Original subtitles

Male announcer: Americans are worried about the economy.

Many of them wonder if our corporate and elected leaders

have the answers to our problems.

In these tough times,

some bosses are taking radical steps

to discover how to improve their companies.

Each week, we follow the head of a major organization

as they work undercover alongside their own staff.

This week, the CEO and co-founder of Brightstar Care,

one of the nation's fastest-growing providers

of private health care...

Arlene to the nurse's station, please.

Announcer: Poses as a former administrative assistant

looking to change careers.

I'm Linda.

I'm Lisa. Nice to meet you.

Announcer: This boss will trade in

her designer shoes and luxury automobile

for a stethoscope and dirty diapers.

Oh, we need a diaper change.

Oh, God.

Announcer: By working on the front line,

she'll find out what's really going on

inside her own company.

We're basically the black sheep

of the whole family.

Deep breath through your mouth.

Announcer: And along this emotional journey...

I hope that dad would be proud

of the work I did today.

[Sniffles]

Announcer: The boss' husband and company co-founder

will join her undercover.

This is K.C.

Undercover Boss 2x21 Brightstar Care Original Air Date on April 17, 2011

== sync, corrected by elderman ==

How you feeling?

Announcer: Brightstar Care is a full-service

private health care company

serving more than 10,000 families across the nation.

More than 11,000 employees

operate 170 locations throughout the United States.

One woman is tasked

with keeping this $100 million company healthy.

I'm Shelly Sun,

the co-founder and CEO of Brightstar.

Brightstar provides care for people of all ages in the home

as well as providing staffing

for hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors' offices.

Children who are perfectly healthy

but the parents want to go out for a date night.

Hi, we need a babysitter for tonight.

Seniors that are in their 60s and 70s

who just want some companionship.

People who might need some rehab therapy.

We want to improve the quality of life.

Good.

Yeah, it feels good.

Back in late 2001,

my husband and I were looking for care for his grandmother

and were just so surprised at how hard it was

to find great-quality care.

We had hired a company,

and we were calling to check and see how grandma was doing,

and we got an answering machine.

You know, it's 5:30.

Both of us looked at each other and said,

you can get great service with restaurants,

stores that you shop,

and somehow we couldn't find great service

with something so much more intimate and personal.

His grandmother actually passed away

the day before we got married.

That was March of 2002,

and we wound up starting our business

in October 2002

to really live the memory of his grandmother.

How are you? Good.

My responsibilities at Brightstar

are to handle franchise development.

- The leads are up? - Leads are doing well.

Making good progress.

Shelly is technically my boss,

although she probably wishes

I was a much more compliant employee at times.

Will you send me the schedule of the join the team day

for the next two weeks?

I handle the office,

and J.D. really does sales.

So we have completely different roles

and responsibilities.

I recommend that for couples working together.

It's probably why we still have such a great marriage

and work together so well.

Okay. I'll see you later.

Growing up, I never really had a great father figure.

My mom remarried a wonderful man,

and he took such an interest in me.

Tony was my stepfather.

I never called him anything but "daddy."

Unfortunately he got sick.

I just lost him last year.

I had been there on Wednesday,

and I was coming back on Friday to see him again,

and he goes, "tell Shelly I just--I can't wait.

It's time. It's time for me to go."

And my executive assistant walked in,

and I could see by the look on her face

that daddy had passed.

Okay, who wants some?

Eh, eh, eh, eh.

With your fork, young man.

J.D. and I, we have twin boys

who just turned six.

Gross.

[Phone rings]

I got a call I gotta take.

Hey.

I think I know I'm a great CEO.

I'm a little bit on shaky ground

knowing whether I'm a great mom.

Is Chuck flying in? Where is mommy?

Mommy? Mommy's on the phone.

Shelly had always struggled with the work/life balance.

Shelly never stopped working during her pregnancy.

Unfortunately she had to do some bed rest at the hospital.

I remember two days before she delivered

we had a staff meeting,

and everyone was there in the hospital room

because she doesn't have an off switch.

Ready to go? I'm really worried that

I'm gonna be recognizable when I'm out in the field.

Don't know, you think I should go longer

or you think I should go shorter?

Maybe you could pull it into a bun or something.

You could look like Princess Leia.

[Fake laughs] Cute.

[Laughs]

Have you thought about going undercover too?

I just don't know.

We started this business together.

I really want both of us

to be able to learn from this experience.

I gotta say I'm really actually excited about this.

