The Productive Pessimist

  “I don’t want your face looking like that while I’m talking.”  (Face was ‘bland neutral.’) “People here don’t like you, because you’re too negative.” (Used very light sarcasm to defuse workplace tension.) “I think it’s a bit inconsiderate to overshare the way you do…everyone is struggling here, and they don’t need to be worried about you.” (Had responded to “How’re you doing?” with “Okay, I think…it’s been a bit tough at home, but I’m getting through. How’s everything with you?”) “We need happy, bubbly team players here - if that’s not how you feel, every day, then I’m sorry, but we’re just not the right place for you to thrive.” (Person was behaving normally, being professionally welcoming, supporting their colleagues.) Employers don't want to employ people with "mental health problems" (or disabilities), but the government don't want those people claiming welfare. Yes, depression and anxiety are natural, normal responses to life, especially life as it is current

Lord Sugar has always presented himself as being of the 'fake it 'til you make it' school - a street-smart kid with more nouse than people twice his age, better at business than the people running companies he briefly worked for in his teenage years.    And appearances would say it paid off - he didn't have the exam results, the MBA, the network of friends and family to give him early opportunities, but, by every indicator, he's 'made it.'  It's understandable, therefore, that the Apprentice  candidates frustrate him so much - he faked it until he made it, they're much better off than he was, what's their problem? The problem is, you CAN'T 'fake it 'til you make it.'  It , whatever 'it' is - nouse, a boldness that borders on the offensively entitled, a daring that goes beyond normal risk tolerance, the kind of lateral thinking that sees an opportunity three years before its wave crashes in to shore, and thus has enough tim