Wife might be fired for owning a Mac (long rant-you've been warned)
My wife and I are getting concerned. Nothing is official, but the writing on the wall is starting to show...
I won't name the company since at this point nothing has happened, but if it does, you can bet I'm going to publicly b!tch about them all over the place
Anyway, the deal is this. My wife is a remote employee, just like all of her peers. She's worked for her company--with glowing reviews I might add--for 8+ years now. A year ago the company started encouraging all remote employees to get access to e-mail. They did not provide a computer or ISP reimbursement to any of the remote employees, but we didn't care at the time since we already owned two computers and have a broadband connection.
A couple months ago the company stated they wanted to move to a "paperless" operation for their remote employees. They sent out a questionaire asking people what type of computer they had (they actually listed Mac as a choice), what OS version, and if you already owned a version of MS Office. Of course we have all the latest, so she indicated so on the questionaire.
We heard nothing for several weeks. Then she gets an e-mail talking about a CD that all remote employees will be receiving and instructions to call someone at the home office to go over the setup. She asked if the CD contained Mac compatible software. Her boss said "I don't know. I believe they're [IT] still working on that"
Last week she gets a generic e-mail that contains, among other things, a link to the updated employee handbook. She skims the handbook and notices it mentions that all remote employees must own a Windows PC.
Yesterday her coworker (in a nearby state) mentions that she received a general e-mail listing the times that "phone reviews" would be performed (they normally fly out to handle the reviews), and while the list isn't exhaustive, her coworker notices that my wife is missing from the list.
Now in all of this my wife was never told that our Mac would be a problem, and she repeatedly mentioned to her boss that we own/use Macs. Her boss has said nothing to indicate that this was a problem.
Of course in light of these e-mails during the past 7 days, it looks like it may be a problem after all.
Needless to say my wife is pissed. I told her last weekend that we could get VPC if needed, but she's mad that they have made it sound for the last couple of months that our Mac wouldn't be a problem, and now, instead of telling her it is a problem, it looks like they may have already made the decision to terminate her, without offering the opportunity for us to purchase a PC or purchase VPC (I won't bother ranting about how the company is too cheap to provide the remote employees with a computer). It just seems she was being led to believe there wasn't a problem, and now she might lose her job.
If they had just come out and said, "Hey, your Mac isn't going to work with our new paperless system. So you either need to get a PC or we'll have to let you go." Then we could have decided to go the VPC or buy a PC route.
Admittedly maybe she's reading more into things, and maybe all will be okay. However, at this point her boss hasn't said anything about the "paperless" thing to her in days, and there has been no mention of whether her boss is flying out for her review or if she will get a phone review.
We'll see...I'll update this (if anyone cares) as things unfold.
I won't name the company since at this point nothing has happened, but if it does, you can bet I'm going to publicly b!tch about them all over the place
Anyway, the deal is this. My wife is a remote employee, just like all of her peers. She's worked for her company--with glowing reviews I might add--for 8+ years now. A year ago the company started encouraging all remote employees to get access to e-mail. They did not provide a computer or ISP reimbursement to any of the remote employees, but we didn't care at the time since we already owned two computers and have a broadband connection.
A couple months ago the company stated they wanted to move to a "paperless" operation for their remote employees. They sent out a questionaire asking people what type of computer they had (they actually listed Mac as a choice), what OS version, and if you already owned a version of MS Office. Of course we have all the latest, so she indicated so on the questionaire.
We heard nothing for several weeks. Then she gets an e-mail talking about a CD that all remote employees will be receiving and instructions to call someone at the home office to go over the setup. She asked if the CD contained Mac compatible software. Her boss said "I don't know. I believe they're [IT] still working on that"
Last week she gets a generic e-mail that contains, among other things, a link to the updated employee handbook. She skims the handbook and notices it mentions that all remote employees must own a Windows PC.
Yesterday her coworker (in a nearby state) mentions that she received a general e-mail listing the times that "phone reviews" would be performed (they normally fly out to handle the reviews), and while the list isn't exhaustive, her coworker notices that my wife is missing from the list.
Now in all of this my wife was never told that our Mac would be a problem, and she repeatedly mentioned to her boss that we own/use Macs. Her boss has said nothing to indicate that this was a problem.
Of course in light of these e-mails during the past 7 days, it looks like it may be a problem after all.
Needless to say my wife is pissed. I told her last weekend that we could get VPC if needed, but she's mad that they have made it sound for the last couple of months that our Mac wouldn't be a problem, and now, instead of telling her it is a problem, it looks like they may have already made the decision to terminate her, without offering the opportunity for us to purchase a PC or purchase VPC (I won't bother ranting about how the company is too cheap to provide the remote employees with a computer). It just seems she was being led to believe there wasn't a problem, and now she might lose her job.
