The etiquette of failure

Lee celebrated his Apprentice win by giving Claire, the loser (runner up is a meaningless term here, as in most places in the business world), a big hug. While this is perfectly acceptable in televisual terms, it's not likely to go down as well in a normal workplace.

Imagine that Claire and Lee weren't on-screen competitors but colleagues who were going for the same promotion in some everyday business. Lee gets it, Claire doesn't, meaning that he is now her boss. If you're the person in Claire's shoes you're left with a number of options:

1. Teeth-gritting niceness. Smile, wish him well and support him in his new role as your boss.

2. Teeth-gritting duplicity. Smile, wish him well and spend the next six months undermining him with his manager, his staff, his clients and anyone else within range . . . until he works out what's going on and sacks you, anyway.

3. Quit (tantrum). Get very upset when you're told, walk out and don't come back. Resist the temptation to return the next day when you've cooled down; if you've thrown a proper wobbly people are unlikely to believe that you were 'just kidding'.

4. Quit (grown up). Smile, wish him well and circulate your CV to a select group of headhunters. Don't take any job that's less prestigious than the one you missed out on.

Comments

[Davie P]

I think Claire is obviously in the option 2 camp. That's why she lost. Whereas Lee (and I btw) would be in camp 5........say fair enough, accept it and carry on with the next task or project at hand

[Carly Chynoweth]

Davie P makes a good point re his option 5. A little ashamed that I didn't think to mention it.

[c.Elder]

Carly,don't be ashamed,your list of 1-4 is accurate for women.Davie P is accurate for men.That's the difference.When you look back at the behaviour in all the "apprentice" programs,it's astonishing how the women behave like they did at school (in an all girls school?).There is no "sisterhood".It's all backstabbing;undermining;scratch your eyes out;hair pulling stuff.The guys just get on with it.In the boardroom it's always the women who go for the jugular of someone else directly.The guys hem and haw.The women pull out the knife and stab repeatedly,often in packs before they finally turn on each other.That is what makes this program so much fun to watch.The Females are always the deadliest of the species.But that is also why they rarely "win" and rarely get to the top in real life.Ultimately they are not team players and only look out for themselves.

[Carly Chynoweth]

That sort of generalisation is asking for trouble, largely because it's wrong. Alex was quite prepared to drop Lucinda in it with Sir A, for example.
Some women are back-stabbing b*tches, some are fair-minded team players. Same with men. I've worked with both sorts; it's all about individuals and nothing about what's in their pants.

[Simon]

Bad example Carly. Alex was clearly speaking for the group, highlighting a frankly frustrating situation where it was clear that Lucinda was 'playing' at being the apprentice where the others had sacrificed something to gain entry to the show.

In actual fact, Claire and Lucinda share the same flaw in that they each are unable to operate effectively in a team situation. Claire was just better at sales.

[John Jarman]

So Sir Alan Sugar is prepared to hire a liar ... speaks volumes for the messages that are sent out to the youth of the nation ...

[f c]

even if you refuse to recognise that alex dobbing lucinda was the action of a back stabbing little snake which sir alan himself correctly recognised, you must admit that michael sopochles desperate claim that all the was good in the losing ad he and rafe made was solely down to himself was classic backstabbing of the worst kind. if you honestly believe that only women are capable of underhanded sneaky behaviour then you will justifiably get shafted by every snaky male co worker that sees you coming !!

[Alex P]

Alan sugar clearly stated that Claire was not the type of person he wanted to work with. I believe it was a toss up between Lee and Alex, thus putting them in different teams.

[Gary]

What a gust of gender hot air,to me Clare was clearly the winner on selling,presentation,speaking,planning,management and also on handling pressure.To me having someone who can advance things is far better than having a yes man.Clare obviously has a bright future anyway whereas Lee did not and you actually felt if he had lost there would have been sobbing.On this occasion Sir Alan certainly represented his name SUGAR and no one can tell me falsifying an application form is normally glossed over,thats why at the bottom of these forms it says falsification of information means loss of employment rights?

[Ingrid S.]

The Apprentice is essentially a TV programme. We know it's a kind of game - 'the Boardroom' is a TV studio and we only ever see what makes good viewing. Hence, Sir Alan will make his choices week by week according to who will add colour to the next programme, quite apart from who did the job well. No job interview depends upon being in the winning team! On merit, I think Lee appeared to be head and shoulders above the rest - but as this is TV, how much remains on the cutting room floor?