Apple falls to 36th place on Glassdoor's annual Best Places to Work chart

AppleInsider · December 9, 2016 3:51PM

Despite being one of the most valuable corporations in the world, Apple has slipped to 36th place in Glassdoor's annual "Best Places to Work" rankings for large-scale businesses, as determined by employee ratings.

Last year the company occupied 25th place, and the year prior, 22nd. Its current position is the lowest since Apple first made it onto the Best Places list in 2009. Its highest point came in 2012, when it reached 10th.

Some high-tech companies above Apple in the latest list include Facebook (#2), Google (#4), Adobe (#9), Salesforce (#17), Intuit (#20), DocuSign (#23), Akamai (#25), Zillow (#29), Nvidia (#30), and Airbnb (#35). Leading the chart is the multinational consulting firm Bain & Company.

It's not clear what led to Apple's decline, but while reviewers have been positive about aspects like benefits, a recurring complaint is a lack of work-life balance, since some teams demand extremely long hours that can keep people away from friends and family.

SpamSandwich · December 9, 2016 3:54PM

Must be why the stock is up sharply this morning...

slprescott · December 9, 2016 3:57PM

WAY back in 1987, I interviewed at Apple's HQ. My driver from the airport explained there was a strange dual-personality syndrome at Apple:
- everyone acted mellow, to reflect hippie/surf culture
- but many of those same people privately had therapists and marital problems

Just an interesting anecdote...

SpamSandwich · December 9, 2016 4:01PM

slprescott said:

WAY back in 1987, I interviewed at Apple's HQ. My driver from the airport explained there was a strange dual-personality syndrome at Apple:
- everyone acted mellow, to reflect hippie/surf culture
- but many of those same people privately had therapists and marital problems

Just an interesting anecdote...

Cabbies hear a lot.

slurpy · December 9, 2016 4:10PM

sog35 said:

Glass door is filled with losers who could not cut it and then bitch about it on the internet.

If you want to work hard then Apple isn't the place for you.

Tim Cook is doing a FINE job

Why is Cook doing a FINE job now in contradiction to your previous 5,000 rants? Because the stock is up $4? Is that all it takes? Is your opinion of Cook a direct mathematical algorithm connected to the day's current stock price? Will he go back to being "pathetic" and "unfit" tomorrow when the stock is down $2? You're one of the most superficial posters I've ever seen.

randominternetperson · December 9, 2016 4:22PM

The difference between 9th and 34th is 0.1 on a 5 point scale apparently (4.2 versus 4.3) so this isn't a precipitous drop. But obviously it would be nice if Apple were high on this list. Whether you like your job is a much bigger factor in employee retention than salary and stock price, so it's important. I expect a significant shift in these numbers next year after the move--either up or down. I've been involved in a few office moves in my career and every one generated months of strong opinions.

retrogusto · December 9, 2016 4:24PM

A few years ago, out of curiosity, I went on the Glassdoor site to look at their salary estimates--I plugged in the details of my company and position and it said I should be making less than half of what I was. So my inclination is to take their data with a grain of salt.

holyone · December 9, 2016 4:32PM

sog35 said:

slurpy said:

sog35 said:

Glass door is filled with losers who could not cut it and then bitch about it on the internet.

If you want to work hard then Apple isn't the place for you.

Tim Cook is doing a FINE job

Why is Cook doing a FINE job now in contradiction to your previous 5,000 rants? Because the stock is up $4? Is that all it takes? Is your opinion of Cook a direct mathematical algorithm connected to the day's current stock price? Will he go back to being "pathetic" and "unfit" tomorrow when the stock is down $2? You're one of the most superficial posters I've ever seen.

Why does this even matter to you?

Am I so in your head you need an explanation for every opinion I have about Cook?
Slurp, keep carrying the flag and defending Apple, we need people like you. But I'm not cut out to be like you.

My opinion of Cook will changed based on his performance, plus I found Jesus. That helps too

wonder if they'd still be losers if they said Apple was number one, by the way good for you if you really found Jesus coz if you are just being sarcastic some might not take kindly to that

thedba · December 9, 2016 4:32PM

sog35 said:

slurpy said:

sog35 said:

Glass door is filled with losers who could not cut it and then bitch about it on the internet.

