salads.
We want the best in the bag.
That's what we want.
What the harvester needs, they need good speed and production.
Let's take a little break.
Okay, good, I need a break.
If I had to put Manuel on my crew right now, he'll fall behind.
How long did it take you to be good at it? Uh, it took me-- it just took me a-a-- it just took me a couple of weeks.
Mm-hmm.
And how long ago did you come to the United States? - I was two years old.
- Yeah.
Wow.
I came 11 years ago to the United States, and, you know, I got my green card, and then I got my--I just got my citizenship last year.
- Oh, nice.
- Have you thought about citizenship in the United States? Because that's really important - Oh, no, yeah.
- To do eventually.
That was very important for my family.
- Nice.
- We have two boys, and it was very important for us to get the citizenship.
- I got one daughter.
- Oh, you have one daughter.
- Yeah.
- How old is she? Six years old.
- Six? - Yeah.
Are you gonna have any more children? - No.
- No? - Matter of fact, I adopted.
- Oh.
Oh, really.
You adopted? Oh! Yeah, she was two years old when Oh, that's nice.
What's your daughter's name? Paula.
- Paula.
- Yeah.
- That's a good name.
- Yeah.
Do you think she's gonna grow up to be in agriculture as well? UmI would like her to have a job working from Monday to Friday, you know, 'cause, I mean-- agriculture is tough? It's a little bit on the difficult side.
Yeah.
And your wife, she's also from Mexico? Yes.
She's from Mexico.
But she just work only in Arizona.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, so you live there.
You just come here part of the year and work? Uh-huh.
Six months here and-- and you work on the weekends as well too? Yeah.
It's a little bit on the difficult side.
His family lives in Arizona.
He spends six months of the year here in Salinas.
He's working every day.
How far did you go into school? How long did you go into school? Uh, only high school.
Only high school.
And I'm sure you've studied other things.
Have you studied any more after high school? - No.
- No.
No, because once I got into the produce business, I was like, you know, working from 7:00 in the morning till 7:00, 9:00 at night, so it's hard.
Essentially, he's not seeing his family.
It's a major sacrifice-- huge, huge sacrifice.
- Now you want to try it again? - Yeah.
Let's try it again.
This has been a great journey, a great week.
It was tiring.
I'm tired.
I'm very tired, physically as well as mentally.
It makes me appreciate more what I have.
You know, my dream was to become a U.
S.
citizen, and I've achieved that now.
And yet I see many of these hispanics around me that also want to do the same thing.
And at the same time, it also makes me feel a bigger responsibility over so many people.
This is the land of opportunity, and many times we forget about that.
And I'm gonna do whatever it takes to give those opportunities to others.
Coming up Fernando summons his employees to company headquarters.
It's a little weird having that kind of power in your hands.
Somebody else's job depends on you.
How will they react when he reveals his true identity? I'm the CEO of the company.
I'm Fernando Aguirre.
After my time undercover, there are some things I want to share with my executive team.
Good morning.
Good morning.
W-what's the matter with you guys? We didn't know you were gonna go through a time machine.
Yeah, I cut off at least As you know, I spent the last week undercover.
Essentially, I've never done any of those jobs, and I was out of control.
Literally, I was out of control.
I did ask the question, "would you hire me?" At least two of them said no.
But I was floored by the passion of our people.
They're proud people.
You know, as we say in Mexico, "la camiseta puesta.
" You got the shirt on, and no one's gonna take it from you.
But I think there's a real opportunity for us to improve our business.
At our port in Wilmington, the computer system needs a major upgrade immediately.
So, Kevin, maybe you can lead us through that.
Yeah.
And in the next week or so, if you can give me a plan.
Okay.
Throughout, essentially, every one of these jobs, the training that I received was terrific.
Leo is a just a perfect example of how to train people.
He took his time.
He was patient.
We got to have good training.
Right.
Throughout the company, we need to develop a system to identify more people with great potential.
And I'm actually looking forward to hearing you guys think about what else can we do to be better.
And we all can improve.
We all can do better.
But how do we take advantage of the expertise that we have and the knowledge they have to share more around the company? My employees think they're coming to Cincinnati to evaluate Manuel.
I just cannot wait to tell them who I really am.
I'm very confident with my decision.
I don't think Manuel is cut out to do my job.
It's a little weird having that kind of power in your hands.
Somebody else's job depends on you.
Morning.
Hi.
Have we met before? No.
No.
No.
I don't think so.
- You look like Manuel! - I look like Manuel? Yeah, without the glasses.
How about with these glasses? You look like somebody I know now.
I'm Fernando Aguirre, CEO of the company.
How you doing? Oh, uh Good now, I guess.
I don't know.
- I'm overwhelmed here.
- All right.
Y-you're fine.
You're fine, you're fine.
Anna, my adventure with you was-- it was fantastic.
You're very dedicated.
You're very funny.
But I really, really, really was shocked to know that you don't like bananas.
Now, Anna That was--that was-- I might start eating them.
It was fun.
It was really a great experience for me to be with you guys there.
I thought you were efficient.
I thought you were just terrific.
So I thought I'd do a few things for you.
- Oh, wow.
- First of all I thought it would be great if we gave a $5,000 donation to the SPCA in your name.
