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The Apprentice <fired-or-hired>

	Week Two	606 Tage her
	It's boys versus girls once more as Sir Alan challenges the teams to try their hand in the laundry business. Candidates roll up their sleeves to wring out the profits - but whose career on The Apprentice will end up in a spin? Project managers: Jenny Celerier for Alpha and Raef Bjayou for Renaissance. On to task two, and Sir Alan has set a corking challenge to his prospective employees. A pair of industrial laundry units sit empty, and it's up to our teams to bring in the business, load the laundry, and deliver all goods back to the customers in pristine nick. The team that makes the most money will be the winner, but they're pressed for time. They only have the use of the business premises for one - albeit long - day... The Alpha team appoints sales manager Jenny, "I don't mind putting my neck on the line" Celerier as project manager, while a keen-to-impress Raef leads the boys. "I have no problem with taking this by the, uh... horns," he says. Renaissance find it easy to appoint team members to tasks while Alpha indulge in a sales talk. Jenny is still spouting selling techniques as the men make off with all the ironing equipment in the Apprentice mansion. Ian loves this fiendish plan. "If they don't take the initiative we will. We're gonna smash the girls... simple as that!" Sir Alan has set up some appointments for the teams to pitch for business with key client groups. Hotel manager Scott is dumbstruck at the girls' flat rate of £4.99 per item. With 1000 items to wash, the overall charge would be almost £5000. "Is that your best price?" he asks. Even at £556, the boys raise eyebrows, but Kevin caves on the cost and shakes hands on £200. They're in business! The girls win a different job with a vastly under-estimated quote of £15, but no-one's getting rich quick with this scheme, and the door-to-door sales aren't going much better. The boys have found a niche in the domestic duvet market, but the girls, at least until late in the day, have nothing. As Lucinda remarks, "It's a pickle"! Business begins to pick up in the afternoon, and so does the workload. For the girls' team, Shazia gets to grips with their labelling system and gets to work. The boys surely do have a mountain - mostly made up of dirty hotel sheets and pillowcases - to climb. Simon, Ian, Alex and Lee man the massive sheet pressing machines, and it's a tough task to get everything done before the laundries must close at 2am. It's exhausting work and as Simon remarks, "They don't call it a sweat shop for nothing!" As the workers' SOS appeals for help from the sales team grow louder, Raef, Kevin and Michael are unimpressed. "Pah! I can't stand whingers!" mutters a coffee-swilling Raef. Once reunited, however, all seven Renaissance men knuckle down to get the huge task done. Making good progress, they are in a buoyant mood. Over in the girls' camp, where the sales team have sold late into the evening, a problem becomes apparent. They must vacate the building before the washing is done. Shazia schemes, "We've got to go back before the boys get there to secure the iron." Unfortunately she is the only person who knows the labelling system on the laundry. As Shaz discovers the boys have beaten her to it, her team mates discover they've no idea whose laundry is where! After a confrontation between Jenny and Lucinda, they stuff everything into black sacks so that work can continue at home the next morning. The next day's delivery runs are markedly different; the boys deliver on time and to the customers' satisfaction. The girls, low on cash, deliver mis-matched laundry to grumbling customers... and then cheekily ask for tips. Back in the boardroom, Sir Alan is clear. By raising only £195.55 net profit compared to the boys' £328, the Alpha team have lost the second set task. Sir Alan says the boys have "taken the girls to the cleaners," and they are rewarded with tea at The Ritz. In the final stand-off, project manager Jenny, plus her nominated team-mates Shazia and Lucinda, face the music. Jenny goes all out to save her own skin, screeching "For the entire process it has felt like I have had to breastfeed you both". She alleges Shazia, "lied, complained, manipulated, and didn't deliver", and makes it sound like Lucinda, who had slept in for a 7am meeting, had in fact been asleep for 48 hours! Sir Alan has heard enough. Although there are "very good reasons for all of you to be fired," one person's crimes have been "the most heinous". Someone has "left colleagues with difficulties in identifying the product". He points his finger for utmost effect and even as his intended victim begs for his mercy, he says the fateful words... "Shazia... you're fired".
	geschrieben von The Apprentice