We haven't been out in the field in ever.

I think it was really important

to get both of us involved in going undercover.

I don't know why you got the big suitcase.

How many t-shirts do you need?

How many pairs of underwear do you need?

I'm like a boy scout. I want to be prepared.

When J.D. and I first started the business,

we were involved in every decision.

Off we go.

As we've grown,

we've become a little bit more removed.

Oh, that's my baby.

We want to make sure that the care

we say we're providing to families

is being delivered.

- Say bye. - Bye.

J.D. and I are really excited about this opportunity.

We founded this company together,

so it only makes sense that we both go undercover.

You ready?

Do you think we should have you in a disguise?

I don't think people are gonna recognize me

in the field.

What's your undercover name gonna be?

Linda Young.

I think I'm gonna call myself K.C.

Keep the initials there. Yeah.

You always take longer than me.

J.D. and I will tell people

we're former administrative assistants

looking to get a job in health care.

All right, it's time to get started.

Have a great time.

You too. Good luck.

- I'll see you later. - Bye. See you tonight.

I'm in Sierra Vista, Arizona,

on an army base.

I'm gonna be going undercover

working with children in our Kidcare program.

Kidcare is about 10% of our business,

but I see an opportunity to grow it to about 25%

of our business.

I'm hoping that I learn a few things

that I can take back

and be able to really help us escalate the growth.

Hi, how are you? Come in, come in.

- Yeah, thank you. - Nice to meet you.

I'm James. I'm a caregiver.

I do kids care.

We started Kidcare officially in 2009.

J.D. and I had twins.

They were in intensive care for 3 1/2 months.

So after seeing your baby in an Incubator,

we realized that for us

we didn't want a 15-year-old child

watching our children.

So we hired a private caregiver.

You're just in time.

We're gonna go wake them up, okay,

and get them ready. Okay, perfect.

Come over here with me.

Hey, Cayden. Hi, Christian, Chloe.

How are you?

[Sneezes]

Bless you.

I walked in the room and saw these cribs

with nets on them.

I guess to keep the kids from getting out of the cribs.

[Child screams]

Oh, my gosh, there's four children

we're gonna be taking care of.

[Child screaming]

I knew it was going to be a long, hard, exhausting day.

You wanna take him here?

- Your turn next. - This is for him.

This is his socks, okay?

Doing okay? Yeah.

Look at you go. Oh!

Did you go back to sleep?

I bet that pretty pink is yours.

What we do from here,

as soon as we're done changing them,

we're gonna go prepare breakfast.

Okay.

- Are you from here? - No, from Denver.

Nice.

Cameron.

So three boys and a girl?

Yes, it's Cameron, Cayden, and Christian, and Chloe.

Their dad is in Iraq right now.

So we're gonna Skype their dad

through the Internet.

So do you like being able to take care of kids?

I've been taking care of kids since I was eight years old.

Okay.

- My mom had nine kids. - Oh, my goodness.

So we're gonna start getting the breakfast done.

We're gonna get cereal.

We're gonna chop up some bananas.

- Can you do that? - Yeah, absolutely.

See, Chloe's already sitting on her chair.

You're hungry, huh?

Chloe's got purple, huh?

We're gonna sit with them,

and we're gonna encourage them how to use a spoon.

Get the spoon. Good job, Cayden.

Not your fingers. Gotta use your spoon.

Use your spoon. Use your spoon.

Oh.

First time working with kids?

That are someone else's, yes.

I've got two of my own. Not four.

- Not four. - [Laughs]

Take your bib off.

Put it on top of your plate.

Push the plate.

And say, "J.J." J.J.

- "All done." - All done.

Good job.

[Screeches]

After talking with Shelly,

she thought it'd be a great idea

if I went undercover as well.

So I'm in Sierra Vista, Arizona,

and I'm gonna be working with a caregiver

in an independent living facility.

Hi, George? Yes.

- K.C. - How you doing, K.C.?

Good. How are you doing?

Good. We gotta sign in first.

As the head of franchise development,

we talk about what our caregivers do.

But I've actually never done any of the activities,

so I'm really looking forward

to learning about what these folks do

on a firsthand basis.

Here's Mr. Melvin.

Hey, George.

Good to see you. This is K.C.

And K.C.'S gonna be--

I'm gonna be training him on stuff.

[Laughs]

That's one of those names that can go either way.

Mr. Melvin, I haven't seen you in a while.

How you been?

- I've been fine, George. - Good.

