Sir Alan's apprentice didn't get a real job. Really??

’No surprises there then’-content

The Apprentice is a TV programme, not a recruitment process, what was she expecting?

To be fair, it very much sells itself as a recruitment process to the audience and, I would imagine, to the contestants (potential and actual).

The hearing continues.

what are her grounds for claim? that she quit because she didn’t have a job to do? was she on a fixed contract which wasn’t going to be renewed?
is she just trying to add to the £100k she got for not doing anything?

I don’t quite understand the claim:

she had no choice but to resign after being told her contract was not being renewed.

Now, I thought that constructive dismissal was when they wanted rid of you but didn’t actually say so (to avoid redundancy payouts etc), and just made things so bad that you quit. In this case her contract wasn’t being renewed, so they’d made it clear that they wanted rid of her…

a show for narcissistic arrogant **** with no discernible job skills or talents think that by waffling for a couple of weeks means they’ll climb the greasy poll – so just like a real job

a show for narcissistic arrogant **** with no discernible job skills or talents

This one, you mean?

Colleagues didn’t take her seriously, surely that’s not a surprise given the way she got the job. I don’t remember but am sure we’d have watched it and they all make complete tits of themselves, why would anyone take her seriously?!

Edit: She looks purty in that picture.

She said she told Lord Sugar: “I have tried so hard for so long and it’s not working. I’m an overpaid lackey at Viglen.

“My pride would not allow me to continue doing it.”

Strange pride that, wouldn’t let you do a non-job but quite happy to sue to keep it (which is one solution to a constructive dismissal claim). But I reckon if she’d actually been any good we wouldn’t be having this story…

Well I guess they’re told they’re going to earn 100k at one of his companies. I bet they never say the job will be there for ever and if I recall, most of those muppets leave after a year or two anyway. It’s just sour grapes from someone who thought they were going to be fast tracked to success.

Colleagues didn’t take her seriously, surely that’s not a surprise given the way she got the job.

Not wishing to defend any of the winners and contestants, but the process they go through is more rigorous and trying than a couple of job interviews, which is what most folk get a job based upon.

the process they go through is more rigorous and trying than a couple of job interviews

It is, but it doesn’t necessarily end up recruiting someone who’s appropriate for the job they get given.

I think the one where they ended up with their own company was fairer as it meant that the success or failure was down to them. Trying to find a role for an ‘apprentice’ is probably quite tricky and they clearly didn’t know what to do with her.

Having said that most of them seem to see the process as a stepping stone to either TV work or (in one case) prison so she can’t have been too surprised it wasn’t a job for life.

It’s just sour grapes from someone who thought they were going to be fast tracked to success.

She’s wasn’t exactly wrapping pasties in Greggs before the apprentice was she ?

The was Head of Business Management at an Investment Bank. And the job with Alan Sugar only gave her a small pay rise.

The was Head of Business Management at an Investment Bank. And the job with Alan Sugar only gave her a small pay rise.

She was on less than £100k for her previous role???

Which just shows what witless retards are employed in investment banking.

Well in that case I’d ask WTF was the point in moving. If you have a solid job with a good company, why move to at best a 2nd tier IT company with a non-specific job. Surely if you were serious about the actual JOB you’d ask during the application process what it actually is.

Well in that case I’d ask WTF was the point in moving.

Don’t know. Maybe she didn’t like her job ?

I suppose the idea is that you get the opportunity to be more entrepreneurial and development towards being able to work in executive roles. Salary is not really relevant in such a situation as the career opportunities are vast. Trouble is I suspect that the position she was given was one where she would have had scope to create an exciting role within the organization but the fact she didn’t do that suggests maybe she wasn’t the right sort of person for that sort of a job.

I’m fairly sure that most of the apprentice people employed as a result of that show only stayed in their jobs for a year or 18 months, in fact there was a good spoof in a newspaper article years ago about the non-job that an ‘apprentice’ was given.

Never mind the money, I’d imagine an obviously intelligent, career-driven person sitting there doing very little/having no responsibility would be torture.

Key point here is that you can’t sue for constructive/unfair dismissal with less than two years service.

Also bear in mind that investment banks are incredibly structured and process driven environments. Entrpreneurial environments are very different and require very different skills, capabilities and motivations. People who thrive in one environment rarely thrive in the other.

Key point here is that you can’t sue for constructive/unfair dismissal with less than two years service.

….She is claiming constructive dismissal against Lord Sugar, who attended the hearing at East London Employment Tribunal Service today.

Maybe you should inform the East London Employment Tribunal Setvice, they don’t seem to be aware.

There gas been one winner who didnt take up the role wasnt there?

Is she a bit thick? It was a one year contract. Made clear on the show too. She obviously wasnt rated.

Is she a bit thick?

Is she a bit thick?

Must be if she was head of business management for an investment bank and got paid under £100K.

What I can’t understand is why the case is even happening. I year contract and she resigned when it wasn’t renewed? So what’s the case?

investment banks are incredibly structured and process driven environments.

Some are, but by no means all are.

Epicsteve you just argued then answered my question in one post.

What I can’t understand is why the case is even happening. I year contract and she resigned when it wasn’t renewed? So what’s the case?

Edited.

Maybe her contract wasn’t what you think it was. Otherwise it wouldn’t have made it to a Tribunal.

I do remember her and she was a smart cookie, definitely deserved to win. Perhaps she wants to expose the programme for, er, deception?

Good on her for taking him on, nobody’s invincible. 🙂

Eh? Its a 1yr contract. Even if she was told to do **** all you get 100k.

He wanted a sink or swim animal not a handheld-wallflower.
So she must have lied in the interview process? In business if you pay someone 100k you want a driven person with ideas and character.

From the article:

“She said she saw Lord Sugar five times during her 13 months at Viglen.”

The tribunal heard Lord Sugar offered her a role in another company, YouView, which she started in June 2011, but she encountered similar problems. That September, she was told Lord Sugar would not be renewing her contract, she said.

So – clearly a 1yr contract then (sounds like a 17 month year!). And the ‘2 yr rule’ didn’t apply back then it was 1 yr.

In investment banking, the business manager role is not quite what it sounds. More support – it is not actual management of a business line. HTH

In investment banking, the business manager role is not quite what it sounds.

Maybe so, but She was Head of business management.

Which isn’t exactly someone in the category of ….

…no discernible job skills or talents

As suggested above.

Sure, I was just putting the “100k for a BM suggests that she wasn’t much good”, idea to bed.

Sorted:

Apprentice’s Stella English loses dismissal case

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-22123912