We'll call it the Anna donation.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Thank you.
- Good.
- I'm sure the SPCA will too.
Yeah.
I also saw you going up and down those stairs, and you told me about your car accident.
So what we're gonna do, we're gonna put an elevator for you guys to go up and down without having to go through stairs.
We're gonna start construction, in fact, in the next couple of days.
Thank you.
Good lord.
Okay.
I'm gonna get a elevator, which is really exciting-- and then the SPCA, which is very nice.
You know, I love dogs.
That kind of, like, struck me.
I got touched.
Fernando, I got an interesting thing for you.
I was actually certified.
I actually had my My license.
So I did get my license.
- Okay.
- Okay? Now, I was a little rusty.
I wanted to make sure you knew that I-- that I had been certified.
But what I really love about you is you are one of the most efficient employees that I've ever worked with.
- Well, thank you.
- That was fascinating to see you going a mile a minute to get those bananas out the door.
You take ownership for those bananas.
You take ownership for the product.
Yes, I do.
So I was very impressed with that.
Clearly, I put some wear and tear on the forklift.
So first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get you a new forklift.
- Wow.
- I want to make sure that that facility is running great.
I'm also going to pay for a full week of vacation for you and your wife and family.
Wow.
That's great.
How's that? Does that sound good? Sounds good to me.
Absolutely.
Oh, I can't even believe what just happened.
Fernando said I was one of the most efficient employees he's ever seen.
And that's That's a heck of a compliment.
Magic, you have a lot of skills.
I love to see young people like yourself progressing, and I really want to see you progressing more in the company.
Thank you.
And I want to enroll you in a supervisory training program.
And there could be a real opportunity for you to eventually be a plant manager.
I think that would be terrific.
- That would.
- You would like that? Oh, I would like that.
Okay, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna be your mentor.
Would you like that? Yeah, I would.
I want to know how you're doing.
I want to know how things will start shaping up for you.
And, of course, having that type of a career path would allow you to provide more for your family as well.
- Thank you.
- Not only that, Magic, but we're also going to give a $10,000 scholarship fund for the education of your two kids to help them have a better future.
Magic, it was great to meet you.
It was great to work with you.
It was--it was-- the pleasure's all mine.
It made me feel proud of this company to be trying to teach somebody that didn't have any idea what was going on.
And it was just something real special for me to You know, try to show what I know to somebody else.
And hopefully, I can keep doing this.
You will.
My life is gonna be different.
The way I see things, the way I see the company This is something I would want for my kids To feel what I'm feeling right now-- that's just being proud.
Leo, I truly, truly appreciated your personal commitment to Chiquita and to our consumers.
I had seen a lot of good trainers, but I think you're one of the best trainers I met.
Thanks.
I also know that you go back and forth to Arizona and Salinas, and you spend so little time with your family.
We got to do what we got to do, 'cause We got to feed our family.
We got to feed our families.
But we also got to take some time off.
Oh, no, yeah.
We got to spend a little bit of time with--for ourselves.
So the company's gonna pay for a week of vacation Okay.
Thanks.
Thank you.
So that you can take Paula.
- Yeah.
- You can take your wife.
And you go on vacation for a week, paid by the company.
Now, you know, you know a little bit about my story.
I just became an American citizen, and I want you-- I want you.
To have also the American dream.
This is such a great country, and I want to make sure that we help you achieve that dream.
In fact, we're going to pay for you to file your paperwork - Wow.
- For American citizenship.
Oh, my God.
You know, it cost me somewhere around $15,000.
But I want you to become an American citizen.
Does that-- does that work? That'll work.
Thank you, sir.
I really appreciate it.
I come from a Mexican family, and our goal is to have a better life.
In the United States, you can have whatever you want.
You just have to work hard and be 100% at whatever you give.
I had a good experience.
I'm so happy, I can't-- I mean Our employees at the headquarters think we're having a picnic at the Reds Stadium.
None of them know I've been undercover for the last week, and I can't wait to tell them.
Welcome, Chiquita employees.
Please help me welcome our Chairman and CEO, Fernando Aguirre.
Thank you, miss Chiquita.
I got to tell you that you believe that you're here for a company picnic, but last week I went undercover for Chiquita.
I had the most amazing and most challenging week of my professional career.
I want to share with you some of those details.
Let's roll the tape.
- Are you falling behind? - You're going too fast.
Lower it.
Not--not--not the tilt-- - Oh! - What happened? It doesn't close! Maybe he can give him a good office job, and he can watch us do the hard work.
Yeah, that was great.
Yeah, get him an office job.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
I always thought that productivity and efficiency were the keys to our company's success.
But I found that people are what makes the real difference.
I want you to know that I will continue to go unannounced to the fields and the factories, because I want to continue to feel engaged and connected to the heart and soul of our workforce.
The passion I found in the fields and the factories has inspired me to be a better boss.
Thank you very much.
This whole experience was incredible.
He actually is a real person, and he actually came to do what we do every day, and I'm just still overwhelmed.
This experience has increased my awareness of what we ask our employees to do.
And we tend to forget that these employees make sacrifices every single day to support their families.
I have absolutely no regrets.
This was fun.
This was interesting.
This was challenging, and this was amazing.
Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.