Original subtitles

More than 100 of America's biggest bosses...

- I just hope I can keep up with the guys.

Have gone undercover

in their own companies.

- That wasn't as easy as it looks.

- Here we go! - Lift me up!

- I'm about to just flip out here.

- I would almost swear you look like somebody else.

- Right here, right now,

we're gonna shut the restaurant down.

More than $20 million

has been awarded to employees.

- I'll write up a check for $250,000.

- Oh, my God.

And millions of lives...

- I'm gonna pay off the mortgage.

Changed forever.

- For real? - This is real.

The greatest reward is to see people live their dream.

- That's a life changer.

This season...

- Oh, that's pretty cold.

The most incredible...

- We just got an emergency response.

- Let's rumble!

Surprising...

- I am actually Drew Brees. - Oh, my God.

And challenging journeys...

- Report of a building on fire.

So far. - Blech.

- Uh-uh, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no.

- Coming up!

- Let's talk about getting you out of this system.

- Oh, my gosh!

Tonight on "Undercover Boss"...

- Okay, here we go. Boom, boom, boom.

One of the world's biggest restaurant chains,

TGI Fridays, known for fun and family for over 50 years,

has fallen on hard times.

The CEO tasked with turning things around

is going undercover...

- Oh, yikes.

To find out if the changes he's making...

- Beautiful.

To put them back on top...

- It's honestly a pain in the ass.

It gets so frustrating.

Are firing up sales...

- That should be full of people.

It's infuriating.

Or burning out his staff.

- Got to stay focused over here.

Once you lose track, everything'll be off.

Along the way,

he'll discover some hard truths...

- This collapsed in the middle of shift.

And find out how his restaurants

are really being run.

- Something in the chain is broken.

How will his employees react...

Oh, wow.

When his identity is revealed?

- It's gonna make every difference.

You have no idea.

- I'm just overwhelmed. - Oh, look at me.

All this next on "Undercover Boss."

- My name is Ray Blanchette.

I'm the CEO of TGI Fridays.

TGI Fridays is a massive brand.

All parts of the country, people know TGI Fridays.

Fridays is famous as the place to go for that Friday feeling,

you know, to relax, be social

with family and friends over great food and drink.

TGI Fridays was actually the original bar and grill

started in 1965 at First and 63rd in New York City.

Fridays was created by Alan Stillman,

who wanted to create a place

where really everyone was welcome.

It was really the first sort of female-friendly bar.

You know, it was a time in the country

where there was a lot happening.

Civil rights and women's rights and TGI Fridays.

The timing was just perfect.

It was an instant success.

People were lined up around the block to get in.

It was a whole new scene.

This success quickly spread across Americ,

with 115 restaurants opening up in just 20 years.

In 1986, the brand went global,

and they now have 842 restaurants across the world.

This all-American drinking and dining institution

is worth a massive $2 billion

and employs nearly 60,000 staff.

- I grew up in Maryland.

My father worked for the National Security Agency.

When I was young, my mom was at home.

I learned at an early age that I liked working

and getting paid for it.

I worked on a farm all through middle school and high school.

I always saw myself as working somewhere

with a lot of energy.

I started at TGI Fridays in 1989

as a manager in training.

I was very young, had a brand new baby,

and made basically nothing.

We were oftentimes making decisions

between food and diapers, but luckily,

at TGI Fridays, I was given a lot of opportunity.

Climbed every rung of the corporate ladder.

After 18 years, I left.

I actually went out and turned around a few other companies,

so I was gone for 12 years and then was recruited

to come back about a year ago to run TGI Fridays,

which, for me, is a dream job.

Coming back to TGI Fridays felt like home.

We have a big problem in the industry,

where less people are dining in our restaurants

in favor of food delivery,

so I really need to drive traffic into our restaurants

as a top priority.

Shortly after becoming CEO, I rolled out

several new initiatives across the business

to broaden our customer base.

You know, new promotions, new menu items.

And if we don't continue to evolve,

the price for failure is go out of business.

I am motivated by 60,000 people around the globe

counting on me to reenergize a brand that I love.

I don't wanna disappoint them.

I'm gonna go undercover in my TGI Fridays restaurants

and see what I can learn.

- So when was the last time you made a martini behind the bar?

- 1989. - Okay.

- And I was terrible at it. - Really?

- Oh, terrible. - So who you gonna be?

- My name's Keith Phillips,

and I'm a former innkeeper from Maine,

and they recently sold the property,

and now I've gotta go find something else to do.

Say good-bye to Ray.

Next time you see me, I'll be Keith Phillips.

- See you soon, Keith.

