Never mind 42 Days - yesterday's big event was the final of The Apprentice, and Lee won. For myself, I would as soon drill a hole in my head as give this glottal-stopping razor-dodger a job. He is plainly deranged, among other disqualifications (look at his eyes)- but what do I know? 'Sir Alan' took him on, even after Lee had presided over a totally shambolic pitch of an ultra-naff men's fragrance called Roulette, backed by a video ad that might have been made in the mid-60s and keenly embraced the ethos of gambling (now widely regarded as a pathology) - very zeitgeisty!
Like the rest of them, Lee, I fear, is so entirely absorbed in the psychodrama of self-projection as to be quite unaware of what's going on in the outside, the 'real' world. This became apparent again and again in the course of the series, and hardly seems the best basis for a career in any consumer business. Well, Lee got what he wanted - the rest didn't - good luck to them all. If nothing else, they've confirmed the rest of us in our rock-bottom opinion of the kind of young people being turned out by our 'education' system and trying to power their way to the top, fuelled only by delusional self-belief and invincible ignorance.
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Nige, tell me you don't watch that stuff on a regular basis, I think my attention span withered after 2 minutes, never again, bit of irony though, Sugar was a little pond big fish, in the area of business he trolled about in, he was a very minor, not that successfull player.
ReplyDeleteI switched on the TV once last night and promptly switched it off again, some extremely unattractive people were wandering around in the buff, channel five as usual. We tend now to accumulate DVDs and watch them rather than twaddlevision, Frau Malty has just had shipped over the Mary Tyler Moore show, a breath of fresh air.
PS, dear Ireland, please vote NO.
ReplyDeleteDear Nige
ReplyDeleteI am not just some random ranter, but a friend of Frank Wilson who will vouch for me.
I am sure you are correct about this vacouous TV programme and the people who have participated in it, although I do not watch TV as I have no interest in this type of person.
However, I must take issue with your comments about the people turned out by the education system, comments which I have read you make on Bryan's blog also.
I do not think it is fair to generalise about the education system based on some awful TV programme, where presumably people are chosen to participate based on criteria other than their application to their school work.
My daughters go to a state school and are just ordinarly schoolgirls, and so are virtually all the people they go to school with. The exams are hard (and constant), they work hard, and so do their friends -- they don't go out during the week, they do their homework etc. I am sure most people in the education system are like this and only a minority are boring, self-regarding thugs. Plus ca change.
Please don't generalise --- for otherwise, your post was good. You lost me in that bit, though.
best wishes
Maxine.
Who were you wanting to win Nige?
ReplyDeleteI think Claire was a better bet although she does seem less trustworthy.
And Alex and Helene were robots. I'm horrified these fuckers are earning twice/thrice my salary when half of them don't know what kosher means. Such is life.
Hello Maxine - welcome aboard. You're right, it would be absurd to generalise from the specimens assembled (by the production company) for The Apprentice. But I have truly noticed, in the workplace, a growing number of young people with terrifying self-confidence based on precious little. And most graduates seem quite staggeringly ignorant, even of their own subjects. For myself, I actually prefer to employ non-grads (if I can find any). My own daughter was state-educated, in a very good single-sex grammar school - yet she didn't really learn English grammar or punctuation til she got to university. Me I got all that at (state) primary school.
ReplyDeleteChuck - I didn't want any of them to win.
I too have noticed a lot of young people who think they know it all. But isn't that mainly because we are getting older? Probably when we were young we thought we knew it all, too. I dimly recollect that this is what young people tend to think.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there was a big gap when grammar was not taught - started with one of my younger siblings, and continued for about 30 years. But now, they seem to be re-teaching it again.
Spot on Nige!
ReplyDelete....and another thing. Trust is a big thing in life as in business and once he'd been rumbled for lying on his CV then the game should have been up.
ReplyDeleteGod I sound like my dad! Then again I was born in Carshalton....
Before I retired, which admittedly was 8 years ago I had noticed a trend among interviewees, they interviewed me, I guess I interviewed between 50 to 100 people per year so had a reasonable feel for the game, and game it is. The giveaway was when they sat down, brought out a notebook and started taking notes, my first reaction was, poor memory. I became so frustrated by the lack of honest information I produced a pre interview questionnaire, asking can you ....?, they ticked yes to virtually every question. I always ignored CVs.
ReplyDelete