TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Monday, Jun 05, 2023

PwC hits back at Lord Sugar in 'lazy gits' row

PwC hits back at Lord Sugar in 'lazy gits' row

PwC has hit back at comments by Lord Alan Sugar in which he branded its staff "lazy gits", after the accountancy giant said workers could take Friday afternoons off over summer.

The firm made the offer to its 22,000 UK staff last week on the condition they get their work done by lunchtime.

In a tweet, the Apprentice host and businessman called the move a "joke", saying it would harm productivity.

But PwC said it had worked well in trials.

And individual staff members criticised Lord Sugar for being "out of touch".

In his tweet, the businessman - who made his fortune selling personal computers - cast doubt on how hard people worked from home.


"The lazy gits make me sick," he wrote, referring to PwC's new policy. "Call me old fashioned but all this work from home BS is a total joke."

He added: "There is no way people work as hard or productive as when they had to turn up at a work location. The pandemic has had [a] long lasting negative effect."

Writing on LinkedIn, Richard Osborne, a senior manager at PwC, said Lord Sugar's response was "at best childish and misunderstood".

"Lord Sugar, your post shows how out of touch you are with the modern working world and your lack of knowledge about what PwC are doing," Mr Osborne wrote.

"This isn't about taking time off to be lazy - it is about flexibility to work effectively as and when we work our best."

Another PwC associate, Omair Qureshi, criticised Lord Sugar on LinkedIn, saying he was "not just old fashioned but also an 80's era leader".

He added that the shift to more flexible working had improved "staff wellbeing and productivity".

PwC said it had decided to extend its summer working hours policy after a successful pilot in July and August last year.

A spokesperson told the BBC staff were "vocal about the merits", and that the policy was built "on two-way flexibility and trust".


The government stopped advising people to work from home due to Covid in January. But many companies have continued to offer flexible or hybrid working to their staff.

A shortage of talent has also seen firms trying to compete with each other for workers by offering better pay or perks.

However, a debate continues to rage over who gains and loses when staff work from home.

Supporters say employees save time and money and get a better work-life balance. Employers also save on office space and costs. But some argue workers are less productive when unsupervised.

Most recently cabinet office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg sparked controversy when he said all civil servants must stop working from home, and left notes on empty desks saying "I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon".


'Culture war'


Julia Hobsbawm, author of book The Nowhere Office, said that the row indicates a wider "culture war" as companies and employees adjust to new ways of working after the pandemic.

"You're really seeing a difference between hardliners of a particular generational disposition like Alan Sugar, who genuinely believe that if you're not in the office you're not working, and soft-liners like PwC and their chairman Kevin Ellis, who recognise that how you work productively is a lot more complicated than turning up to a fixed place."

However, even businesses that do embrace flexible working face challenges, Ms Hobsbawm said.

"Hybrid is proving very complicated as a leadership and a management challenge," she said.

"I would say that Alan Sugar and indeed Jacob Rees-Mogg, given his recent comments, are the least likely to solve that problem, which is: how do you get people working productively post-pandemic, in very new ways."

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
Close
0:00
0:00
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
Drone Attack on Moscow's Wealthiest Neighborhoods Suspected to be Launched by Ukraine
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
Prominent Hacker Forum RaidForums Suffers Substantial Data Breach
Nvidia CEO Huang says firms, individuals without AI expertise will be left behind
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
If you donated to BLM, you got played
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
Actor Tom Hanks told Harvard University graduates to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain
The Sussexes' Royal Rebound: Could Harry and Meghan Markle Return to the UK?
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
France Arrests 10 on Suspicion of Failing to Respond in Time to Migrant Drowning
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
Is Saudi Arabia the holiest place in the world? Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions from "The Mount Sinai Stand" Discovered in Saudi Arabia
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Last Walmart in North Portland Closing Down
Florida's DeSantis seeks to disqualify judge in Disney case
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines calls the British monarchy "an absurdity" he wants to remove in his lifetime
King Charles III being crowned.
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
US Congresswoman threaten Twitter Files journalist with arrest
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh slams New York Times' pro-government stance and treatment of sources
Enough is enough: it's time to end the war in Ukraine. While Russia may be to blame for starting it, Russia is not the one refusing to stop it
Fox News Settles their case with Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787.5 MILLION
AG decries scapegoating and rushed lawmaking by government
The land of the free violence
21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira has been arrested for leaking classified Pentagon Documents
×