- We have made a lot of changes over the last yea.

I wanna know. Are people overwhelmed?

Are they enthusiastic?

Are the changes that need to happen in the business

actually happening so that we can

compete harder and win in the future?

Oh, yikes.

- And here comes Keith.

- Oh, my God.

- Oh... oh, my gosh!

- Come give your daddy a kiss. - Oh, my gosh!

- Give daddy a hug.

- During filming, my team members will be led to beliee

that they are taking part

in a documentary about second careers.

They have no idea that this is really "Undercover Boss."

Keith has left the building.

- Bye. - Bye.

All right, here we go.

Today I'm in Laurel, Maryland, to visit Brittany,

the bar manager here, who I have heard

is a really good bartender trainer.

We talk about the bar as kind of being

the essence of our business.

We sort of originated flair in bars.

I can remember back in 1989 when I did my training

and we spent a good 10 days behind the bar,

and it was the worst 10 days of my training.

What I'm gonna be looking for is, you know,

the quality of training of our bartenders,

and while I don't expect to see

a great deal of flair on a Monday shift,

what I am looking for is they bring that personality.

- Hi. how are you?

I'm Brittney. - Hi, Brittney.

- Nice to meet you. - I'm Keith, nice to meet you.

- Wonderful to meet you. You ready to get this started?

- I think so. - All right.

So do you have any previous restaurant experience?

- Well, we have a little restaurant at the inn.

- All right, Fridays is known for their innovative drinks.

- Okay.

- We have color-changing drinks.

We also have drinks we light on fire.

- It's like a science laboratory.

- Do you have those at the inn?

Yeah, right.

Just gonna try to show you how this would work.

So when you pour it in, and it doesn't have to be a lot...

- Oh, wow.

- That's the magic trick. - It's great.

That's cool. - And people go crazy for it.

- Sure. - This is our shimmer dust.

You see how it glitters? - Mm-hmm.

If you just stir it, it activates all the sparkles.

Another drink people go crazy for.

Fantastic.

This is, like, our bar Bible. - Oh my.

- And it even breaks it down for you

even how you have to cut the fruit,

so nothing is left to guess. - Okay.

- All right, you wanna try your hand out

at this color-changing drink? - Yeah, let's do it.

- Let's do it, all right.

- Okay, mixer... ice in it? - Ice in it.

I'm looking for somebody who can multitask,

has a good memory...

- Okay, where's my ice scoop?

- It's right back there. - Back here.

- I'd like to teach him, you know,

pick up a little bit of the pace.

All right.

And you see how it's that purple-blue color?

- Right.

- That's exactly what you're looking for.

- I love that Brittney's doing

literally every single thing by the book.

Unfortunately, today I'm slowing her down.

- And that is your magic martini.

You should be able to get a drink here

and then go to the Fridays in the Dominican Republic

and have the exact same drink.

- That sounds nice. - Who wouldn't?

- Right.

- I keep trying to vie for a spot internationally.

- Okay.

I think Brittney is dynamite.

I mean, she's the kind of manager

that I would have loved to have had on my team

'cause she's enthusiastic, right?

She brings great personality and energy to the business.

- So what I'm gonna show you now is one of

the most important parts about Fridays.

We're gonna do basic flairing.

Little things when you're making your drink,

it just makes the customers excited.

- Yeah, I could see that. - You wanna give it a try?

You see, you just kinda...

There you go. That's the under the leg.

- All right. - Catch with the same hand.

- All right. - Just the spacing.

- Oh! Look at that.

That's really good. - I used two hands.

That doesn't count. - That's okay.

It's really good for your first try.

- One more time. - I got faith in you.

- That was a little... Little overzealous.

- It's all right.

It's all right.

- The main part of this is just dealing with people

and being able to jump from one thing to the other.

For example, clearly the ceiling fell in.

- Oh, no. What happened?

- We had a massive flood... - Oh.

- And this collapsed in the middle of shift.

The roof has to be completely leveled out,

but the waiting on the corporate approval part

is just... it's a pain in the ass.

- So Brittney is telling me that

repairs and maintenance get bottlenecked at corporate.

Clearly, that's not a corporate policy.

Something in the... in the chain is broken.

Coming up,

the boss is put under pressure...

- Yes, when you're hired in Fridays, we are trained.

We have two weeks of training.

- Two weeks of training?

Like, is that literally

the amount of training she's received?

And uncovers some serious issues.

- All you gotta do is turn around.

Boom, boom, boom.

- Today I'm undercover in my own company, TGI Fridays,

to make sure our strict standards are being upheld.

- Clearly the ceiling fell in.

