The star of the BBC’s The Apprentice, Lord Alan Sugar, has said he wants to end work from home and see businesses return to the office, ahead of the new series of The Apprentice. Lord Sugar told the BBC: “They’ve got to get their bums back into the office”.
He said he would make some exceptions to the rule. Including for software engineers who “get up at three o’clock in the morning with some kind of brainstorm” and the disabled. He argued people need to start socialising with their colleagues more, and claims young people “just want to sit at home”.
“I’m a great advocate of getting them back to work, because the only way an apprentice is going to learn, is from his colleagues,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“It’s small things, like interaction with your more mature colleagues, that will tell you how to do this, how to do that. That is lacking in this work-from-home, Zoom culture.”
Ahead of the launch of series 19 of The Apprentice, Lord Sugar additionally shared his perspective on AI and its use in the workplace, saying it’s “cheating”.
“If you’re going to use it to write your CV and big yourself up, then that’s wrong, isn’t it?”
But despite Lord Sugar’s convictions against AI, companies are increasingly integrating such programs into their work, and many interviewees and recruiters are using AI during the hiring process. The conversation also turned to Brexit, which he described as “the biggest disaster in [his] lifetime”.
“It is now [that] the full ramifications of us not being in the European Union is starting to really take its toll,” he said.
“If I was Prime Minister, I would be coming along on my bended knees and asking to be allowed back in.” But despite sharing his political views, he said he had no ambition to enter politics.
“I have no intention of putting myself forward to be the Prime Minister, because it’s an untenable and thankless job,” he explained.