I stopped watching The Apprentice a couple of years ago, but the other night I turned on the TV to see that this had been a mistake. There was Alan Sugar, the stroppy business magnate, reminding the show’s latest crop of contestants about the two vital qualities he always looks for in an offsider: “Make me money and don’t piss me off.”

I immediately felt a rare surge of admiration for Lord Sugar. In eight words, he had summed up a core truth about what companies have always sought from their workers — but are increasingly reluctant to admit.

I thought of this a few days later when a friend emailed about a job advert he had just spotted. It had been posted by a bank he used to work for, which was claiming to be the sort of place where you could “bring your whole self to work”.