We had a massive flood,

and this collapsed in the middle of shift.

The roof has to be completely leveled out,

but the waiting on the corporate approval part

is just... it's a pain in the ass.

- So Brittney is telling me that repairs and maintenance

get bottlenecked at corporate.

Clearly that's not a corporate policy.

Something in the... in the chan is broken.

- I've learned a lot having to deal with issues myself.

I haven't had a GM since the first month I worked here.

- So it was kind of like we had to

figure everything out on our own.

- If there's no general manager in this restaurant,

that's a big problem.

A business like this, especially a business with

a late night bar, needs not just a general manager,

but a strong general manager.

- So when did you come here?

- I came here October 27th of last year.

- Oh, okay.

- I had taken a break.

I went through some of my own struggles.

I was involved with

some drugs for quite some years,

and so I got myself clean, went back to Fridays,

and they were really good, they worked with me.

Anytime I needed to leave, if I had to go to a meeting,

anything I had to deal with...

- If I wasn't undercover, there's no way

that I would have learned that from her just now.

She's a fantastic trainer and a very hard worker.

Really special person.

- So you wanna take a break? - Let's do it.

- All right, let's go.

- All right. - Well, cheers.

- Cheers to a good first day.

- Thanks for the training today.

It sounds like you've dealt with some pretty hard stuff.

- Yeah, yeah, I have.

I've been through a lot.

I was involved with some really, really terrible people,

and I found out my sister was pregnant,

and I decided I can't have my nephew running around

and seeing me like that, and I've been clean ever since.

- You come across as the boss.

- Yeah.

- You were showing me what to do.

You knew what you were talking about, I mean...

- I think a lot of people are ashamed of their past,

and I just think of it as... my past is what made me who I am.

The reason I am so strong is because I've been through

other situations like that. - You better believe it.

That's such a powerful story, man.

You should be really proud of yourself.

- Brittney has been through more

than most people twice her age.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you. - Thanks.

- You're so welcome. It was wonderful to meet you.

- Nice to meet you. All right. Bye.

This is a people business, and all our people matter.

I want Brittney to work for us ten years from today.

I want to find a way to give Brittney the support

she needs at the company so she can thrive.

We are in New York City,

birthplace of TGI Fridays.

We're headed to Sheepshead Bay in Brookly,

and I will be working with

an assistant manager named Michelle.

When I was the vice president East Coast,

Long Island was most profitable market

in the entire country for TGI Fridays,

but current sales performance in this restaurant

is down about 15%.

When you know that you've got a market

not living up to its potential,

how do we get this business back to its former glory?

Hi, Michelle. - Hello.

- I'm Keith. - Hi, Keith.

Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.

- So you're gonna be my new manager.

- You're gonna train me. - Yes. Let's get started.

- You tell me where we're gonna start,

and we'll get to it. - Yes.

As a manager, there is one main thing

that you have to do to work in a restaurant.

You have to know how to multitask.

- Multitask, okay. - Yes, that's the big word.

- All right. - Multitask.

- So are you in the front of the house a lot, then?

- Yeah, I am front of the house manager.

I'm also the host manager.

It doesn't matter if we're front of the house,

back of the house.

When the business is going, we have to be everywhere.

- Okay.

- This is where the food comes out the restaurant window

when our customers order.

This little screen right here is very important

because we have to have certain ticket times.

Appetizer is 5-10 minutes.

Dinner should be 10-20 minutes

that needs to get out the window.

Today is gonna be a very busy day.

Weekends we're always busy.

So we have to get our gloves on,

and we have to get busy.

So when you see the black tickets

in the window, this means now that this food is ready to go.

So this is the food that we need

to get out right now.

Follow him right there.

See the guy with the black shirt?

Take it to table 12 where he just went to.

- Here's your macaroni and cheese.

- Okay, guys, we're missing a kids pasta, marinara sauce,

kids chicken finger.

This is our busy time.

This is when we get busy as managers, go.

- This is when we have to hustle, huh?

- Yes, this is when we hustle. - Okay.

First impression, Michelle is full of energy,

very enthusiastic.

You can tell she wants to do a good job,

but things here are pretty disorganized.

- I grew up back home, and there were some days

with my mom... my grandmother had a little restaurant,

family restaurant,

so that passion that I have came from there, okay?

- And how long have you worked for TGI Fridays?

- I have been working for TGIF... next month September

will make me a year I've been here.

- So have you been trained to do

all these stations separately?

- Yes, when you're hired in Fridays, we are trained.

We have two weeks of training.

- And she said her training was two weeks long.

A manager training at TGI Fridays

starts at eight weeks.

