#AppleToo receives nearly 500 stories of workplace issues in four days

Posted:
in General Discussion edited April 2022
The public might soon learn much more about Apple's internal work environment despite the company's best efforts to keep details of its operation under wraps.

AppleToo


An employee effort to organize under the AppleToo banner on Friday said it has recorded almost 500 instances of workplace discrimination and harassment since calling on current and former workers to come forward with their stories early this week.

Workers who responded to AppleToo's call have asked how to inform the press about their experiences, reports Protocol. AppleToo also plans to begin sharing employee stories on Monday after it provides guidance on contacting local authorities, according to the organization's @AppleLaborers Twitter account.

A common thread in many stories was an apparent disregard for reported complaints on the part of Apple's human resources department, AppleToo said in a tweet.

Other employees have recently spoken up about similar issues. For example, Ashley Gjovik, a senior engineering program manager -- sometimes mistakenly credited with co-founding #AppleToo. She was placed on administrative leave in August, began chronicling her run-ins with Apple on Twitter and a dedicated website. From workplace safety to sexism -- and retaliation for reporting said grievances -- Gjovik's allegations of harassment are many and varied.

AppleToo first took shape as a Discord channel created with the assistance of Apple leaker "Fudge." About 15 current and former employees organized the movement designed to shine a light on workplace harassment, discrimination, sexism, racism and other issues.

"When we press for accountability and redress to the persistent injustices we witness or experience in our workplace, we are faced with a pattern of isolation, degredation [sic], and gaslighting," a statement on the AppleToo website reads. "No more. We've exhausted all internal avenues. We've talked with our leadership. We've gone to the People team. We've escalated through Business Conduct. Nothing has changed."

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    I have no doubt some of the complaints and grievances may be true but being a General Manager of 350 in a hotel I can say it is impossible to keep everyone happy and also rely on every manager supervisor and staff members to do the right thing all of the time. My experience tells me that the biggest complaints generally come from workers that are not performing in their job. Good and happy workers rarely complain ! 
    JFC_PAiloveapplegeardewmeravnorodomlkruppmike1tycho_macuseranantksundaramapplguyrcfa
  • Reply 2 of 20
    People being people is the worst thing for managing said.
    lkrupp
  • Reply 3 of 20
    I was wondering if there are any legitimate reports of bad things happening, but seems like the usual victim card narcissism. Sad, if a bad apple does end up slipping through Apple’s hiring process and actually abuses someone, it’s more likely to get lost in the noise or not taken seriously now. 
    tycho_macuserrcfa
  • Reply 4 of 20
    citpekscitpeks Posts: 246member
    lauriel said:
    I have no doubt some of the complaints and grievances may be true but being a General Manager of 350 in a hotel I can say it is impossible to keep everyone happy and also rely on every manager supervisor and staff members to do the right thing all of the time. My experience tells me that the biggest complaints generally come from workers that are not performing in their job. Good and happy workers rarely complain ! 

    No doubt there are probably legitimate complaints from Apple workers, like there are for any company, especially one with 147,000 full-time employees (per 2020 10-K), which helps put the number cited in perspective.
    sdw2001rayboanantksundaramrcfaJinTech
  • Reply 5 of 20
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,693member
    citpeks said:
    lauriel said:
    I have no doubt some of the complaints and grievances may be true but being a General Manager of 350 in a hotel I can say it is impossible to keep everyone happy and also rely on every manager supervisor and staff members to do the right thing all of the time. My experience tells me that the biggest complaints generally come from workers that are not performing in their job. Good and happy workers rarely complain ! 

    No doubt there are probably legitimate complaints from Apple workers, like there are for any company, especially one with 147,000 full-time employees (per 2020 10-K), which helps put the number cited in perspective.
    Yes. It is impossible to keep so many workers purring in harmony when there are humans involved. That's the nature of the beast and on top of that we are emotional beasts which depend on perception. 

    Perfection isn't attainable but accountability, transparency (to a point) and procedures to deal with grievances should at least work effectively. 

    I suppose we'll get a better idea of how that is working over the coming months. 

    I will say that while I was in government, I did not have access to my psychological evaluations. I wonder if that has changed nowadays. 


    edited August 2021 robaba
  • Reply 6 of 20
    Every organization should have systems in place to handle complaints - especially about forms of abuse - that work. If people go outside standing organizational systems it is usually out of frustration that those systems in place do not satisfactory work. 

    People often find it a big step to complain about abuse as oftentimes self incriminating feelings are strong, in my experience, so to take it even further to an external site will feel as an even bigger step. 

