Alan Sugar tells his employees to ‘get back their bums’


Lord Alan Sugar called on workers to return to work, stressing the importance of face-to-face interaction for learning and growth.

The Apprentice, a businessman with an estimated wealth of over PS1bn (£1.2bn), has joined the debate on remote working. He insists that office attendance is best for professional advancement.

He said, “They have to get back to the office.” This was in response to the BBC Breakfast launch of Series 19.

The 77 year old, who runs offices in London expressed concern about young people wanting to “just sit at home”. She added, “I am a big advocate for getting them back to the workplace, because an apprentice can only learn from his peers.”

He emphasized the importance of small interactions between more experienced colleagues that he feels are missing in the current Zoom culture, where he works from home.

Lord Sugar made his comments after Lord Stuart Rose , the former boss of Marks & Spencer and Asda, described working at home as “not properly work”.

Rose argued in a BBC Panorama documentary entitled Should we still work from home? that working at home was damaging to productivity and part of “the general decline” of the UK’s economy.

Many large employers have increased the pressure placed on their staff to be at work more often. These include Boots, JP Morgan Barclays Bank, and Amazon. WPP, the advertising giant, demanded earlier this month that employees attend work at least four days per week starting in April.

Lord Sugar did make exceptions for software developers and physically challenged people, but he stressed the importance of being in the office for anyone just starting out.

He criticised artificial intelligence (AI), calling it “a little bit of cheating” in job applications.

He said: “If you use it to write a CV or to exaggerate yourself, that’s not right, is it?”

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