So there's a clear disconnect here.

Two weeks of training?

Like, is that literally the amount

of training she's received?

- So have you been trained to do

all these stations separately?

- Yes, when you're hired in Fridays, we are trained.

We have two weeks of training.

- And she said her training was two weeks long.

A manager training at TGI Fridays

starts at eight weeks.

So there's a clear disconnect here.

Two weeks of training?

Like, is that literally the amount

of training she's received?

- Okay, guys, we have

a fried chicken sandwich and French fries.

Not you?

Okay. They're probably down here.

- Oh. - We came to the wrong one.

Okay, fried chicken sandwich with French Fries.

- You got it. I'll fix that immediately.

Sorry about that. - No problem, this way, Keith.

All right.

- If you manage the small details

in a restaurant, you never have big problems.

What I see here is just basically sloppiness.

- This time is saying over half an hour.

Food should be at least 15-20 minutes, not 29 minutes.

- Right.

- So now we know that we're running behind.

- I think they're still waiting on a Cobb salad.

- Oh, guys, what's up with the chicken...

The chicken for the Cobb salad they never got?

- Joshua.

- Where's the Cobb salad?

- Michelle just took the Cobb salad.

The job of a restaurant manager

does not have to be that stressful.

It's all about planning correctly,

staffing correctly, having a well-trained team.

So somebody needs to sit down and really coach her

on better leadership.

- We got a guest that's complaining, so we gotta get

to the kitchen and find out what's going on...

- Okay. - With their food, okay?

- Oh, we gotta do the guest first.

- That's high priority, so right now...

- Okay, top priority, let's go. - Actually, yes, come on.

Hi guys, I'm just looking for table 23's food.

'Cause the guest is complaining.

We're not gonna move from this expo

until we get that guests' food,

so we don't have a guest complain.

- Okay. - So that's how we do that.

- She hasn't really been properly trained.

She should've been taught, get to the guest,

apologize, explain exactly what's going on,

and then make sure their food gets out very quickly.

If the guest was feeling neglected,

they're just gonna continue to feel more neglected.

Shifts like this

that can ruin a restaurant's reputation.

- I'll take you to the most beautiful spot

in the restaurant that I like.

Look at it. Isn't it gorgeous?

- Yeah, it's beautiful. - Yes, it's very gorgeous.

Okay. - Nobody's out here, though.

- Well, today there was no one assigned to the patio.

- Dining al fresco in Brooklyn is a rarity,

and so the fact that we have it

and we're not taking advantage of it...

That should be full of peopl. That's a big problem.

- So we wanna go inside? - Yes.

- Put that in there. - Right.

- And I'll follow you. We go to table 46.

- Let's go to 46.

- Can I have a honey mustard to stay, guys?

Honey mustard.

- This Saturday night shift has been busy.

Michelle's been completely run off her feet.

- Bye, guys, thank you for coming.

It has calmed down, okay? - Okay.

- So now we can actually take a break.

I've been here since 11:00 this morning.

I'm tired.

Been off since my mum passed away.

My mum passed away last Wednesday.

- I am so sorry to hear that.

- We was prepared for it. She was 82.

Yeah.

I have never worked any other job

besides being in the restaurant business.

- So all this hecticness today for you...

- Piece of cake for me. Used to it.

- Do you think you could run one of these

as general manager? - Of course.

I'm in a situation right now that the person

that brought me to this country 32 years ago

is no longer with me.

I know the struggle of coming here,

but I had my mom.

That was a lot of support to me.

- I think your story

is incredibly inspiring, quite frankly.

She has a nice presence in the business, right?

The people seem to look up to her.

There's no reason she couldn't

become a general manager one day.

But there are some problems here.

It's not properly staffed for a Saturday night.

They're struggling to serve the customers they have.

They aren't capitalizing on the outside space

to get even more revenue through the building.

This is why the restaurant's profits are down.

It's something I need to change.

Today I'm in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Gonna work with a line cook named Abdul.

Typically our best line cooks,

they're gonna know multiple stations,

serving perfect food.

Over the last six to eight months,

I've personally upgraded

approximately 80% of our menu items.

So we've had a lot of change, so I'm really anxious to see,

you know, are they executing the recipes exactly right,

consistently well,

so that the quality of our food is perfect every time?

It's 5:00 p.m., and they'll be getting ready

for the dinner rush.

Let's hope I can keep up.

I'm looking for Abdul.

- He's the famous man.

- This is the famous Abdul? - How's it going?

- How do you do? - I'm all right.

Abdul. - I'm Keith.

Very nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, Keith.