    Anyway, quick judgement about people that complain, or about the organization, does not do this matter justice because of the usual highly complex matter of each case. 
    edited August 2021 robabaronn
  • Reply 7 of 20
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    Every organization should have systems in place to handle complaints - especially about forms of abuse - that work. If people go outside standing organizational systems it is usually out of frustration that those systems in place do not satisfactory work. 

    People often find it a big step to complain about abuse as oftentimes self incriminating feelings are strong, in my experience, so to take it even further to an external site will feel as an even bigger step. 

    Anyway, quick judgement about people that complain, or about the organization, does not do this matter justice because of the usual highly complex matter of each case. 
    Having managed people across industries I can tell you that while the vast majority of workers are good people, there are almost always those that enjoy chaos and anyone that is fired will always feel slighted. The part that I find curious is that with all of the avenues like Glassdoor to talk about such problems anonymously been available for years, none of their review highlight any of this. People who feel slighted lash out. It’s just odd to me. 
    dewmelkrupprcfa
  • Reply 8 of 20
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,371member
    Employee engagement surveys across multiple companies in multiple industries have been painting a very grim picture for quite some time. I believe that there are a whole lot of people who are generally lacking a sense of purpose and meaning in their lives. We live in a world with ubiquitous communication and constant media exposure but with very low levels of human-human connectedness. The last few years have literally been filled with deeply divided factions of people constantly yelling at one another and aligning themselves behind whackadoodle loud mouths who do little more than incite rage in their blind followers, many of whom prefer chaos and fabricated grievances to sitting alone and isolated in their lives with absolutely nobody to talk to. 

    Plenty of workers have always had issues with their jobs. If they have the flexibility to quit, perhaps because they have highly marketable skills, a good job history, and mobility, they quit and move on to greener pastures. The seldom lob a grenade over their shoulder on their way out the door, much less, engage in a campaign of denigration and internal destruction against their current employer. 

    The big difference today is social media and the internet megaphone. In the past people kind of kept their complaints and grievances to themselves or to a few close friends and family. Today, they use social media and other megaphones to broadcast their complaints to the world. They somehow feel that pushing their problems into other people’s lives makes their suffering more rewarding because it gives them the attention and pity they crave.

    Unfortunately, as individuals, we cannot afford to adopt everyone’s problems and suffering so we have to filter some of this stuff out. Turning up the volume using Slack is just going to rebase the noise level at which the filtering (tuning out) gets applied. Remember when it was career shattering for a public official to get caught in a single lie? Now we have public officials who’ve spewed tens of thousands of lies and we’re immune to it. At some point, it’s all noise and the signal is lost entirely.
    edited August 2021 get seriousMicDorseyrcfaDetnator
  • Reply 9 of 20
    robabarobaba Posts: 228member
    This is how change happens.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    I tell people all the time HR is not there to protect the employee, that includes management. They exist to protect the company. If HR think anyone is doing something that will hurt the company or another employee they are not going to defend our protect you. I have seen HR get rid of an employee or management or both. They are going put the blame a person before the company and you will have to prove the company is at fault.  The reason companies train employees on all sorts of things, it's so they can say you were trained and thus you know better and did the wrong thing and is the grounds for firing you.

    The fact these people are saying they reported things to HR and climbed HR did not do anything, first I doubt that happen, they most likely looked into it and found the person who complained did not have the facts correct or they made something up and no one back them up. HR not taking actions would definitely put the company at risk. Most times no one knows that HR did an investagation, that never make it public since an investigation in itself can harm innocent bystanders and they do not want anyone talking about it. Complainer usually want a public statement made about their complaint and do not like it one is not made.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    robaba said:
    This is how change happens.
    Lol.
    If the “change” you’re talking about is where an uppity self-aggrandizing employee like Gjovik can go to Twitter with a complaint like this:

    ”My boss respectfully asked me if I could lead meetings with slightly less aggressive tone, so more people would feel comfortable sharing their opinions. When I did, my boss thanked me afterwards for the more appropriate tone set in that meeting. What a jerk, right?! Ugh. I’m such a victim.”

    and have it not recognized for what it is (a self-important, attention seeking, bitter person), then yeah- CHANGE!!
    JWSCapplguyrcfaDetnator
  • Reply 12 of 20
    Seems they can't even spell...

