Zany? nah dont like that word. I did like Sir Alan until he said that...

I thought it was right that Lucinda went but did anyone else think that Alex was out of order at that stage to turn on her in the boardroom and tell tales?

He has a very selective memory that is sure.

Its dog eat dog and he did what he had to do to stay in.

Lucinda did herself in by saying it in the first place

Apart from her questionable taste in berets, what exactly has Lucinda done to deserve this 'zany' tag? Is it 'zany' to earn £100k? Easy target, I'm afraid

t was rotten of the others to tell SAS that Lucinda did nt want the job

lucinda flopped it, she definitly wasn't right!!

but she looks nice in 'you're fired'

Zany was a word used by Sir Alan tonight to describe Lucinda as she was "different" from the others. What she said in the taxi after being sacked was totally true;

Noone liked the way she spoke
Noone liked the way she worked
Noone liked what she wore
Noone liked what she was all about
etc etc

At least she was true to herself and didn't let those bullies prevent her from getting so far in the competition.

I couldn't help notice all the others having a slight smug look when she got fired. I detest Alex. I have never liked him anyway, but tonight confirmed what a snake he is. It wasn't his place to grass Lucinda up for a comment she had made to the others during a personal conversation. If Sir Alan was bright enough, he would have susses out Lucinda's thoughts and fears himself.

I really hope any of them win appart from Alex!

I think if it was a task whereby they were all still defending themselves against each as well as Sir Alan then fair enough.
But she was just thinking out loud when she was 'unsure' about whether she was right for the job as she'd just had a grilling.
Sir Alan should have picked up the fact that Alex was bitching when there was no need to. She would have gone regardless. Low

Rubbish.

It was nothing to do with him at the time. No one else interrupted the other candidates and neither should he as was pointed out on the Your Fired show tonight; he's a snake.

It looks like in the next task Helene figures him out too.

Too Zany

Yay, it's Lee. He's found spell check. Woo hoo

She was just in the wrong environment for her personality, strengths and characteristics. I am sure she realised this during the interview process. Alex was a real snake though.

I don't think he was just referring to her taste in clothes, her accent and her appearance when he described her as zany. These were contributory factors as they do stick out in comparison to the rest but ultimately I reckon SAS was unsure over Lucinda for a host of reasons:

1. She did not convince him of her reasons for wanting to work for the company. She did not even know herself during the initial interviews whether she wanted the job. She tried to make out that she saw the job as more of a personal challenge for her rather than money and further business experience and this was after doubting whether she wanted to be his apprentice. This is going put some doubt in his mind as to whether she won't just leave or given in if she does not find the challenge stimulating and after Michelle and Katie, he is not going to want get burned again. That makes her possibly more risky than the others as most people would be motivated by money and further business experience rather than working for stimulation. Alot of the feedback he was getting from the interviewers was not going to alleviate those doubts. To be honest, I think Lucinda did not think she was right for the job by this point.

2. Lucinda has been in a good leader but has struggled to get on in groups. From her CV she it seems that she is used to being a leader and has almost complete control over what she choses to do as a contractor.

3. I touched on this before but her having self doubts over whether she wanted the job after the tough interogation she got from the initial interviews is going to reinforce the doubts SAS had over her. Lucinda seemd to be abit insecure about her differences from the others and her own motivations after those initial interviews, the same way Alex had hang ups about his age and Lee with his education and background.

So when SAS describes Lucinda as zany I don't think he is just judging her on shallow personality characteristics. More the whole package and her motivations of wanting to work for him. I think she was a much better candidate than Helene and Alex but her going was probably the right decision. If she has doubts over wanting the job, she is going to find it hard to convince him.

Nope. Wrong way around. There is nothing wrong in questioning yourself for a job. Absolutely if you get it, you will work hard for it because no job is right for any person.

What Alex did was unprofessional and bad boardroom behaviour. If this wasn't produced by the BBC then he would have been out of there straight away.