Oh, are you gonna be working today, Keith?

- I'm gonna be w... yeah,

I'm gonna do whatever you tell me to do today.

- This right here, this is the broil station.

This is the fry station.

This right here, this is sauté.

- What's your favorite station?

- Yeah.

- Right, right.

I'ma knock it right out.

So you got a floor screen right here.

- As service began, I got to work alongside Abdul

at the window, which is basically where

you organize the dishes and pass them

from the cooks to the servers.

- Broccoli on that one. Broccoli on that one.

The last one get mash?

'Cause it's faster.

You know you gotta stay focused right here, baby.

When I looked at him, I didnt think he was gonna make it

only because, you know, when you come in Fridays,

a lot of people don't make it.

I like to give everybody a chance

because when I came into Fridays, I had a chance.

- Sizzle!

- What I'm trying to teach you is

how to keep everything in order.

So where it go, when they coming down the screen...

- Mm-hmm.

- All you gotta do is turn around.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. Just like that.

- Abdul's energy brings everybody's energy up.

He's clearly the guy that's setting the pace

in the kitchen, and you know,

he's learned every station on the line.

He's executing the recipes consistently wel.

Every kitchen manager at TGI Fridays needs an Abdul.

- So that's a bacon burger going no lettuce, no pickles.

You said no lettuce, no pickle?

- Yeah, what are we missing? Onions.

- Yeah, but I thought you said no raw onion on that one.

- No, it's right here.

I'm reading it from off the board.

- Okay. - Here we go.

It say "no lettuce, no pickles."

He's not fast enough.

If I can't build his speed up,

he's gonna be no good to Fridays.

Got to stay focused over here.

Once you lose track... - You're lost.

- Like, everything'll be off.

- I mean, I'm standing there,

and I'm kind of looking for things.

Those guys woulda had...

All that done in 10% of the time

that it would have taken me.

- Nah, no, no, no, no, no, no.

- It's been a long time since I've worked a shift

in a Fridays kitchen; it was a little tough

to keep up with Abdul in there.

- Want to take a break there already?

Yeah, we'll get some fresh air.

- Are you from West Philly?

- I'm one of these guys, man,

that they came from the streets.

I had a rough life comin' up.

I got seven brothers, eight sisters.

At the age of 13, my mom got shot in the face.

- What?

- Yeah, she got shot in the face.

I had to take care of my siblings

and take care of my mom.

I sold drugs,

went to jail for selling drugs, and guess what.

Fridays, they brought me right back.

- So the streets still callin'? Are you...

- No, actually... - You got it beat now.

- Yeah, I got it beat.

I've been out here four years strong.

'Cause I promised my daughter this time

that I wasn't going back, 'cause at the end of the day,

your kids all you got.

- You got that right. - Yeah.

- I've got four kids, actually.

- Oh, yeah?

So now I'm out here just, you know, living my life,

doing what I should have been doing in the very beginning.

- You're blessed, my friend, because, I mean,

the fact that you completely turned things around,

that is... that's really inspirational.

You're walking the talk.

So from the moment I met Abdul,

you could tell immediately this was a Fridays guy.

I never would have guessed

that he had the story that he had.

He genuinely wants to turn his life around.

Have you ever thought about going into management?

- Uh, to be honest with you, yeah.

- I mean, if you can run a business

like something like I just saw today,

that's, like, a total redemption story.

- You know, if the opportunity...

I'ma take it.

- I wanna lead a company that supports people

when they wanna redeem themselves,

and you know, he's certainly that guy,

in my opinion.

So today I'm in Arlington, Texas.

The casual dining industry has been struggling

in the last few years,

and guest counts seem to decline year on year.

So we're doing a lot of things right now

to try and drive traffic back into our restaurants.

So today I am gonna shadow a server named Susana,

and I really hope that by working as a server

all day that I'm gonna gain some more insight, you know,

that could potentially refine our strategy

to keep guest traffic high.

- Hi, welcome to TGI Fridays. How are we doing today?

- I'm here to meet Susana. Is that you?

- Yes, that's me. I go by Suzy, yes.

- That is you? - Yes.

- You're gonna be training me today?

- Yes. Are you excited?

- I'm little nervous, to be honest with you.

- You'll be fine. You'll be fine.

You'll love this job. - I'm in good hands?

- Yes, of course!

So have you ever worked at any type of restaurant?

- Well, no, I've worked for a small inn

in Maine for close to 40 years.

- Wow.

- So I know how to, like, prepare food and serve...

- Yeah. - But not like this.

- All right, so first of all,

we're gonna go start with our kitchen.