If you want to work hard then Apple isn't the place for you.

Tim Cook is doing a FINE job

Why is Cook doing a FINE job now in contradiction to your previous 5,000 rants? Because the stock is up $4? Is that all it takes? Is your opinion of Cook a direct mathematical algorithm connected to the day's current stock price? Will he go back to being "pathetic" and "unfit" tomorrow when the stock is down $2? You're one of the most superficial posters I've ever seen.

Why does this even matter to you?

Am I so in your head you need an explanation for every opinion I have about Cook?
Slurp, keep carrying the flag and defending Apple, we need people like you. But I'm not cut out to be like you.

My opinion of Cook will changed based on his performance, plus I found Jesus. That helps too

I thought that finding Jesus was supposed to calm and appease you. It seems that it's had the opposite effect. Maybe you should try buddhism or some other eastern philosophy.

wigby · December 9, 2016 4:49PM

sog35 said:

retrogusto said:

A few years ago, out of curiosity, I went on the Glassdoor site to look at their salary estimates--I plugged in the details of my company and position and it said I should be making less than half of what I was. So my inclination is to take their data with a grain of salt.

Nope you are grossly overpaid.

Anyway. I would not be at all surprised if Google/Facebook/ect has people filing out fake reviews to boost their numbers.

How's Jesus working out for you?

tomhq · December 9, 2016 5:09PM

I thought Nvidia was notorious for work-life balance, for Apple to lag behind in employee rating... wow.

SpamSandwich · December 9, 2016 5:42PM

Please, Apple... just get that bloody stock to rise another 5-10% and I'm going to sell every share I own.

randominternetperson · December 9, 2016 5:43PM

I just realized that these numbers for Apple are likely dominated by their massive Apple Stores workforce and might not tell us anything about the Apple employees we care about (the ones designing and coding the actual products). Not that we don't "care" about the Store employees; of course we are generous, empathetic beings, who care about all living things, but you know what I mean.

dysamoria · December 9, 2016 7:58PM

sog35 said:

slprescott said:

WAY back in 1987, I interviewed at Apple's HQ. My driver from the airport explained there was a strange dual-personality syndrome at Apple:
- everyone acted mellow, to reflect hippie/surf culture
- but many of those same people privately had therapists and marital problems

Just an interesting anecdote...

uh....that's every workplace.

50% of marriages end up in divorse

Apple isn't some magical wonderland that frees you from real world problems

No it's not. But it IS most workplaces. The thing is, this is another example of hyper-normalization. Deciding bad things are okay because they're common is not logical and is no way to run a society (unless you want it to fail).

As for the divorce statistic, it's not an excuse for allowing the workforce to be abused.

dysamoria · December 9, 2016 7:59PM

randominternetperson said:

I just realized that these numbers for Apple are likely dominated by their massive Apple Stores workforce and might not tell us anything about the Apple employees we care about (the ones designing and coding the actual products). Not that we don't "care" about the Store employees; of course we are generous, empathetic beings, who care about all living things, but you know what I mean.

If you have to defend your wording, maybe you should try again with different wording.

dysamoria · December 9, 2016 8:05PM

sog35 said:

slurpy said:

sog35 said:

Glass door is filled with losers who could not cut it and then bitch about it on the internet.

If you want to work hard then Apple isn't the place for you.

Tim Cook is doing a FINE job

Why is Cook doing a FINE job now in contradiction to your previous 5,000 rants? Because the stock is up $4? Is that all it takes? Is your opinion of Cook a direct mathematical algorithm connected to the day's current stock price? Will he go back to being "pathetic" and "unfit" tomorrow when the stock is down $2? You're one of the most superficial posters I've ever seen.

Why does this even matter to you?

Am I so in your head you need an explanation for every opinion I have about Cook?
Slurp, keep carrying the flag and defending Apple, we need people like you. But I'm not cut out to be like you.

My opinion of Cook will changed based on his performance, plus I found Jesus. That helps too

It took belief in a mythical being for you to decide to be humane in your treatment of others? If you need a myth to fix your behavior, you're not really changing yourself.