This is like a retirement home.

Okay.

Brightstar comes in here as a helper

to help the residents, but it's not part of the home.

- Okay. - Yeah, this would be extra

if a resident wanted to get Brightstar Care.

We're a private caregiving agency.

In Korea, I was just across the border

north of Kunming.

That's pretty amazing.

Wham, wham.

So anyway, what we're gonna do

is we're gonna general cleanup now.

Oh!

Daddy's home.

All right.

We want to get the laundry started.

Okay.

We'll be right back, sir.

We're just gonna start the laundry.

Put all the whites in one.

What--does this--

Yeah, that counts as a dark.

Before you put any pants in there,

check the pockets.

Just get all the darks.

We gotta hustle on this.

Ooh.

That's it.

Go back in. Where'd you get that?

I found this coin in a corner pocket.

We found some money, Mr. Melvin.

Oh!

So go ahead and fill this up,

and we're gonna do the dishes.

Fill it up?

Yeah, with water.

Oh, okay.

There you go.

You got your soap here. Oh, right on.

I'll dry, you wash.

Hey, thanks.

I got the hard job.

George, how long have you been a caregiver for?

Uh, a year and three months.

I was a kindergarten teacher before that.

I'm at nursing school now. Oh, fantastic.

There you go. Yep, and I think we're good.

All right, on this sheet here,

this is just a checklist of things we do.

This sheet would be used

to basically say what activities

of daily living we did with Mr. Melvin.

How does that information

get communicated back then

to, like, the person who was coming after you?

Ideally, somebody will be there to train you

the first time,

but that doesn't always happen.

If you don't have anybody to train you,

then the client has to tell you.

In my mind, that's just unacceptable,

you know, because you don't know what the person wants,

and why should the client have to train you

and five other people besides you?

One of the things I'm gonna absolutely take back with me

was when George was talking about

that a client doesn't have to train a caregiver,

and, you know, I feel that he's actually spot on with that.

These guys are like my mom and dad, huh?

Yeah.

You can't fake the type of connection

that he's able to make with people.

George has got just a phenomenal attitude,

and I thought he was--

I thought he was better than great.

See you later, Mr. Melvin.

Back when, children took care of their parents.

Doesn't happen nowadays.

Announcer: Coming up... - I-27.

I-27!

Announcer: J.D. faces a tough room.

I-24.

Announcer: And later...

Can I put lotion on you?

Announcer: Shelly rubs a patient the wrong way.

That's thick.

Well, I'll just work it around.

Announcer: Shelly and J.D. Sun,

co-founders of Brightstar Care,

are bosses undercover in their own company.

Gotta use your spoon. Use your spoon.

- Use your spoon. - Oh.

So go ahead and fill this up

and we're gonna do the dishes.

- Fill it up? - Yeah, with water.

Oh, okay.

Their journey continues in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

They're gonna see their daddy right now.

Oh.

They must look forward to that, huh?

Yes.

Hey, Matt. Matt!

Here are your kids, Matt.

- Hey, guys. - Say hi to daddy.

Hi, Cayden.

Can you wave to daddy? Hey, daddy.

There you go, Chloe. Hi, daddy.

I love you, Chloe.

Thank you for your service, sir.

You're welcome.

It was so touching to see the dad with his quadruplets.

You know, you never know what the next 24 hours

could bring for him.

He puts himself in harm's way for us.

And so you could see that it meant so much to him

to be able to connect with the children.

Blow kisses, kisses.

It also makes me think about missing

some of my boys' early years

'cause I was working so hard.

You!

My kids are my anchor.

And so I need to make sure

that I'm a better mother to my boys.

Bye, bye.

Bye, guys.

One person stays here to clean.

One person stays with the kids.

So entertain them.

You're leaving me with all four?

- Yep, all four. - Okay.

Don't worry about it.

- Okay, well, go and get it. - [Screaming]

Oh.

Come back in here.

[Crying]

[Kids screaming]

She kinda looks like she's kinda frustrated.

It's good for her. It's a little challenge for her.

- [Crying] - Chloe, do you have poopy?

She has poopy?

Okay, yep.

You're gonna change a poopy diaper.

What, you don't like changing?

It's been a long time,

if I've ever changed a poopy diaper.

Don't get nervous. Just relax.

It's peanut butter or something, you know?

What's wrong, Linda?

Ooh, gross.

How come?

I, like, get a little gaggy

with puke or poopy.

