The Apprentice - Episode Nine – Lawyer’s summary

Selling property is not that easy!

The Apprentice - Series 11, Episode 9 - 3 December

The latest instalment of Chloe Harrold's column for The HR Director

Scott Saunders really did say: “It’s a nice open space for the windows, to have the sun come in throughout the day, and the night”. Lord Sugar asked the candidates this week to sell mid-range and high-end properties and see which team could sell the most.

Is there anything as cringe-worthy as the sales patter of a desperate Apprentice candidate? Nope, I don’t think so. Scott’s performance went from bad to worse: he was awkward, wrong and at times embarrassing “It’s very highly populated by, everybody” “Everyone’s enjoying the Clapham”.

Maybe Scott just had a bad couple of days, maybe the pressure of the show got to him or maybe he ultimately wasn’t up to the challenge. The strength of his team-mates saw Scott on the winning side – then came the shock resignation (or not so much a shock if you saw the social media spoilers). Did Lord Sugar give him too much of a hard time? Was Scott justified in walking out? Or did he overreact, cut his nose off to spite his face and breach his contract in the process?

What if an employee quits without serving notice, leaving you in the lurch and with unexpected costs for finding an emergency replacement? Hopefully as an employer you have a written employment contract in place requiring a minimum notice period. If an employee leaves without giving that notice they can in theory be sued for breach of contract. 

It’s worth considering what caused the immediate resignation. If an employer breaches the contract first (Lord Sugar in this case dressing down Scott to a humiliating extent in public) and the employee resigns in response then this can release them from their contractual obligations (constructive dismissal). This means they don’t have to give notice or observe provisions in their contract like post-termination restrictions.

Scott wasn’t even on the losing team and as well as his departure after weeks of being saved it seemed by being on the winning team, it was Selina Waterman-Smith’s turn to be fired. Could Joseph Valente and Selina have shown less interest when viewing the show apartment with its very proud architect? Their dour attitude and bullish approach to fees were so off-putting it’s a surprise the architect only complained about Joseph’s braces.

Next week each team will be creating a health food snack. Gary, Joseph and Charleine are still around - let’s hope no one’s allergic to nuts.