Does Someone Have to Go?

[Ubiquitous]

By JON CARAMANICA

Perhaps the least expected and appreciated gift of reality television is
its capacity for redemption. Sure, people go on TV to get their hearts
broken or to fight over meaningless things, but for every villain, there
are many more heroes.

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.And if individuals can be lionized by reality television, then why not
companies?

In this way, �Does Someone Have to Go?� which has its premiere Thursday
on Fox, is a boon. A reality show set at various small companies, it�s
part docuseries, part gauche game show. At each office, the bosses cede
authority to the workers, who decide whether to punish their colleagues
with pay cuts, demotions or firings.

It bears repeating: This is a show in which people might lose their
jobs.

For companies, this is a victory, reinforcing the idea that what�s
wrong with the American workplace is the workers. The problems discussed
aren�t about the structure of the company, or the state of its chosen
industry and market, or the economy as a whole. Employees are the enemy
here, bolstering the fanciful and generally wrong idea that one bad
apple spoils the lot.

Second, the show paints bosses as benevolent and open-eared, willing to
let the wisdom of the masses guide their decision making. The truth is
more sinister, though: bosses are merely activating lower-level staffers
to do the dirty work for them.

As a tool of corporate propaganda, it�s more subtle than, say,
�Undercover Boss� on CBS, which paints chief executives as
forward-thinking emperors who willingly hide their true identities to
see what life in their companies� trenches is really like. That show is
a public relations dream, an hourlong ad for corporate responsibility �
great employees are rewarded, slackers are dealt with ethically and
firmly, and the integrity of the company remains intact.

But �Undercover Boss� works from the top down. Looking at a company from
the bottom up is invariably a messier proposition.

The first two episodes of �Does Someone Have to Go?� focus on Velocity
Merchant Services, a seller of credit-card processing systems with about
70 employees based in Downers Grove, Ill. About 20 people at the company
are on the show, including the founder, Dema Barakat, and her husband,
Danoush Khairkhah, who is the chief executive.

Complicating the situation is that Velocity is a family-run business.
The company employs no fewer than four people related to Ms. Barakat,
including the gossipy Tina, a cousin, and Kout, Ms. Barakat�s mother,
who is perceived as a highly paid underperformer, resented by the staff.

Thursday�s premiere episode is the first of two parts � tensions are
revealed, arguments are started and the employees vote on whom they
think should be up for termination. The squabbles are petty,
ill-informed and sometimes personal, and seemingly dredge up
unacknowledged tensions around race and age. In next week�s episode, the
fallout comes. (There are six episodes in all, covering three
companies.)

The stakes, as they are presented, are dramatic. For signing up to be on
this show, employees � who were not required to participate, according
to press materials; Fox declined to say if those who did were
compensated � run the risk of conflict, humiliation and, possibly,
unemployment. (Presumably, these workplaces are not unionized.) And
that�s to say nothing of whatever long-term internal damage is done to
the company for choosing to unearth all its buried tensions in such a
public arena.

This is reality television�s �Lord of the Flies� or �The Hunger Games�
or �The Running Man.� On next week�s episode, people will be shown
pleading for their jobs � their jobs. The preview clips alone are
heart-rending and barely ethical. It is impossible not to be invested in
the outcome, and not to feel that the people whose livelihoods are on
the line are pawns not just of their bosses but also of the show�s
producers and the network, all of whom face far less severe stakes.

Depending on the short- and long-term outcomes, this show may be
remembered as one of the signature reality-TV intrusions into the more
sacred areas of private life: think of �Kid Nation,� �Who Wants to Marry
a Multi-Millionaire� and the never-aired �Welcome to the Neighborhood.�

The vote is unkind, of course: No amount of wishing one could change the
circumstances of one�s employment can compare to the actual power of
holding someone�s financial fate in your hand. Velocity�s workers appear
to take the task seriously, but it can�t be taken seriously enough.
Whatever the outcome, it will be awful. And entrancing. Shield your
eyes.

Does Someone Have to Go?

Fox, Thursday nights at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.

Produced by Endemol USA. Cris Abrego and Fernando Mills, executive
producers; Scott Teti, co-executive producer.



--
Nick Gillispie describes the Obama-era media as "more prone to
being lapdogs than watchdogs." That has a nice ring to it, but it seems
to us the metaphor is a little off. The pro-Obama media are acting like
watchdogs--but watchdogs whose master is Obama rather than the public.