It looked like Linda's husband did the changing

of the diapers.

Like, you gotta be kidding me, I said to myself.

[Whining, screaming]

Cayden Matthew. No, papa, no.

You know better.

You wanna go to time-out?

Stop.

Listen. Are you all done?

James was really good.

I mean, even though they were crying,

he was good at the gentle discipline.

He has a really great balance of seeing the love

but also helping them develop the right things

to be good kids.

- Yeah. - I might wanna go.

What are you going to school for?

I have a lot of things that I wanna do.

Seems like you're kinda the man around this house too,

with dad being away.

Yeah, I think that's what they wanted, a male.

Male caregivers are more uncommon.

We have a lot more females working for us.

But we encourage males to work for us,

'cause sometimes families want to be able

to make their choice of a male or female caregiver.

Do you see yourself, like, becoming a nurse?

My mom was a nurse. She raised nine kids.

You know, I got it from my mom.

James has been a hard worker.

I think he's still trying to figure out

what he wants to do with life.

Okay, we're missing one.

What are you doing over here, young lady?

One of the biggest takeaways I've had thus far

is if we're gonna expand our business with military,

how can we help enable military families

to have easier contact to one another?

'Cause it obviously was very precious to him.

Check your diaper.

Oh, we need a diaper change. Oh, God.

Okay.

Now we get to go call bingo.

Boy, is this gonna be fun.

- Yeah? - Ha! It's a hoot!

- Is it? - Oh, yeah.

It shouldn't be any problem,

but I had to call one time with another guy

that came down,

and they didn't like the way he called.

[Laughs]

Activities like bingo are really important

because it helps the residents keep really active

and allow them to have some fun at the same time.

Hi, folks.

This is my buddy, K.C.

He's gonna do a lot of the calling.

How you doing?

Here we go.

So, K.C., the way this works is we turn it.

One of the little balls will come out here,

and you'll call it.

There's one.

And there's another.

I-27.

I-27!

I-24.

Too fast!

Hey!

What?

I'm gonna move out of the way.

I don't want anything hitting me.

I-24.

Some of the ladies didn't really appreciate

my bingo calling skills or lack thereof.

This is like war in here, baby.

O-69.

- I dropped my badge. - Oh, no.

How will you know who you are?

You want me to put that on you?

Yes. Be careful what you touch.

Ooh! [Laughter]

I know you've only been married twice,

and only your husbands could do something like this but--

- Who said that? - Oh, it's not true?

That's a big fat lie.

N-38.

All right!

I want the car right now.

The car?

Well, we have a $25 gift certificate to Sears.

And everyone doesn't cheer

after the other person wins either.

So we put them all back in here.

Okay, we gotta be fast.

We want to get all these things done.

You know, what I learned about myself today

was that I love this whole idea of service.

- I-16. - Bingo!

Oh!

It made me feel just so good.

This would be a nice gift for you.

You want me to call it or do you want K.C. to call it?

You call it.

[Sighs]

[Laughter]

That was wild.

- Hey, sweetheart. - Hey, babe, how was it?

- It was fantastic. - Missed you.

How you doing?

I'm very exhausted,

taking care of four two-year-olds.

You know, I was a little nervous doing some of the care.

I didn't want to hurt anybody.

What did you do today?

We went to an independent living community.

Okay.

We were, like, doing dishes.

You know, the last activity of the day,

we were calling bingo,

and I remember Grandma Pat used to love bingo.

You know, when we were looking for someone

to help care for her,

we needed to make sure that she was treated with respect.

And enjoyed every day.

And lived with dignity.

And, you know, that's something

that, you know, I'm proud to say, you know,

George is absolutely the embodiment of,

and, you know, helping those folks live that way.

That's good.

Announcer: Coming up...

We're gonna listen to your lungs, okay?

Announcer: Things get emotional for Shelly.

That same intimate care

was very similar to the last couple of days with my dad.

[Sobs]

Announcer: Shelly and J.D. Sun,

co-founders of Brightstar Care,

are bosses undercover in their own company.

- What's wrong, Linda? - Ooh, gross.

I-27.

- I-27! - Bingo.

Oh!

Unfortunately something's come up with J.D.'s parents,

and they're no longer able to watch our boys.

Gonna miss you.

So J.D.'s gonna head back.

- Have fun. - I will.

And I'm gonna continue this undercover mission alone.

I'm in Northern California.

Gonna be working with a certified nursing assistant

in a temp situation.

