I wasn’t sure if he ever got to the bottom of what was going on. I never got the feeling he found out Omarosa was lying. And did he have the power to fire her? I thought he remarked while sitting on the bench outside that the normal procedure would be to fire someone who was handling the job so poorly but he didn’t have that power. I got the feeling he and Bill were stuck with who they picked.
I’m afraid Kwame might have sunk himself when he “assumed” Omorosa’s competence. She’s okay at organizational skills, but only when she’s the star. Heidi would have been by far the stronger “first pick”. Kwame might be too trusting. He did a pointed, subtle job of apologizing to the staffer while slapping Omorosa down for negligence. Too bad Kwame didn’t press the issue when she evaded Troy at the dinner table.
But what the hell is up with that? Surely there’s a contact person for the rock star’s entourage. If the Trump organization didn’t provide one, find one. Fumbling around over possible flights and arrival times was stupid in the extreme. That’s a basic no-brainer that any underpaid admin ass’t. could field.
Bill’s handling of the safe storage issue was interesting. I can’t fault Katrina for her handling, because the facility had been used for storage previously. The staffer who nitpicked the location–nitpicky security info any newcomer wouldn’t have–got the stuff dumped right into her work area. Not the smoothest solution but damned elegant in its own way.
annieclaus, Carnac, Damned if I don’t think you’ve nailed it! Even Omarosa wouldn’t be so stupid as to not at least call back after dinner or the next morning. Instead, she just sits by benignly and lets it bite the team in the butt. And these “crises” seem awfully lame to me. In the past I managed the day-to-day operations of a statewide auto parts distribution center with responsibility 60+ employees and I dealt with bigger problems than these so routinely they weren’t even worth commenting on. And this was not a high-level job by any means, as the salary sorely suggested. 
That was not my intention; I was being facetious.
Sorry, that should read, “responsibility *over * 60+…etc.”
(I could compose in those days, too.)
Heh. I like Diane. Did you notice that when she hung up after talking to Assorama, she looked at the phone and went “pfft.” (Or however you’d spell it.) To me, that pretty much sums up Omarosa–pfft. Not even with a capital p. She isn’t worth even that much.
Kwame dropped the ball 4 times WRT Assy:
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Picking her in the first place. I wonder if he’ll be made to justify his decision. I hope so, because I’d love to know what he was thinking.
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When she refused to tell Troy what the phone call was about. Kwame should have asked her if the call was task-related. Assuming she did admit that it was, he should have insisted that she tell him what it was about. If she didn’t, he should have discreetly tried to find out from the maitre’d who had called. The fact that she wouldn’t tell them was a GIANT RED FLAG. I guess they don’t teach you at Harvard B-school that follow-up is a necessary part of delegation. Kwame’s comment that he expects people to be competent was really stupid. He’d lived and worked with her for months. He should have known. And if he didn’t…well, he’s just a dummy.
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When Omarosa lied to him in the hotel room. He probably didn’t know the extent of her lie, but it was obvious something wasn’t adding up. Instead of apologizing to Diane, he should asked for more information and figured out what the hell was going on. The most important thing was to fix the logistical problem. Kwame should have suspected that something was going wrong, and should have made sure it was fixed. Again, delegation requires follow-up, and sometimes that follow-up means that you have take care of something yourself–especially if there is time pressure involved. But he also should have determined that Assorama was lying. And he should have fired her. Trump made it very clear that they weren’t “project managers” anymore, but that they were “executives” and the other people were “employees.” Therefore, he had the power to take her off the project.
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Towards the end, when Simpson was “lost,” he again should have stepped in and spoken to Diane. We only saw the first part of that situation, but it sure seemed like Kwame left it to Omarosa to figure out.
Bill managed to piss me off with his whole “I don’t care what Leslie thinks–I’ve got a job to do!” But she’s the one who can make or break you. Stupid. But he’s better than Kwame. Sheesh!
I think annieclaus nailed it.
