Each episode of The Apprentice will be scrutinised by Chloe Harrold, a senior employment lawyer with the progressive business services group, Outset, and she will pull out the HR blunders for your entertainment and education. Based in Maidstone TV Studios, watching out in case Lord Sugar lands on the helipad, Chloe has experience of advising employers and senior executives in all areas of employment law. She deals with contentious and non-contentious matters, including exit strategy, settlement agreements, discrimination, reorganisationand TUPE. Chloe is also a qualified New York lawyer who qualified as a UK solicitor in 2009 whilst specialising in employment law at a City firm. Having spent several years working in the City she joined Outset in 2016.
How low can you go?
It’s the task where the lowest prices will see the candidates victorious. The teams are sent off to work through the night, scouring London for the nine items on Lord Sugar’s list. Given £1,000, the team with the most money left at the end of the night wins the task.
I was pleased to see Trishna given the PM role and she started off with a solid plan of splitting the teams to cover East and West. Paul is an East End lad so he led the sub-team, whilst Trishna set off with her West London knowledge. So far so good…but then Rebecca took the sub-team off their East-End course.
A shopkeeper in Streatham told Rebecca on the phone they had a tagine and African black soap. But did Rebecca say ‘tahine’? Sadly for them, yes. The shopkeeper pointed them to tahini and a packet of soup – it was a literally LOL moment. Things went from bad to worse as their negotiating skills left much to be desired with Jessica relying on fibbing and pleading to try to secure a discount on cigars.
The Titans were headed up by Courtney, who thought he knew London, until he discovered that SE2 isn’t London Bridge and they ended up off the map to buy their black soap, getting only a 35p discount. Despite that they did well compared to Nebular, and the savings they made on several items saw them come out on top.
Lord Sugar issued a stern warning to Sofiane about teamwork. Sofiane continues to forge his own path in tasks where his team are looking for cooperation and input. Having one member doing their own thing with disregard for their colleagues can result in inefficiency, mistakes and resentment. Yes, the candidates are selected for their entrepreneurial spirit, but Lord Sugar is looking for a partner and someone who can’t learn to play nicely with others will be out the door.
Ultimately Rebecca’s tahini/soup debacle spelt the end for her, but, on the plus side, at least she’s not a t**t.
Next week the teams get wet and wild in Poole selling items at a boat show. It’s worth tuning in for, take it from someone who’s seen it already – that’s right Apprentice fans, look out for yours truly in the audience of You’re Fired (BBC2 straight after The Apprentice). It was filmed on Monday 7 November – I already knew Rebecca was going this week, and I know who’s going next week – this secret keeping is killing me!