Which means when the regular employees in a nursing home

call in sick or are out on maternity leave

or are taking vacation,

we're there to provide temporary help.

Good morning. I'm here to see Arlene.

Arlene to the nurse's station, please.

Staffing has the potential

to be about 40% of our business.

Today it's about half of that,

and so I want to make sure

that our employees are going above and beyond

so that we can continue to help facilities

augment their staff.

- Hi. - Hi.

Nice to meet you. I'm Arlene.

Hi, there. Linda. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

I'm a C.N.A.,

certified nursing assistant.

Have you ever done any type of--

No. What does a certified nursing assistant do?

Basically we assist all the residents

that we have with hygienic care.

We give them bed baths. We brush their teeth.

Basically all the stuff we do for ourself hygienically,

we do for them.

Let's actually get started. Okay, sure.

So what's the difference between a registered nurse

and a C.N.A.?

They give the meds. We do the care.

How many people do you take care of?

Okay.

Now we're gonna work on Leo.

Good morning, Leo.

A little bit, sorry.

You always want to start with the eyes.

You have lotion?

Don't want you ashy.

You know me and ash don't mix.

Let's get some lotion on you.

If you wanna do that while I go empty this bucket.

Okay.

Can I put lotion on you? Is that okay?

Okay.

That's thick.

Well, I'll just work it around.

It'll be all day before that go in.

It's okay, it happens.

You did put a lot though.

Stinker.

Let's go get Mr. Gray ready.

Hi, Mr. Gray.

You're already up and dressed and everything.

So you have a shower today, Mr. Gray.

You need a shower every week.

- Thank you. - You're a lady.

I'm gonna keep my eye on you.

He's the GQ.

He is Mr. GQ, isn't he?

He is.

You ready for a shower?

Mr. Gray was adorable in his personality.

We're gonna leave Mr. Gray over here

by Miss Micasa.

It felt very gratifying to be able to do something for him

as simple as combing his hair and blow-drying his hair.

I mean, it felt good in doing something for him

that he might not be able to do for himself.

Did I do okay? Can I come back?

Sure.

You'd let me back?

[Laughs]

You are a character.

Linda wasn't hesitant to work with patients,

and I love that.

You want a little jacket on?

It's a little chilly outside. Yeah.

I want some people who can just go in there

and work without thinking about,

will he like me or not?

She did great with that.

We'll see you in a little bit, okay?

What do you do if you're not here?

When I'm not here, I go to school.

Oh, what are you going to school for?

To be--oh, a registered nurse. Oh, that's right.

I love working with people,

so this is kind of the field

that I wanted to go into.

So what made you decide you wanna be a nurse?

Oh, my gosh. I'm a single parent.

How many children do you have?

I have one daughter, and she's seven.

So, you know, it's kinda hard.

CNAs only get paid so much.

So, you know, I wanna make sure I can provide for her.

- How old are you? - I'm 24.

This is, like, the down time.

You've got a seven-year-old daughter.

So you had her when you were in--

16, high school, yeah.

What were your parents' reaction?

Oh, my God, they're Filipino,

so they were pissed,

to be blunt.

You know, I felt like I was wasting my time.

So I went back to school,

like, I'd say a week after I gave birth to my daughter.

That musta been so hard.

It was.

My daughter's dad passed away at 16.

He got killed by a drunk driver.

At that point in my life,

that was when I was at my lowest.

But after that, it's just like

a lot of people take that and don't do anything.

For me, I don't like when people

give me credit for the things that I've been through.

I'd rather them give me credit

for the things I accomplished.

So now that I'm at this period of my life,

I'm almost done with school.

I'll probably be an R.N. by the time I'm 25 1/2.

Obviously nursing school's not the last route.

I eventually want to open up my own nursing home

and, you know, have patients like this.

Arlene's amazing.

I mean, she's just so focused on the future,

making the best of her life.

Even from a very young age,

I think she has a lot of interest

in being an entrepreneur.

So seeing what she might choose for herself

over the next few years will be fun to watch.

So you all work full-time for the nursing home?

I work for Brightstar.

So we're not full-time.

So basically we're just on-call to a facility

where we're not permanent.

We're basically, like, the black sheep

of the whole family.

What does that mean?

We kinda have the misnomer

that we're not really good workers,

that's the thing.

'Cause, you know, we're not full-time here.

So we don't know how things run smoothly.

So it's harder to come in and just kinda get going,

knowing where everything is, where the laundry room is?

Yeah, exactly.

