Is Sir Alan your idea of a good boss? Photograph: BBC Talkback
Only another 11 weeks to go before we discover which aspiring tycoon Sir Alan Sugar chooses to be his apprentice. But what I really want to know is this: Who in their right mind would choose Sir Alan as their boss?
It's all good TV - the scathing put-downs, the barefaced bullying, the mischievous muck-raking, the hunting down of anything that smells of vulnerability - but does it give the right impression of modern business practices?
"You're fired!" is some catchphrase, but lawyers say one reason for the 25% increase in employment tribunals since 2004 - when The Apprentice was first broadcast - could be down to macho employers aping Sir Alan.
We could laugh it off it were it just an act for the cameras, believing that at heart he really has noticed that the best bosses these days are the ones who are measured, inclusive and unpretentious. But here's Sir Alan, speaking last month to a national newspaper, on the topic of flexible working: "Many employees are just skiving off. They stay at home and pretend to work." And on the subject of women at work: "We have maternity laws where people are entitled to have too much. Everything has gone too far."
Recruitment experts are always saying that a job interview should be a chance for you to see if you would want to work for the person doing the interviewing, as much as for them to grill you. If The Apprentice really is a "12-week job interview", as is often claimed on the show, would you end the series wanting to work with Sir Alan? Give us your views and vote in our poll.