So you walk in, okay?

So this is our kiosks and stuff

that we use to put in our orders and stuff,

and then we do have our bev station,

which is this one right here.

We always like to keep it very clean.

Make sure all the cups are stacked and the ice is ready.

- And that's our job? - Yes, this is our job.

We have to stack up the ice, stack up the cups.

We also chop our own lemons as well.

- Susana was an absolute whirlwind.

I'd only been in the restaurant a few seconds

before I was getting the complete lowdown

on how to be a server at TGI Fridays.

- Ask me while you go if you have any questions or anything.

- Okay, I will.

- Feel comfortable to ask me any type of questions.

All righty, so we're gonna go right this way,

and then we come back... Right back out to the bar.

- Clearly this is not a busy lunch restaurant.

I knew this restaurant would be a bit quiet at lunc,

but it was... It was really a shock

to see how empty the restaurant actually was.

When's it normally get busy?

- Usually it gets busy around dinner time.

- Oh, okay. So...

- Sometimes we do have a lunch rush

anywhere from 2:00 to 4:00.

Usually what I like to do to bring people in,

I get a couple coupons and go out

and give 'em to any guests that we see.

Try to put 'em in the cars.

That way we can bring people in.

- Really? - To the building.

Yes.

All right, so here are some coupons.

I'm gonna give you half of them.

- And this works when you've done it before, huh?

- Yes, yes.

- Just put 'em on the windshield?

- Yeah. - I'll do this one?

Okay.

My guess is she is probably the one that came up with

the idea to go out and put those fliers on cars.

To see an hourly employee take that kind of initiative

to try and drive business into a restaurant,

for me, you know, as the CEO of the company,

I mean, I don't even know what else to say other than wow.

- How 'bout you do that tall one?

Okay.

'Cause I won't be able to reach.

- All right, I'll put one here.

- Great.

- So when you do this by yourself,

no pickup trucks get any fliers.

Is that how that works?

Yes.

- We have some dynamite team members here.

They're counting on us to make a living.

What I would like to do coming out of here

is challenge our marketing department to come up with

creative ways to get in there and see

if we can't drive some traffic here at lunch.

So you usually work lunch?

- Yes because I have to watch my nephew.

My sisters work nights, so we have to alternate.

That's why I love working at Fridays,

because they actually work with my schedule.

- So it's you and your sisters, and your parents aren't here?

- No, and I kind of had to take over and be the "parent."

- Are you the oldest of your sisters?

- Yes, so there's always a lot of pressure on me

to have enough money to pay bills.

- To think that Susana's younger than some of my kids

and has all that responsibility

on her shoulders, it's a lot for her to have taken on.

- Yeah, I'm hoping to go to college.

Trying to get my life back on track.

- What do you wanna study?

- Dental hygienist.

- Get out of here.

- I'm fascinated with teeth.

- Tell me about the one-year-old.

- I'm so in love with him.

Me basically watching him grow every day keeps me happy.

You wanna meet him? - Is that possible?

- Yeah, of course! - Okay.

- You're gonna fall in love with him too.

- I'm sure I... It sounds like I will.

All right. - All right.

We gotta go punch out?

- All right, come on in. - Thank you.

- Jacqueline, Leslie, come meet Keith.

He's gonna be eating dinner with us today.

- Hello. - Oh, fantastic.

- Hi. - Hi, everyone.

- Nice to meet you. - How are you?

- Hi, I'm Ray. - I'm Jacqueline.

- Oh.

I cannot believe...

that I just called myself Ray in that room.

Maybe with all that stuff that was happening,

it might have slipped through, but, for me,

it was a moment of absolute terror.

- Jacqueline, Leslie, come meet Keith.

- Hi, I'm Ray. - I'm Jacqueline.

- Oh.

I cannot believe...

that I just called myself Ray in that room.

It was a moment of absolute terror.

- This is KJ. Hi.

- KJ. - Say hi.

- How are you?

- All righty, so food's almost ready.

You wanna go ahead and take a seat?

- I'll be happy to.

Hey, KJ, is it okay if I sit next to you?

- Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.

- He's ready to eat. - I'll take that as a yes.

Here we go. - Thank you so much.

- It's pretty hot. - It's great.

I know what Suzy does. How about y'all?

- I work at a fast food restaurant.

I work through drive-through overnight.

- I'm a server; that's my job for now

until I go back to school,

but my paychecks come out to zero dollars, so...

- It's all about the tips. - Yeah.

- What are you studying? - Dental hygienist.

- Fantastic, a family full of hygienists

in the making, it sounds like.

Well, that's great.

I don't know how you do it.