So far, the editing makes it look like both guys have some problems. Kwame’s got to handle his problem “employee”; that’s the obvious monkey wrench we’re seeing, but Bill’s already let the simplest part of his assignment get away from him. Why the hell didn’t he dispatch Katrina to deal with the model home storage situation? The “solution” of delivery to the staffer’s offices creates other problems due to the [predictable] volume of gift bag items. And declaring the office imposition against a full time staffer “irrelevant” doesn’t exactly showcase Bill’s managerial expertise. He’s fundamentally correct about the relevance, of course, but just because a personnel aspect is not germaine to the business goal does not put it beneath his notice.
As unimpressed as I was with the assignment (and last minute miracle) last week, I’m that much more impressed with the final assignments; at least if the stumbling blocks have been purposefully installed. Both finalists are having their core strengths exercised and having their weaknesses tested. I think those interviews in the first half not only set up the firings but also established the parameters for the final. (I loved the four interviewers; they were marvellously tough. Excellent.)
I’m stoked for the next season.
Not a political comment, just a look at Omarosa’s resume:
In Thursday’s Washington Post, Richard Leiby’s “The Reliable Source” column (not online, I think) quotes People magazine as saying that Omarosa was “banished” from four jobs during her run in government. Cheryl Shavers, former undersecretary for Technology at the Commerce Department where Omarosa worked in 2000, said, “She was asked to leave as quickly as possible, she was disruptive. One woman wanted to slug her.”
When asked about her job history, Omarosa blamed her problems on a co-worker at Commerce who, she said, had it in for her.
That woman is clearly delusional about her abilities.
Oh, ha ha! I’m dying! Someone over at TWoP called her Fauxmarosa! Ha ha ha!
p.s. Hi, MamaTiger!
Much as I’d like to believe Omarosa’s faking her incompetence, I don’t think she’s that good an actress.
I generally agree with green bean, except for two points. First, I don’t know how obvious it was that Omarosa wasout-and-out LYING. Perhaps they thought she was making excuses, but it’s obvious to us as viewers b/c we knew exactly who was on the phone and what she said. Omarosa has a history of trying to excuse poor performance, so that seems plausible. I also wondered why Kwame didn’t come down harder, but perhaps he tried and was told by producers or something, “sorry”.
Also, I seem to remember the Donald saying that sometimes, in leadership roles, you have to be very strong about asserting your authority. While it may come back to bite Bill in the ass, it might also be a sign of strength that he’s not worried about “offending” every low-level peon in the process. It also wasn’t clear whether he was actually RUDE or whether he simply laid down what was going to happen and noted that she seemed a little PO’d.
Do the show rules allow the wannabe-execs to fire someone from the task? Kwame made a mistake in choosing Omorosa but can he actually kick her to the curb? Lord knows Troy and Heidi have no illusions left about her comptence or honesty. Maybe that’s the test. They’d be left with more work but the gain in credibility and smooth operation would more than offset that.
Good point. Again I’m unclear on how many problems are staged or just part of a true process. Given the amount of camera time given the support staff, I’d guess they might provide info to The Donald from their perspective. The execs weighed in from above; this test might measure leadership credibility from the front lines.
Everybody’s worked for some ineffective middle manager. Maybe this test measures how responsive, or even aware, the Top Guy is to those kind of problems. In which case Omorosa is the obvious klunker, but circumstances can make or break personnel choices.
Here’s an online link to that story (scroll down).
Also…
And then there’s this…
The woman is worse than delusional, she’s certifiably insane and a twisted bitch. I loathe that vile [deleted expletive improper outside the Pit].
I think she’s trying to sabotage Kwame on purpose, but not because they hired her to do so, but because she’s a [see above].
Just out of curiosity, If Omarossa had been a former employee of Ken Lay at Enron, would you still consider that making a connection between lying and having been formerly employed by a known liar(Clinton DID perjure himself, don’t forget) is being overtly political? 
Chris W
PS FWIW I agree fully that Kwame and Bill’s projects are being deliberately sabotaged from within, to see how the two finalists handle extreme crisis situations.
Argh - that was me, not my sweet husband who would never speak with deleted expletives. Phooey.
Yep, probably. The lines for business/governmental honesty are pretty blurry but still volatile, which is why I responded as a poster, not a mod.
It was a response aimed at keeping an admittedly navel-gazing thread focused, uh, on navel lint. There are plenty of apt and perfectly valid spin-off points from this, but they deserve their own independent threads.
