The moment Undercover Boss star is forced to come clean as employee breaks down in tears

THE CEO of one of the UK’s largest car dealerships had to reveal himself as the Undercover Boss when one of his staff burst into tears.

Robert Forrester, chief executive of Bristol Street Motors, secretly observed his employees on the ITV show.

With 149 dealerships across the UK and over 6,000 employees, Bristol Street Motors is a £3 billion business that sells one car to Brits every four minutes.

When the pandemic hit, Robert was forced to close his dealerships and furlough the workforce.

Forrester who has a net worth of £161,938,000.00 posed as history lecturer, Tim Gough to find out more about his workplace.

Tim’s backstory is that he is looking for a career change amid the Covid pandemic and starts by working with sales team because he wants to find out if people are returning to buy cars from his dealerships.

“If someone is successively not hitting their targets then there is a problem then we need to understand it and potentially take action. Harsh but fair,” Forrester says on the show.

Posing as Tim, he works closely with salesman Gervan to learn the tricks of the trade and sees the dealership has league tables with the best salespeople in green and those underperforming in red.

Gervan tells Forrester he was not upbeat enough after a failed sales attempt and got emotional revealing the job “feels like the world is coming down on you” if you miss a sale.

He then welled up as he reveals he has not sold a car for nine days because of personal issues at home.

Instead of his managers giving him support, they instead abused him for his lack of sales.

“Instead of asking me if everything was alright it was, ‘What are you doing you haven’t sold a car for nine days, you might as well go home. Shall I do your job for you?” Gervan tells undercover Forrester.

Gervan then bursts into tears and says he gave in his notice to resign, then storms out of the dealership.

“He’s clearly very upset and has the right to be as it’s distressing. He’s been very honest with me and I haven’t been honest,” Forrester says.

The car mogul then decides he should reveal his true identity to Gervan.

“I wanted to give you some comfort I’ve heard what you said, it has registered and clearly I can’t ignore it,” he tells him and admits he’s hate to lose him as an employee.

“No one can sit and listen to that conversation and not be upset. He’s got real talent, he works hard, he’s exactly the sort of person we should be encouraging but clearly something is going wrong somewhere.”

Forrester then spends time with some other employees including valet Terry who says his work is “physically relentless” and he needed to ask his parents for money when the dealerships shut in the pandemic.

 “I don’t feel I’m appreciated for what I do. The salesmen get targets and bonuses. I don’t get any bonus if I hit my targets,” says Terry.

He also opens up about feeling worried about losing his job at any moment because he works for a contractor.

Later in the episode, Forrester reveals his true identity and tells Gervan that failing to meet sales targets should not be used as a “punishment camp.”

Gervan tells him he does not want to resign and Forrester gives him a 5-star all inclusive holiday for a well deserved break.

Then he praises Terry for going above and beyond for the company.

Forrester offers him a job at Bristol Street Motors as the Vehicle Progressor for Newcastle Vauxhall and £15,000 towards a house deposit.

“Understanding the people behind the data is how we’re going to create a much better business,” Forrester says.

“It’s been a tough 12 months for people but it’s good to see the business and people’s lives bouncing back.”

As a result of what he saw as the Undercover Boss, he decides to enhance maternity pay and introduce programmes to boost employees’ lack of confidence.