    'degredation'
    edited August 2021
  • Reply 13 of 20
    robaba said:
    This is how change happens.
    I think you forgot a word, in front of "how."
  • Reply 14 of 20
    rcfarcfa Posts: 1,124member
    Ah, some people discovered that life isn’t a vacation, and you’re not going to work to be pampered… 🙄❄️

    Not saying there are no legitimate matters there whatsoever, but given the channels for complaints available, and the ultra-PC policies at a company like Apple, it’s hard not to believe that the vast majority of these cases aren’t crybabies who deserve a good ridicule.
  • Reply 15 of 20
    kimberlykimberly Posts: 429member
    rcfa said:
    Ah, some people discovered that life isn’t a vacation, and you’re not going to work to be pampered… 🙄❄️

    Not saying there are no legitimate matters there whatsoever, but given the channels for complaints available, and the ultra-PC policies at a company like Apple, it’s hard not to believe that the vast majority of these cases aren’t crybabies who deserve a good ridicule.
    Impressive putting together a sentence with a double (or is that triple) negative. Apple's HR could do with that skill set to obfuscate legitimate complaints.
    ronn
  • Reply 16 of 20
    kimberlykimberly Posts: 429member
    robaba said:
    This is how change happens.
    Lol.
    If the “change” you’re talking about is where an uppity self-aggrandizing employee like Gjovik can go to Twitter with a complaint like this:

    ”My boss respectfully asked me if I could lead meetings with slightly less aggressive tone, so more people would feel comfortable sharing their opinions. When I did, my boss thanked me afterwards for the more appropriate tone set in that meeting. What a jerk, right?! Ugh. I’m such a victim.”

    and have it not recognized for what it is (a self-important, attention seeking, bitter person), then yeah- CHANGE!!
    I agree .. a jerk.
  • Reply 17 of 20
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    lauriel said:
    I have no doubt some of the complaints and grievances may be true but being a General Manager of 350 in a hotel I can say it is impossible to keep everyone happy and also rely on every manager supervisor and staff members to do the right thing all of the time. 
    You've still got to try though.
    ronn
  • Reply 18 of 20
    lauriel said:
    I have no doubt some of the complaints and grievances may be true but being a General Manager of 350 in a hotel I can say it is impossible to keep everyone happy and also rely on every manager supervisor and staff members to do the right thing all of the time. My experience tells me that the biggest complaints generally come from workers that are not performing in their job. Good and happy workers rarely complain ! 
    All of this is true, but if the allegations that Apple HR didn't properly manage those complaints have any merit, that's a problem.  Few people would have huge problem if the issues were being addressed properly, even if there were lots of them.

    Saying that "it is impossible to keep everyone happy", while true, is no excuse for ignoring complaints or sweeping them under the metaphoric rug.
    muthuk_vanalingamronnrobaba
  • Reply 19 of 20
    sbdudesbdude Posts: 261member
    kimberly said:
    robaba said:
    This is how change happens.
    Lol.
    If the “change” you’re talking about is where an uppity self-aggrandizing employee like Gjovik can go to Twitter with a complaint like this:

    ”My boss respectfully asked me if I could lead meetings with slightly less aggressive tone, so more people would feel comfortable sharing their opinions. When I did, my boss thanked me afterwards for the more appropriate tone set in that meeting. What a jerk, right?! Ugh. I’m such a victim.”

    and have it not recognized for what it is (a self-important, attention seeking, bitter person), then yeah- CHANGE!!
    I agree .. a jerk.

    A bully is a bully except when it's a woman, right? Because strong women in the workplace! Yeah!

    Hate to break it to you, but it's not off the table to ask someone to tone it down, regardless of their gender, ideology, race, status, etc.
    edited August 2021 Detnator
  • Reply 20 of 20
    robabarobaba Posts: 228member
    sbdude said:
    kimberly said:
    robaba said:
    This is how change happens.
    Lol.
    If the “change” you’re talking about is where an uppity self-aggrandizing employee like Gjovik can go to Twitter with a complaint like this:

    ”My boss respectfully asked me if I could lead meetings with slightly less aggressive tone, so more people would feel comfortable sharing their opinions. When I did, my boss thanked me afterwards for the more appropriate tone set in that meeting. What a jerk, right?! Ugh. I’m such a victim.”

    and have it not recognized for what it is (a self-important, attention seeking, bitter person), then yeah- CHANGE!!
    I agree .. a jerk.

    A bully is a bully except when it's a woman, right? Because strong women in the workplace! Yeah!

    Hate to break it to you, but it's not off the table to ask someone to tone it down, regardless of their gender, ideology, race, status, etc.
    So long as the power dynamics are equal.  Punching down is never cool.
    ronn
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