You gotta have people trust you in your work.

To hear that our temporary employees

were kinda seen as the black sheep

in a temporary staffing assignment

was really hard to hear.

So let's see what else we got to do.

- Great. - Sound good?

I'm in Centerville, Ohio,

and I will be working alongside

a licensed practical nurse

going into a family's home for a visit.

Lisa? Hi.

- Hi, I'm Linda. - I'm Lisa. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you as well.

Hopefully we'll have a good experience today.

An L.P.N., or a licensed practical nurse,

is someone who's had much more education

than a certified nursing assistant.

So they're able to provide much more skilled care.

Hi. How are you?

- I'm fine. - I'm Lisa.

I'm an L.P.N. with Brightstar.

And this is Linda, who's training with me today.

Dad's in the living room,

if you'd like to come with us.

It'll be great to make sure the quality of care

is being performed today by our brand.

Dad, this is Lisa from Brightstar

and Linda from Brightstar,

and they're here to check you out.

Ed, we're gonna go ahead and get started

with what we call the vital signs, okay?

The first thing I'm gonna teach her

is a pulse.

You're gonna take your index finger and middle finger,

and you're gonna go right along the bone,

come on down to where his watchband was.

There you go.

Now press in

till you feel, like, a bunk,

something moving.

It's in there.

[Laughter]

I see you breathing,

so I know it has to be in there somewhere.

The longer it takes, the more my heart pounds,

and all I can hear is my own heart.

It's okay. I'll tell you what,

why don't we come up about a half inch up more.

Do you feel anything? Got it.

Now we're gonna count for a full minute.

- 57. - I got 62.

So very close. That's very good.

If this is something you're going to pursue,

I'm just gonna give you a heads-up.

Okay.

You will not be able to have fingernail polish on,

and you will not be allowed to have any acrylic nails.

Even your real nails need to be cut.

Okay.

We're gonna listen to your lungs.

- Go right ahead. - Okay?

Listen for any crackling or wheezing,

anything that sounds like rice krispies

in the morning when you pour the milk in, you know?

- Okay. - Exhale.

- No crackles. - Good.

You're feeling for muscle strength

to make sure that they're equal.

Squeeze. Oh, he's strong.

Very good, very good.

Now we're gonna use a digital thermometer today.

Don't bite it.

Well, Ed, we are done with what I need to do

for the paperwork.

I just want to make sure that you have no questions

before we leave.

You're more than welcome, anytime.

Okay, well, I'll take you up on that.

I had thoughts of my dad

when I'm sitting there with Ed.

That I would just be so proud

to have had someone like Lisa

interacting with my dad at the very end.

And thank you for letting Linda come in and practice.

Thank you, thank you.

- Bye. - Buh-bye.

We're gonna go ahead and head to the next home.

Okay.

How many children do you have?

- I have six. - You have six kids.

Your youngest is? He's 18.

And the oldest just turned 23 in September.

So you were pregnant nonstop practically.

No, we're a combined family. We're the Brady Bunch.

It's been very hard. Yeah.

My husband and I both lost our jobs.

We worked for General Motors for over 14 years,

and I'm not getting a 40-hour paycheck from Brightstar.

It's hard.

We haven't had a vacation since we got married.

We went to Cancun.

I couldn't have asked for a better wedding,

but the kids weren't there.

That's the only thing I would have changed.

Doesn't sound like your wages are that predictable.

No, that's when my husband

tried to push me into looking somewhere else.

I tried to let him understand that the work will come,

but you can only be patient so long.

I'm proud that Lisa wanted to stay with Brightstar,

but also sad as to how much personal stress that must cause.

We'll let you do the miniature assessment.

And if anytime during this you have any questions,

you just say, "hey," okay?

Okay.

- Hi. How are you? - I'm fine. I'm Lisa.

Hi, Lisa. I'm an L.P.N. from Brightstar.

- Nice to meet you. - I have a trainee with me.

- Linda. - Hi, Linda.

Nice to meet you.

When we got to the second client's house...

How are you today? Well.

I wanted Linda to take the lead

so it would show what she had paid attention to.

Can you go stronger?

Little bit more.

It's even. Okay.

Ultimately Linda went on with it,

and I have to say she's a very fast learner.

Hi. Hi.

Everything sounds fine,

looks fine with her vital signs.

There's no issues at all.

Has she had any falls or--

She fell a year ago and went through rehab

for three months at the nursing home.