If they had just come out and said, "Hey, your Mac isn't going to work with our new paperless system. So you either need to get a PC or we'll have to let you go." Then we could have decided to go the VPC or buy a PC route.
Admittedly maybe she's reading more into things, and maybe all will be okay. However, at this point her boss hasn't said anything about the "paperless" thing to her in days, and there has been no mention of whether her boss is flying out for her review or if she will get a phone review.
We'll see...I'll update this (if anyone cares) as things unfold.
Comments
the real pisser is i have yet to see an organization that could not, with a LITLLE bit of work, make macs compatible with remote access to e-mail and such. but they take the lazy, oh, sorry, "cost-effective" route, and say "all workers will be on pc." i swear, i want to hit the lottery just so i can start a company that does nothing, yet has g5's and xserves powering the place, then interview pc-only people just so i can turn them down by saying "actually, we're really looking for someone who can work well within our mac environment..."
Originally posted by rok
yeah, my company wanted to do the same thing to a co-worker of mine, but, as luck would have it, she got pregnant about the same time that they were planning on having "the talk" with her. suddenly, they shut up about it, probably realizing that if they let her go after five good years of work, right after she got pregnant, she'd have their balls in a sling in no time.
the real pisser is i have yet to see an organization that could not, with a LITLLE bit of work, make macs compatible with remote access to e-mail and such. but they take the lazy, oh, sorry, "cost-effective" route, and say "all workers will be on pc." i swear, i want to hit the lottery just so i can start a company that does nothing, yet has g5's and xserves powering the place, then interview pc-only people just so i can turn them down by saying "actually, we're really looking for someone who can work well within our mac environment..."
If it makes you feel good, our company uses Macs and PCs but our Macs outnumber the PCs by 50 to 1. We recently have been interviewing for IT and have turned down dozens of PC techs citing lack of Mac experience.
Then just get a $200 Walmart PC and bare with it, such is the case with being a worker, you have to conform, even if it's bad. Usually artists can demand Mac's because they don't come by too easily, at least not the good ones.
At least she will have that nice choice Mac sitting next to it, and when the PC gets infected with the next big virus then she can say:
"I'm emailing all our customers from my virus proof Mac right now and keeping them informed of our progress"
Turn those tables.
Thus if the company oblige your wife to use a PC, they should provide a PC.
I would love to know what system it is and if it is really PC only.
they've never said there's going to be a problem, at least not yet, right?
why in the world would you assume that means she's getting fired for using a Mac?
sounds to me like she was either left off the list by accident, or her reviews are going to continue to be in person. maybe you should be more worried about why this guy wants to fly out to interview your wife for a few hours.
Dude get VPC or get a copy of the new office for mac that includes it. I hear from folks the new version for g5's is going to rock.
tech guys have no mac-experience and they won't touch it. Usually it's just easier to say to the boss: one out of our 100 employees use different computer it would take 2 weeks of our work to make it work with our existing... blah blah blah...
It would most likely work with macs np, but since they don't have one to test it/or don't know how to turn one on, just make stupid policies.
don't worry about it. Post the details if you need help and i'm sure you'll get it from from these forums.
Most likely that did not happen here, so its a moot point.
This is definately bad business practices here. The company should provide a computer for its remote workers, plain and simple. Regardless of what platform its the companies responsiblity. If you are terminated for this, I'd suggest getting a lawyer, since thats whats great about america you can sue for everything.
Originally posted by alcimedes
um, i don't want to sound like an ass, but is all of this just from a list of people who will have phone interviews, of which you wife isn't one?
they've never said there's going to be a problem, at least not yet, right?
why in the world would you assume that means she's getting fired for using a Mac?
sounds to me like she was either left off the list by accident, or her reviews are going to continue to be in person. maybe you should be more worried about why this guy wants to fly out to interview your wife for a few hours.
No worries, you don't sound like an ass, and you bring up a good point. Yes, so far no one has said her Mac would be a problem; and admittedly, any single one of the things that has occurred are not significant in and of themselves. It's just the number of small things, all occurring together, that seem to indicate there may be a problem.
Believe me, I dearly hope my wife is reading more into all of this as right now there is not much hiring going on for her skills in the Seattle area.
As an update, she sent an e-mail and left a voicemail for her boss yesterday and hasn't heard from her yet...here's to hoping that my wife is getting worked up for nothing!
Originally posted by fuzz_ball
[..]
As an update, she sent an e-mail and left a voicemail for her boss yesterday and hasn't heard from her yet...here's to hoping that my wife is getting worked up for nothing!
I too hope that she is getting worked up for nothing. However, if the worst happens, then I must admit I had thoughts about your wife sending a message to her company - with a cc to Steve Jobs - telling her company that Macs rock and that her company can 'suck the big one'. Probably not a good idea, but nice to think about Steve reading it.
Also a remote worker, but in consulting mode.
Sounds like Fascism is entering the USA. Hope not.
Peace
eric j