Again, it’s a courtesy thing. Business and governmental ethics? Great and grist to the mill. But they shouldn’t interfere with important stuff like Donald Trump’s hair and reality TV.
Hard to tell with print, y’know? Apologies for the misdirected chiding.*
I my own self only use smilies–or watch The Apprentice–when addled by sinus medications.
Hmmm…does this mean that he would never use expletives, or that he would never delete them?
I agree with people who think some of these problems are a set up. In fact, the last two tasks seem to have been engineered to allow Trump and Burnet to manipulate the results. I’d really like to get a look at the contract the contestants signed.
I disagree. I think Bill is spot on so far. Part of the thing is that you can’t tell how long he has to solve problems. I get the impression that the golf tournament is actually starting really soon. Organizing something big like this, you don’t have time for optimal solutions when you’re in “countdown mode” (Event starts in 18 hours. Event start in 17 hours 59 minutes . . . ) YOU JUST SOLVE THE DAMN PROBLEM and move on to the next one. His solution looked excellent to me! That crap that “Leslie” was running on Bill, “It’s just polite to ask!,” was way out of line – she’d never have said that to Carolyn. After Bill turned her office into a warehouse, she won’t try it on Bill again, either.
Kwame, is just way too MBA. What’s was up with that line about “subcommittees?” Next he’ll be having pre-meeting meetings to choose a process. And maybe he can’t technically fire the Big O, but he can assign her to counting tootpicks. He is not nearly confrontational enough for the big leagues.
Though you can’t really tell from the creative editing they do on this show, I get the impression that Bill has a picture in his mind of what needs to happen and that he’s tightly focused on putting that picture together. If you get in the way, he’ll go right over you and not look back.
Kwame, on the other hand, seems to be back at the Tiger show with Troy. The way the show is editted, it appears that Kwame’s primary task is to eat dinner in badly over-decorated restaurants. That image is in sharp contrast to Bill’s team hustling around through stacks of boxes.
Anyway, I sincerely hope that when Trump finally turns to one of the players and says, “You’re hired!” He responds – on live TV – “Thanks for the offer Mr. Trump, but before I can accept, we need to discuss my compensation package.”
Let me start this by saying that, until tonight, I thought Kwame was a decent but mildy inept guy. I am shocked that he got this far, and now he’s showing how truly unfit for this job he is.
The only way I could remotely feel sympathy for Kwame in this situation is if he got stuck with Omarosa as his last, forced pick. But no, he chose her second, leaving Heidi for last. Say what you want about Heidi, but she’s not lazy, nor is she a delusional liar. For whatever demented reason, Kwame chose Omarosa, so it’s his funeral. Too bad for him; he made his bed, so now he and Omarosa can lie in it (and you bet she will).
If Omarosa and Katrina are saboteurs, then I think the upshot is the same-- a crisis situation with an inept employee requires swift and immediate attention, which Bill demonstrated admirably but Kwame most definitely did not. If I were Kwame, I would have followed Troy’s lead and forced Omarosa to tell me what that call at dinner was. As usual, Troy had far better instincts, which Kwame ignored. When he picked up the phone to call Diane, I thought for sure he would ask her if she called yesterday at dinner and spoke to Omarosa, which would have outed the lie immediately. Instead, he apologized, which was dandy, except he didn’t even really know what he was apologizing for, did he? Nope.
I think Heidi nailed it when she said that Kwame is afraid of confrontation. The Donald most definitely isn’t, and I don’t think he admires cowardice like that in his exes. None of them seemed to shy away from getting in anyone’s face.
Frankly, I’m disgusted with the ineptitude, not of Omarosa, which was predictable, but of Kwame. All Harvard MBA, no guts whatsoever. He doesn’t deserve to win. After tonight’s performance, if Bill doesn’t win, then he is a fuck-up of epic proportions.
Oh, and who didn’t love Trump’s “executive assistant.” Hands up, everyone, who would have guessed that Trump had a stunning supermodel for a secretary.
In reality, she’s an old battle-ax (and I mean that as a sincere complement, believe it or not) who’s clearly been Trump’s secretary for thirty years or more. She’s probably the one person on the planet who can wrap Trump around her little finger if she feels the need. She speaks softly but Trump clearly hears every word!