So Suzy was telling me you guys work as a team.

- Yeah, our schedules usually... if she's not at work,

she'll be taking care of him.

I'm at work, one, like... They'll be switching it up.

- We take turns, basically. - Yeah, basically.

- I just don't wanna put him in daycare till he starts talking.

- Mm-hmm, and daycare's expensive too.

- That's smart.

The love of family in that room was fantastic.

And the fact that they pull together like that

to raise this child is really uplifting.

Susana, thank you so much for inviting me over here.

- You're very welcome.

- Serving me a meal, this is lovely.

Hearing, you know, Susana's story about being able to wok

her schedule around her nephew...

I love hearing that.

- Uh.

- Yeah.

- Say buh-bye. Say bye.

- Bye.

In order to keep someone like Susana around...

She doesn't have the option of working at night,

so we've gotta drive traffic at lunch in this restaurant.

What a crazy ride this has been.

I've had a blast going undercover in my restaurants.

I've learned a lot about what I need to change

in our system to make Fridays stronger for the future,

and now I get to go change some people's lives.

I'm about to reveal my true identity

to the people I've worked with this week,

and I've asked everyone to meet me one last time.

- Good morning. - How are you?

What's, like, going on? What are you doing today?

- I don't even know what's going on today.

I have no idea. I'm clueless.

- They think they're coming to be interviewed

about their time spent with Keith.

They have no idea it's really "Undercover Boss"

Hi, Brittney.

How are you?

- You remember me? - I do remember you.

- Recognize me?

- Keith?

- Kinda.

- Yes, that's you, huh?

- Nice to see you again. - Oh, wow.

Hey, Keith.

- You recognize me? - Yeah, man.

- I'm actually not Keith.

I'm Ray Blanchette.

I'm the CEO of TGI Fridays.

- Oh, my gosh.

- Wow.

- Nah, man. There we go, man.

- Are you serious? - I am serious.

- Wow.

Coming up...

- Wow.

The boss delivers

life-changing news.

- Oh, my God.

- I'm so excited. Thank you so much.

- I'm a little bit overwhelmed right now.

- Abdul, I was blown away by our day together.

Your pace, intensity,

the way you're kind of driving that kitchen.

- My heart in that thing, man. - I know it is.

I know you still take care of your mother.

- Yeah.

- You know, I know you got your daughter in school.

You got a lot going on.

I'm gonna kind of put my money where my mouth is here.

We wanna give you a check for $25,000.

- Wow.

- Just to give you some peace of mind.

- That's the best thing ever right now.

- How do you feel? - I feel great.

- You told me you spent time in prison.

- Yes.

Right now, like, I feel blessed

because I'm able to turn my life around.

- And I want you to remember

that, I mean, we believe in you.

- Thank you.

- We are promoting you to manager immediately.

It's gonna come with a massive pay raise.

- Wow. I ain't gonna let you down.

- I can't wait to see you, first, run your own kitchen,

and then run your own Fridays as general manager.

- I became CEO starting as kitchen manager.

- Wow.

- All right, you can go as far as you wanna go

in this company. - Thank you.

- You've redeemed yourself, right?

You found a new path, and it's all on you.

You did this, you know. You've earned...

We're not giving you anything here.

- I'm glad to be part of the team.

I feel crazy, shocked.

I appreciate this opportunity right here.

I'ma knock it out the box.

- Michelle, when I first met you in the restaurant,

I was really impressed.

I mean, you have a great presence.

Problem was, it was pretty chaotic in there.

- Very.

- It was hectic, disorganized,

so we have a few issues.

So one of the first things I wanna do to support you...

I'm gonna send a quality assurance team

into the restaurant and bring the standard up

to TGI Fridays standards, and they're gonna help you

with staffing, and then once that's done,

I'm gonna look to you

and your fellow managers to maintain it.

Do you think you could do that?

- Of course. - How's that sound?

- I would love to have that. - You'd love to have that?

- Yes, I always feel like we need a lot

more support than we have. - Right.

- That will definitely be great.

- Well, careful what you ask for, Michelle,

'cause you got plenty of help coming now.

- I'm ready. - All right.

Michelle, you recently had a death in the family.

- Yes, last Wednesday, my mom.

- Losing a family member is not just a personal loss,

but there tends to be financial obligations as well.

- Sure is.

- And I want you to know that we're in your corner,

and we're on your team as part of the Fridays family.

- Thank you.

- So I'd like to give you $10,000...

To help personally with your family.

- Oh, my God.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so...

I never thought this would ever happen to me.

- What I also noticed... You work a lot.

