Checkers CEO goes 'Undercover' on CBS

Column

Rick Silva can say he has spent a day in his employees' shoes. The CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants and Rally's, trades in his suit for the sandwich board on tonight's "Undercover Boss" airing at 8 tonight on CBS.

Each week, the reality series disguises a different executive and follows them as he or she leaves the top office and works alongside their employees to see the inner workings of the company.

Donning a fake mustache, glasses and a hair piece, the 46-year-old head honcho spent a week flipping burgers, working the sandwich board and serving up fries, for the Tampa-based company he has run since 2007.

The show taped Silva in his home, and various locations at Checkers restaurants in Mobile, Ala., where he was more likely to go incognito.

On the show, Silva poses as a trainee, Alex. The employees were told he has an opportunity to win some money to start his own Checkers franchise, but they must decide whether he's worthy.

"They did a really good job of selecting places where they didn't know me," says Silva, who makes his home in Tampa. "(The employees) were so focused on evaluating me; they weren't trying to figure out who I was."

Silva says the most difficult part of the show was trying to keep up with restaurant employees.

"They are so good at what they do," says Silva, who grew up in Miami. "It was impossible. I was terrified going in. I'm a Type A personality. I'm competitive and I was worried about going on the frontline and slowing them down. I didn't want to slow them down, and I did."

He says there is one particularly funny scene where he is on the production line trying to keep up with an employee named Johanna.

"She is so wicked fast on the sandwich board," says Silva. "She trained me and took so much time and talked me through it. She was so generous, and then lunch rush-hour hit and 'Oh my God;' It was worse than the Lucille Ball episode. I felt like I was letting her down."

Silva also confronts a store manager for barking orders at an employee and winds up shutting down the restaurant.

Silva said he was moved by his employee's work ethic, and the company adopted some ideas from employees on the show.

"I got a chance to spend the better part of the day admiring (these employees), their hardships. … To be able to change their lives by giving them some nice rewards, and giving them the opportunity to do things they wouldn't have been able to do is just wonderful," he says.