“Area restaurant manager featured on reality show”

Area restaurant manager featured on reality show

Posted: 21 Nov 2010 04:00 AM PST

Credit: Donathan Prater | Opelika-Auburn News

Sherri Easley, a local Subway manager, will be featured on the Sunday, Nov. 21 episode of CBS' "Undercover Boss."

If You Watch What: "Undercover Boss" episode featuring Auburn Subway When: ...

If You Watch

What: "Undercover Boss" episode featuring Auburn Subway

When: 8 p.m. CST Sunday, Nov. 21

Where: WRBL, Charter cable channel 3

When Sherri Easley came to work on Sept. 18 of this year, she had no idea that lunchtime would soon be going primetime.

That's exactly what will happen when the CBS reality show "Undercover Boss," which features high-ranking business executives or corporation owners going undercover as entry-level employees at their companies, airs tonight.

In the latest installment of the reality show, Easley, manager of the Subway restaurant on Opelika Road in Auburn, is tasked with the job of teaching two new employees how to make the company's brand of sandwiches. One of these employees, introduced to Easley as "John," is actually Subway Chief Development Officer Don Fertman, a 29-year veteran of the restaurant chain.

"When they first told me I'd be training a couple of folks, I was thinking 'no problem,'" said Easley, who has managed various Subway locations for 19 years.

But Easley, a native of Patterson, N.J., said there were a few "challenges" when things got busier at the Auburn restaurant.

"He ('John') was pretty good at it, but a little slow," recalls Easley about the day Fertman came to work at Subway, which fell on the Saturday of the Auburn University football game versus Clemson. "He kind of fell behind because he wanted to talk to everyone, which is nice. But I was thinking, 'Let's pick up the pace and get these sandwiches made,'" Easley said.

In addition to honing his hoagie-making skills, Easley said Fertman also had the jobs of baking bread, washing dishes and sweeping up around the restaurant.

"I really put him to work," Easley said. "Subway has a great family atmosphere, and I love it – but it's ultimately about making money for the business."

Just a couple of days after Fertman and the younger employee she trained left her Subway store, Easley was notified that she was going on a trip to Subway's Milford, Conn., headquarters, where she was told that she'd be casting her vote on whether she would hire the younger or more mature employee she'd trained. It was then that the employee she knew only as "John" introduced himself as Fertman and told Easley that she was on "Undercover Boss."

"I was like, 'no,'" said Easley, who gave Fertman the nod as the employee she'd recommend. "I was completely overwhelmed, but couldn't believe that they had gotten me that good."

Easley, an Opelika resident who says she wasn't previously familiar with the show "Undercover Boss," is familiar with it now. She said she plans watch the episode when it airs tonight at 8 p.m.

"I never would have ever imagined being a part of something like that," Easley said. "Who would have thought these guys would have said, 'Hey, there's this girl in Auburn, Ala., and you've just got to speak to her.'"

"I just feel that I'm truly blessed and that someone's looking down on me," Easley said.

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