She said she didn't want the job because contracting gave her more flexibility. Nothing wrong with that.

Do you want to contract or work long term? Everybody questions entering a job and anybody who doesn't shouldn't be there, like Alex because if you're desperate for the job, you're probably not read for it.

She's intelligent, clever, adaptable, inquisitive - she's dead right for most jobs in business.

She'll be snapped up and be offered twice the salary she's on and she would deserve it.

I would prefer none of them won - but if it has to be one of them I prefer it to be Lee - who at least has passion and seems to really want the job. Lucinda is out of SAS's comfort zone.

Alex is the class sneak. Please sir, please sir, Lucinda's got my pencil.

come on be fair - he's 24

There is nothing wrong with her being a contractor in her everyday employment, no. She has every right to work and act as she pleases there. But after Katie and Michelle, SAS is going to scrutinise very closely how committed and motivated someone is going to be working for him. The interviewers were probing Lucinda with questions trying to extract information on that and she did not sell herself at all. In fact, she even second guessed whether she wanted the job and could not seem to herself understand her motivations for working for SAS and this is going to be communicated back to him. That was true for 3 of the four interviews, only with Karen Brady did she say anything constructive. That was not a problem for anyone else at the interview.

Having doubts about the job before the show and during the early phases is fair enough but having them in the second to last week was always going to be fatal to her chances, particilarly when SAS is finding it difficult to pin down her motivations for wanting to work for him anyway. You have to be able to convince an employer you want to work for them and Lucinda was doing the exact opposite. He does not that problem with the rest, so she was at a massive disadvantage compared to the rest. Her other qualities won't help her much if he thinks she does not want to work for him.

Lucinda was the only candidate who reacted like that to the initial interviews. Lee was frustrated with his performance and Alex was insecure over his age, but there reaction was one of disappointment at not capitalising on their opportunity which would have leave SAS with no concerns over their motivation to work for him. Lucinda seemed to ultimately convince herself she did not want to work there and that was only going to lead to one result.

He is??? Are you sure? I don't remember him saying...

I was dissatisfied by the word "zany" because it reinforced the idea that the reason Lucinda wasn't suitable was because of the way she dressed or because of her interest in aromatherapy and the like. I don't buy Lucinda's continued shifting of the problems she had away from herself and on to other peoples reactions to her clothes, accent or interests. She had problems because, unless she was in charge, she was extremely difficult to manage. That she's self-employed makes all kinds of sense.

JonSkinnups, I agree with your three points as being somewhat closer to what was really behind her firing. One further thing that struck me about her in the board room that may have also been in SAS's head. If you recall when he asked her how much she sold last week, she went round the houses talking about her development. She did the same thing tonight. Everything she said was about her - her development, her desire to settle down, etc. SAS, in common, I suspect, with most entrepreneurs, is not interested in people who are more concentrated on themselves than on his business.

Good post.

a previous poster and it has been suggested by the Tv show that her dress sense is questionable... I take issue with that
anyone who judges someone on their choice of clothing is as shallow as a puddle in a drought.

Zandra Rhodes, albeit a fashion Icon , also a very successful business woman, never succumbed to the fashions of Greyness..

but saying that Claire DID look like a big fat lemon lol , she said it not me lol

IMO - Alex is a shit - let's just accept that. He will inspire nobody of integrity and turned on Lucinda because she is not a desperate saddo like him. Alex is a chancer and a real manager like Lucinda is a threat.

I earn nothing like the salaries the contestants enjoy, but am I less able? no fkg way! the Apprentice is a complex gameshow, not real life. OK so some undeserving BS merchants succeed, but that's like real life. some complete ******* get away with it for a while, but history often shows them to be the shallow straw men that they are.

Sir Alan Sugar likes "profitable" people and if he fires Lucinda over a liar like Lee, that shows a lack of integrity. I would not want to work for a CEO who thinks that lying on a CV is acceptable.

Lucinda 1 SAS 0