Joe Phillips, who was booted from The Apprentice, confessed he was’so convinced’ he wouldn’t be the one to lose out on Lord Sugar’s £250,000 that he didn’t even bother packing his bags this week.
Following a trip to Dubai, where the competitors were entrusted with creating corporate away days for foreign customers, project manager Rochelle Anthony summoned sub-team leader Joe to the boardroom.
The crew had failed to impress their visitors with their Dubai tour, in which glasses of water were rationed, but they were not expecting the severely upset client’s request for a 60% refund.
In fact, Joe was so unprepared for the massive loss that he hadn’t even packed his luggage to leave the business.
‘Before every boardroom, you pre-pack your bags, because if it’s you that gets fired, you’re out the door, you don’t get to go back to the house,’ Joe stated to Metro.co.uk.
‘Dubai was the one task that I didn’t bother packing my bag. Because I was so confident that our team had won that task that I didn’t bother packing my bag!’
He continued: ‘So I was massively shocked when the team asked for a 60% refund, that’s unheard of!
‘And that caused us to lose the task, being a profit-based task, so I was a bit shocked, yeah.’

Despite the surprising outcome, Joe acknowledged he would have volunteered for the boardroom if Rochelle hadn’t opted to bring him back.
‘I wasn’t shocked I was called back into the final three,’ he said.
‘In fact, if I hadn’t have been, I would have put myself forward to go instead of someone.
‘I think Dani [Donovan] would have been the next best choice in my team, because it was her decision to limit the drinks, however, as sub-team leader, it was my responsibility to sign off on that decision, so I do think I was the right person.
‘But like I said, I genuinely thought every single person on our team did a fantastic job and I thought we had, not just won the task, but smashed the task. So yeah, I don’t think anyone in our team really deserved to be fired.’
The Apprentice airs Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One.