And you seemed a little bit tired,

so I wanna give you another $10,000,

and perhaps you can use that to take a holiday?

How's that sound? - Oh, that is great.

One of my dreams is for me to take her ashes

back to Belize and pour it in the ocean.

- Oh, that's beautiful.

- So that will be the greatest help

you can ever give me.

Thank you so much.

- I want you to keep growin'... - Thank you so much.

- In the company.

- Oh, my gosh, I am so grateful for this.

You don't know.

Right now, I am so overwhelmed.

- Brittney, being in this business for 30 years,

I think I'm pretty hard to surprise,

but you shared a story with me that completely surprised me

and told me that you were an addict for quite some time.

- Yeah.

My entire life changed because Fridays gave me

the opportunity to be something different.

- I'm relieved to hear that Fridays was the kind of place

that gave you that second chance.

- It was like a family. - Right.

Well, and that's exactly what I want it to be.

You like the fact that Fridays is an global brand.

- Mm-hmm.

- And that you had some international aspirations.

- I love traveling.

I love seeing new things, so I've always wanted to go

to a different store, different location.

- I called the president of international, John Neitzel,

and I think we've found a pretty cool opportunity.

So we're opening a brand-new restaurant in Istanbul.

We'll invest about $25,000 to get you to go out

as a bartender and manager trainer

and have the international experience.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you. I'm so excited.

Thank you so much. - Sound like fun?

- Yes, it sounds awesome.

- I will warn you,

you're gonna work your butt off.

- Oh, I'm okay with that.

- We just wanna give you this experience

because you're an inspiration,

and I want something good to happen for you.

So what I'd like to do in addition

to your trip to Turkey,

I also wanna give you $25,000 cash.

- Thank you so much.

- How's that gonna help you?

- It's gonna make every difference.

You have no idea.

- I hope it gives you a little less stress

in your personal life, so you can just focus on you.

- Thank you so much. Thank you.

I am completely in shock right now.

This is just gonna make everything

completely different for me.

I'm gonna have things that I've been working so hard for

for so long.

Everything's finally coming together.

- Susana, thank you so much for spending all that time with me.

I really enjoyed it.

I mean, your energy, it was uplifting,

and it was apparent to me that you've

got a lot of responsibility at home.

You literally went from being a child yourself

to the matriarch of your family overnight.

- It's hard to raise my two sisters

and my nephew at the same time,

having to manage work and, really,

to have a budget on everything we do.

- You know, one of the things that I'd like to be able to do

for you is give you $10,000 to pay for childcare.

- Really? - Yeah.

- Oh, my God.

- Tryin' to hold back the tears a little bit, you know?

It's kinda hard.

- Listen, you've got a ton on your shoulders.

- Thank you so much.

You know, it's really hard 'cause, you know,

a lot of pressure.

The possibility of losing the apartment

where we're living at now

is very stressful for me.

It's hard.

- I can't imagine the pressure that you find yourself under

day to day, week to week.

I think I'm gonna be able to help you with that.

I also wanna pay your rent for the next year.

So for the next year,

you're not gonna have to think about rent one time.

- Sorry.

It's really hard for me, you know.

I'm just overwhelmed because I haven't had anybody,

you know, to help me the way that you're gonna help me.

Sorry.

- No, look at me.

It's definitely gonna take

a lot of stress off of my shoulders,

and I hope I get to feel like I have a life,

because I feel like I don't, you know.

Sometimes I feel trapped.

- I want you to know that you're not on your own,

so there's one more thing that I'd like to do for you.

- Okay.

- We're gonna give you another check

for $30,000.

- Are you serious? - I'm serious.

And I want you to have no pressure.

- Wow. - I want you to enjoy yourself

and keep doing what you're doing,

'cause it's really beautiful.

- Whew. - It's okay.

- I'm a little bit overwhelmed right now.

I'm definitely gonna try

to get back into school with that money.

- I hope so. - I want to.

I want to be able to give my sisters a better future.

- Wow. - Thank you for helping me

with that. -

- Thank you so much. - Thank you.

Give you a big hug. - Yeah.

- Thank you.

I'm still in shock more than anything.

I feel like I can breathe now.

- Having grown up in TGI Fridays,

it's always had a really special place in my heart,

and being undercover like that

was really unique.

There are definitely things I want to change.

I want to immediately improve our training,

our communication and support for our restaurants,

as they're the beating heart of this company.

We say that people of all stripes unite.

I'm proud of us for being a place

that gives people a second chance.

I want to run a company that does that.

When we fix these issues that I've been able to uncover,

I'm sure we're gonna move forward

as a much stronger team.

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