A spoonful of Sugar...is a spoonful too much

• 11.05.2022 17:23 UTC+02:00
• [ perma(?)link ]
• < previous | next >

British entrepreneur, and host of the BBC's rip-off of The Apprentice, Lord Sugar, has lambasted PwC's staff for taking Friday afternoons off over summer. The offer is valid as long as they have their work completed by lunchtime.

"The lazy gits make me sick," he wrote, referring to PwC's new policy. "Call me old fashioned but all this work from home BS is a total joke." He added: "There is no way people work as hard or productive as when they had to turn up at a work location. The pandemic has had [a] long lasting negative effect."

Noor Nanji, business reporter, BBC News

He doesn't seem to justify how having completed their workload constitutes a negative effect on productivity. Nevertheless, and to their credit, senior PwC managers robustly defended their position against Lord Dinosaur's antiquated thinking.

"Writing on LinkedIn, Richard Osborne, a senior manager at PwC, said Lord Sugar's response was "at best childish and misunderstood". "Lord Sugar, your post shows how out of touch you are with the modern working world and your lack of knowledge about what PwC are doing," Mr Osborne wrote. "This isn't about taking time off to be lazy - it is about flexibility to work effectively as and when we work our best." Another PwC associate, Omair Qureshi, criticised Lord Sugar on LinkedIn, saying he was "not just old fashioned but also an 80's era leader". He added that the shift to more flexible working had improved "staff wellbeing and productivity".

Noor Nanji, business reporter, BBC News

In my experience, I have been far more productive working remotely than when in the office. I share an office with one co-worker, but our office adjoins a sole-occupancy one, whose occupant holds long, loud conversations on speakerphone. The partition walls are nothing more than papier mâché, so although we're invisible to him, he's not inaudible to us. Every aspect of his conversations are not only clear, but also intrusive. I guess that the office environment's fine if you don't have to concentrate, but it's a bastard for those of us who have to use braynz 'n' thunks to get our jobs done.

Lord Batshit's opinion is only as valid as his own direct experience. I'm just glad that I don't work for the pompous, ignorant, and disrespectful sonofabitch.

I wonder if SUGAR should be added to Wordle's list of triggering non-words? (thinking)