But, wait, you're still hostile to "losers", people who "couldn't cut it", and fine with the abuse of entire work forces if they don't meet your standard of "working hard", so I guess it's just that you're superficially reversing course in the one area you already recognized your behavior was out of order (because almost everyone here was pushing back on you for your irrationally hostile attitudes about Cook).

And yes, if you do a 180° shift from one extreme to another, people will, and should, notice and comment.

dysamoria · December 9, 2016 8:09PM

thedba said:

sog35 said:

slurpy said:

sog35 said:

Glass door is filled with losers who could not cut it and then bitch about it on the internet.

If you want to work hard then Apple isn't the place for you.

Tim Cook is doing a FINE job

Why is Cook doing a FINE job now in contradiction to your previous 5,000 rants? Because the stock is up $4? Is that all it takes? Is your opinion of Cook a direct mathematical algorithm connected to the day's current stock price? Will he go back to being "pathetic" and "unfit" tomorrow when the stock is down $2? You're one of the most superficial posters I've ever seen.

Why does this even matter to you?

Am I so in your head you need an explanation for every opinion I have about Cook?
Slurp, keep carrying the flag and defending Apple, we need people like you. But I'm not cut out to be like you.

My opinion of Cook will changed based on his performance, plus I found Jesus. That helps too

I thought that finding Jesus was supposed to calm and appease you. It seems that it's had the opposite effect. Maybe you should try buddhism or some other eastern philosophy.

Or better yet, stop finding mythical solutions and look at yourself critically. Examine why you behave and think the way you do, and change it based on logic and rationality, instead of myths and arbitrary beliefs. What makes you you? Know yourself instead of treating the symptoms with woo.

dysamoria · December 9, 2016 8:14PM

After seeing so many examples of Apple's creepy corporate culture, I decided I would never work for them, at any level. There were openings at the local Apple Store I would be qualified for, but the culture is just frightening. Most corporate culture is creepy and unnatural, and most corporate culture doesn't care about the customer's experience as much as I do, but Apple's way of "caring" is above and beyond unnatural and forced. I hate it as a customer, and I'd never subject myself to it as an employee.

oh but wait, no one "cares" about Apple Store employees...

canukstorm · December 9, 2016 8:40PM

dysamoria said:

sog35 said:

slurpy said:

sog35 said:

Glass door is filled with losers who could not cut it and then bitch about it on the internet.

If you want to work hard then Apple isn't the place for you.

Tim Cook is doing a FINE job

Why is Cook doing a FINE job now in contradiction to your previous 5,000 rants? Because the stock is up $4? Is that all it takes? Is your opinion of Cook a direct mathematical algorithm connected to the day's current stock price? Will he go back to being "pathetic" and "unfit" tomorrow when the stock is down $2? You're one of the most superficial posters I've ever seen.

Why does this even matter to you?

Am I so in your head you need an explanation for every opinion I have about Cook?
Slurp, keep carrying the flag and defending Apple, we need people like you. But I'm not cut out to be like you.

My opinion of Cook will changed based on his performance, plus I found Jesus. That helps too

It took belief in a mythical being for you to decide to be humane in your treatment of others? If you need a myth to fix your behavior, you're not really changing yourself.

But, wait, you're still hostile to "losers", people who "couldn't cut it", and fine with the abuse of entire work forces if they don't meet your standard of "working hard", so I guess it's just that you're superficially reversing course in the one area you already recognized your behavior was out of order (because almost everyone here was pushing back on you for your irrationally hostile attitudes about Cook).

And yes, if you do a 180° shift from one extreme to another, people will, and should, notice and comment.

Look on the bright side. it could've been worse => he could have found Muhammed and then you'd all be upshit creek.

duervo · December 9, 2016 8:41PM

To Apple employees filling out Glassdoor surveys:

/whipcrack

"More work, less surveys! People want their AirPods and Mac Pro refreshes!"

/whipcrack

.
.
.
.

/whipcrack

yojimbo007 · December 9, 2016 9:13PM

they are working so hard?.... on which product... that has not been delayed or released with a problem.

Apple falls to 36th place on Glassdoor's annual Best Places to Work chart

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