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Joanna has changed.
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I've been watching The Apprentice since series four, and there hasn't been a single candidate, until now, that has changed quite profoundly. There may have been previous candidates that have changed in terms of their business style, but I personally havent picked up on it, until watching Joanna.
Unfortunately I missed the second episode of the current series and so decided to watch it and Joanna was aggressive as hell; it was like watching another candidate. At certain points I loved her style, but watching her now she's mellowed quite a lot. I think she fully took on Lord Sugars advice but it's good to know she has a fiesty side to her.
What do you all think?
Unfortunately I missed the second episode of the current series and so decided to watch it and Joanna was aggressive as hell; it was like watching another candidate. At certain points I loved her style, but watching her now she's mellowed quite a lot. I think she fully took on Lord Sugars advice but it's good to know she has a fiesty side to her.
What do you all think?
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I think Joanna played it well by taking on Lord Sugar's advice almost to the exterme. It shows a certain level of awareness on her part, and an understanding that the "aggressive" label will never be an advantage for her (as it was for Claire Young, for example).
FWIW, I don't think Sir Lord Sugar's warning to Joanna was at all fair. It was Melissa who she had that argument with, and I remember Melissa being the more aggressive of the two of them. But in a way, that connects to my first point.
She's passionate now. She was aggressive as hell in the early stages, particular episode 2.
Perhaps the most questionable moment was in the car when Joy kept apologising for existing. Joanna tried to tell her she didn't need to do that; that her contributions were welcome even when they were criticisms because they helped the team. She was trying to be supportive but it came across as a bit aggressive and prescriptive. It didn't bother me at the time, but I think it might have bothered others, especially as Joy got fired.
Joanna is passionate. If you look at, eg, her telephone conversation with Stella in the German crisps task, where she had strong ideas on the flavours and Stella wasn't taking them on board, then you can see she is still passionate, even hectoring. I suspect we tend to put a better interpretation on it now we know her better.
Yeah, that's why people think she was aggressive. Racism. Not 'cause she made a grown woman cry.
I am very impressed with Joanna. Not sure she is final 2 material as this is a very strong field but Joanna has been an outstanding candidate this year.
My reading of that clip is different. It starts with Melissa demonstrating the pitch she plans to give later that day. It's very poor. We see Joanna pick up on the phrase "built in your end user" on the grounds that it's confusing jargon. Much is edited out. At the end, Joanna starts to sum up her issues with the pitch, saying amongst other things that she'd expected Melissa to nail it. Before she can get very far, someone jumps in and says Joanna is being unfair. Joanna defends herself, someone calls her bitchy, and the meeting collapses into shouting. Laura gets up and walks out.
It seemed to me that Joanna was spot-on with her feedback and it needed to be said. She hasn't yet learned how to phrase criticism without causing offence. But she's not being malicious or unfair. She's trying to be constructive; she gave constructive comments earlier, and I think she was about to do so at the end.
The situation dissolves mainly because she isn't allowed to finish her point. The video makes it look like it's Liz who jumps in, but from the voices I'm pretty sure it's Laura, and it's Liz who says Joanna is being bitchy. Joanna was part of it, but I don't see why she should get all the blame.
Personally I mostly blame Laura. She created an environment in which Joanna and the others have to shout to be heard.
its sad but I do think this is the case, she was very unfairly labelled very early in the competition.
Laura wasn't a teacher in charge of a class of infants.
What did you want her to do - tell them all to raise their hand before speaking?
I think Jadine in series 3 changed alot aswell.
Jadine was a real idiot in the first episode of that series. She really did come along way during the process.
No. But she was a project manager, and should have been able to control a team. Instead, she threw a hissy fit and walked out of the room in tears because she wasn't getting her own way!
One way to spin it.
Or, you could say that she walked out in frustration that a group of people, all somewhat older and, one would assume, more mature than herself, were unable to conduct themselves in a calm, cooperative and adult manner.
As Joy said when she was fired (paraphrased): "Thank God I no longer have to work with those screaming women".
Fortunately they calmed down a bit as the series progressed. Which is just as well as they seem a lot stronger than the boys.
Laura demonstrated her immaturity on many occasions, and in fact was the catalyst and or instigator for many of the arguments which made the girls appear as "screaming women". Laura did not appear capable of conducting herself in a "calm, cooperative and adult manner" as you have put it, and she quite often demonstrated her immaturity and aggression when things didnt go her way. The only time I recall her saying or doing anything of any note was in the Germinator episode when she pointed out that the product was not suitable for children to be playing with.
So, would you say that the normal reaction of a set of mature, high flying, business women to a somewhat less mature manager would be to start to scream and shout?
It's laughable that Laura's detractors manage to blame her for the behaviour of a group of people who should be quite capable of organising themselves without the histrionics we saw in that episode.
(Although I, personally, would excuse most of that - Laura's failings and the failings of the others - on account of the unusual pressures they were working under.)
But Laura was the one who was supposed to be organising them. SHE was the project manager. Because SHE had no control the meeting descended into the shamble it was.
Laura was a useless candidate, and only managed to survive so long because she was in a winning teams which she did not contribute to winning either.
They are all well aware of the pressures that they will be under when entering into a competition such as The Apprentice. Laura calling her colleagues "shits" because she wasn't getting her own way, shows not only how immature she is, but that she cannot accept other peoples opinions and views if different to her own.
Right on ! if a white man had behaved the way she did Sir Alan would have been jumping over the desk to shake hands with him , talk about a hypocrite !
And I don't blame her if she came across to some people as argumentative in the first episode. Trust me, my reaction would be far worse if I had Melissa screeching and jabbering in my ear about "profeesssionalissm". Probably something along the lines of how Tre would react.
Joanna's problem was really the opposite of Laura's - Laura wasn't strong enough to push her points through, while Joanna often pushed her's through in a way that made her come across as a bulldozer to some people. She was nowhere near as bad as Melissa though. By her own admission after the episode 2 boardroom, she learned that she needed to change tact, which she seems to have done. Definetly one of my favourites for the final :cool:.
This, finally, is the correct answer to this thread.
I concur...
Very good assessment.