And when I met with Pat of your company,

he helped walk me through what it was going to be like.

That was really kind of invaluable to me

because I didn't have any clue.

Truthfully, I had a couple grandparents in nursing homes,

and they didn't get to come home.

They weren't that lucky.

Well, I really appreciate your input.

Thank you for letting me and Linda

come into your home today. Oh, absolutely.

We appreciate you guys too. We really do.

My biggest feeling of walking away from the day

is feeling very proud of the quality of care.

Thanks again. Nice to meet you.

But it's really hard to think about

potentially losing someone like Lisa

from not getting her consistent hours.

I don't know how we fix it,

but it's something I definitely wanna go back and address.

I learned so much

about the kind of special people we have

working for us.

Oh, it was a long day.

Oh.

I hope dad would be proud

of the work I did today.

Actually that same intimate care

was very similar to the last couple of days

with my dad.

[Sobs]

Just thinking about the very end.

I would give anything

that I wouldn't have gone back to work.

I could have had another whole day or two with him

if my priorities were in the right place.

I'd give anything to get that last couple days back.

My undercover experience is over.

I'm really curious to hear

my senior executive team's thoughts

on what I learned while I was undercover.

[Overlapping chatter]

Hi, everybody.

- Hello. - How are we doing?

We're gonna talk about just that.

We've got a bit of a to-do list.

- All right. - Oh, boy.

I was working with Lisa,

who's a licensed practical nurse,

and she loves Brightstar.

But right now she's trying to make ends meet,

and it made you feel proud

and broke your heart kind of all at the same time

that you wanted to be able to get her more hours.

What can we do to enable that?

We hear all the time one office is working overtime

and another office doesn't have enough hours to go around.

There has to be a way that we can get some type

of a pooled scheduling system.

Well, and if we don't do something to solve it,

they're gonna be working for our competitors,

and we can keep those great people with us full-time.

J.D. worked with this amazing caregiver, George,

and he's working with families.

He doesn't believe the family

should have to orient the caregiver,

you know, each and every time.

That should be our responsibility,

to make sure that caregiver to caregiver knows that

We need to work on that.

Working with Arlene in a nursing home,

she said she's really considered to be the black sheep,

you know, coming in as a temporary employee,

because she has to rely on all the other

certified nursing assistants on what to do.

And so, you know, what could we do

so when they start they can hit the ground running?

I know you guys are up to the task.

And thank you for all the work you're about to do.

- Thank you. - Thanks, Shelly.

I'm about to reveal my true identity

to the employees, who think they're here

to evaluate my performance on the job.

I've called them to the brand-new future site

of our new company headquarters.

We haven't even moved in yet,

so they have no idea they'll be meeting with the CEO.

I'm not used to, you know,

putting my critique into someone.

Linda, she coulda done a little bit better.

She wasn't that good.

[Chuckles]

Hi.

Hello. Do you know who I am?

Linda.

Very-- very different.

I'm actually Shelly Sun,

the CEO and co-founder of Brightstar.

Oh, my gosh.

You guess you can keep your fingernails.

James, you were wonderful to work with.

You're so good.

You give them love, you give them discipline.

You do that so naturally with them.

You've got so much opportunity ahead of you.

And because you're interested in so many things,

I'd like to pay to have a career coach work with you

so that you could have someone guiding you

and giving you advice,

help you reach all of your possible potential.

What do you think about that?

That be something you'd be interested in?

Yeah.

We'll also give you a check for $5,000

as seed money to help you

pursue a business opportunity

or pursue additional education.

Whatever you wanna use that money for.

And then for something really fun,

we're gonna send you and whoever you wanna take with you

on a week-long vacation.

We'll pay for your hotel, your airfare,

and we'll give you $1,000 of spending money

just to have some fun.

I can take my mother.

She must be very proud of you.

She always told me good things happen to good people.

Oh, look at you.

It'll mean a lot to me to take my mom,

'cause usually I don't see her that much.

I wanna do something for my mom

'cause of all the good things that she has taught me in life.

George, a few days ago you were training

one of our caregivers, K.C. Yes.

That's actually not a caregiver

but my husband and co-founder of Brightstar.

Oh, isn't that nice?

J.D. was so touched by what a great caregiver you are,

what a huge heart you have.

I know that you're going through nursing school.

We'd like to pay for your extra year of school,

your last year of school.

It would be our honor

to help you with that.

Thank you for all you do.

That's very kind of you to do that.

Well, I'm not done.

