Apprentice star Lord Sugar reveals ‘kiss of death’ interview question that gets candidates instantly fired and swipes ‘hard graft has gone’ from modern workplaces

Lord Sugar has blasted modern tech giants including Google for breeding lazy offices and claims work from home requests are the ‘kiss of death’ to job prospects at his firms.

The billionaire businessman, 77, was speaking at The Apprentice launch on Tuesday ahead of the show’s return for its 19th year. 

And since the first season aired in 2005, Lord Sugar claims workplace environments have dramatically changed and employees now expect a cosier existence.

Indeed, the mogul says any potential staffers who have aspirations to work for one of his companies – and asks to work from home – can forget about getting a job.

Speaking to MailOnline from his home in Florida via Zoom, Lord Sugar said: ‘Work ethic has changed in my lifetime and in my opinion, I think it’s getting too relaxed.

‘I blame companies like Google for example that have beds, and they allow people to turn up at 11am so they can detox from boozing the night before and lay in a little pod somewhere and then pop out at about 3pm and do their two minutes of genius…

‘And then go and have the free lunch and dinner laid on for them. Hard graft has gone in my view.

‘Anybody working for me that wants a two-hour lunch break to go to the gym I’m afraid to say they will have to stay on the treadmill for the rest of the day… It’s not my culture and I might be wrong.’

On the subject of working remotely, he continued: ‘There are people who tell me the modern-day people come to your offices and come to your interviews and the first thing they ask is “how long can I work from home?” “Can I work from home?”

‘They don’t ask about the job. They ask, “can I work from home?” And “are my times flexible?” To me, that’s like the kiss of death. They don’t get very far past the next question.

‘You can call me old fashioned and out of touch, by all means do so.’

Lord Sugar was joined by his trusted aides Baroness Karren Brady, 55, and Tim Campbell, 47, who both attended in person at London’s Charlotte Street Hotel.

The former Spurs chairman remains super loyal to the long-running show, admitting it’s the only programme he’s interested in.

He explained: ‘I have been asked to participate in other shows, and I respectfully decline. I enjoy doing The Apprentice but there’s a limitation to how much I want to be seen on screen.

‘There are some people that will go to the opening of an envelope. I tend to turn down everything, even invitations to chat shows.

‘What happens is in this world the production companies dream up an idea of a new format and they think ‘ah I wonder if Lord Sugar would do that,’ so I get approached for some brainstorm ideas and I just say to them, ‘not me, go somewhere else.’ 

‘But there are lots of production companies that approach me.’

Known for its challenging selection process, The Apprentice sees 18 candidates put through their paces for 12 weeks in a bid to impress Lord Sugar, who deems whether they would be suitable for employment. 

The winner gets a £250,000 investment from the tycoon into their company, so the contestants’ business plans need to be impressive, too.

This year’s entrepreneurs include a pizza firm owner, hair transplant consultant, cosmetic dentist and a motivational speaker and they kick of the series in the Austrian Alps tasked with selling tour packages. 

But if they want to have any chance of winning, they all need to possess one key skill.

Karren explained: ‘The perfect candidate really is the one that listens in the board room, that takes the feedback that Alan gives so very well, adapts, changes, evolves, and comes through the process. 

‘There are some really, really fiery characters this year as we see from the first episode and I was following some of the most fiery.

‘Unfortunately, a lot of them didn’t learn to tone it down a bit and adapt and it gets more and more fiery as the series goes on but it’s a brilliant series, some fantastic tasks and great candidates.’

And their fiery nature becomes quite literal in one of the tasks in this year’s series.

Karren added: ‘There is a task coming up where they have to create a hot sauce and the sauce is so hot, I mean so hot that there was almost an incident in the kitchen because the chilli in the air, we had to ventilate the place and they still didn’t seem to understand how hot it was.

‘It’s often funny. The first episode I had to sledge down a mountain and I didn’t realise I had to do that until they told me that was the only way down.’

Series one winner Tim is now a permanent fixture on the show following the departure of Claude Littner, 75, in 2021. 

Asked if he still applies the lessons he learned on The Apprentice back in 2005, he said: ‘Yes… Don’t talk out of turn and make sure you get people’s names correct. 

‘The growth of the candidates is one of the inspirational elements of the series and why so many people have stuck with it for so long.

‘It’s a brilliant testament to Lord Sugar because he’s given them that opportunity to showcase what they can do.

‘Although they might mess it up royally, they have the chance to do it again. It’s so endearing because it reflects what we have all gone through.’

Over the years, Lord Sugar has seen many TV shows attempt to recreate the same format as The Apprentice, namely Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars, which was panned after two series.

And he says the show’s winning formula is down to his personal expertise because he’s lived and breathed business his entire life.

He said: ‘It is often copied and has often failed. I am part of the show. I have done everything. 

‘All of these tasks that these people are asked to do, I have done every single thing, I have loaded lorries and packed parcels and travelled all over the world and so I don’t ask any of these people to do anything that I can’t do myself and that’s why it rolls off my tongue when I’m in the boardroom.

‘I have no script. I am interacting with the people and the questions I am asking them are proper business questions probing what is going on.

‘It is very authentic and unfortunately some of the imitations, often fail and are with all due respect pretty pathetic.’

• The Apprentice Series 19 premieres 9pm on Thursday 30th January on BBC One and BBC iPlayer