[Both laugh]

I don't really need a whole lot.

Brightstar is actually beginning

to expand internationally,

and we'd like to have you be a part of that.

So we'd like to create

this global quality ambassador position

where we would pay you

so that you can make sure the quality of care

that you're delivering here

is making a difference in families' lives

all around the world.

That would be nice.

That would be good.

That be something you'd be interested in?

I think I-- I think I could do that.

See the world on us.

I don't feel worthy of that.

You're very worthy.

I appreciate that.

I feel overwhelmed, yeah.

I just feel like it's something that I do all the time anyway.

I don't see it as anything that I'm doing special.

[Sobs]

Arlene, you were so wonderful to work with.

You have such a huge heart.

I mean, everything that you've experienced

in your life, and you still have

such a huge, positive energy.

Don't make me cry. Oh, my God.

I just shine through I guess.

I can't imagine having a daughter at such a young age,

and you guys don't get to spend much time together.

No, it's rare.

I'd like to send your and your daughter

for a week-long vacation to a family theme park,

pay for your airfare.

You know, maybe you guys can get away

and have some fun times.

She would love that,

and I don't get to spend a lot of time with her.

Being positive is one thing,

but your drive and your ambition

to just go as far as you possibly can go,

I mean, it reminded me of me,

you know, 17 years ago.

When you're ready,

we are actually starting a second brand,

an assisted living concept.

The Antioch territory,

which is where you live and where you're working.

I have made arrangements so that that territory

can be your franchise.

Franchise fee's $47,500.

That's my contribution. No way.

And I will work with you to try to secure financing.

Oh, my God.

Thank you so much.

We would be very lucky

to have you in the Brightstar family.

Well, I'm already part of the Brightstar family.

You are, absolutely.

My life has changed drastically.

I just want to jump for joy right now,

I'm not gonna lie.

Lisa, I was very proud,

in fact I had a couple of times

where I almost just wanted to break my cover

'cause I just wanted to hug you

and say thank you for everything

that my husband and I got in the business to do.

Thank you for creating a job

that I really get to connect with people,

and they make a difference in my life too.

Well, you made a difference in mine.

Thank you.

Seeing you take care of your clients, Lisa,

really made me wish you'd been around

to take care of J.D.'s grandmother

and my dad.

And it kinda really brought back to heart firsthand,

you know, what we're doing.

Thank you.

You had talked about how

when you got married four years ago

the kids weren't able to be there

and that was your only regret.

And you're so family-oriented.

And so I'd like to recreate that.

I want to send you back to Cancun

for a re-do-over of your vows

with you and your husband, all six of your kids,

and your two grandchildren, all ten of you.

I'm overwhelmed with your generosity.

But I know you're a worrier.

You talked about your husband's getting ready

to get laid off.

So I want to make sure you know

that while you're away,

I'm gonna pay as though

you were working a 40-hour week.

So your salary is taken care of.

Oh, my gosh.

And for the next six months,

we're gonna pay your mortgage.

Oh, my word.

I can't say thank you enough.

I wish I could give you a hug.

We are gonna do just that.

Thank you so much.

To know that someone appreciates the work that I do

and really cares,

I've never had--imagined-- anything like this.

And I will be forever, ever thankful.

I'm really excited to have an opportunity

to share what I experienced over the last week.

It's my great pleasure to introduce

our CEO and co-founder of Brightstar,

Shelly Sun.

[Cheers and applause]

I've spent the last week undercover at Brightstar

for Undercover Boss.

[Cheers and applause]

I have been out with some of our amazing caregivers,

seen firsthand the high quality of care

that we are providing all over the country.

Let's take a look at some video clips

of my week working undercover.

Thank you.

He is Mr. GQ, isn't he? He is.

[Laughter]

Don't get nervous. Just relax.

It's peanut butter or something.

[Laughter]

Well, I went undercover to try to see

what we might need to do to become the market leader,

and every single caregiver that I worked with,

it was clear to me that we already are the market leader

in the quality of care.

If we've got great caregivers

and we take great care of them so they never leave,

then the future is unfathomable

as to what we could do.

[Cheers and applause]

I feel more at peace with my dad's passing.

I didn't know until I tapped into this process

that I had been probably suppressing some guilt

for me not being there.

I want to get my priorities in place.

I don't want my kids to feel like

mommy chose work over them.

And so in some way his death allowed me

for the rest of my life to be a better mother to my boys.

== sync, corrected by elderman ==