#AppleToo publishes first five stories of harrassment, discrimination

AppleInsider · August 30, 2021 10:07PM

The first batch of stories collected by the #AppleToo movement has been published by the internal Apple organization, giving a glimpse at the company's internal work environment.

Credit: AppleInsider

#AppleToo organizer Cher Scarlett published the stories on Medium Monday. There are five personal anecdotes of harassment and discrimination in the first #AppleToo digest.

"This will be the first set of stories to be shared," Scarlett wrote. "I have selected the stories based on the common threads to prove a systemic issue that needs to be addressed."

Among the stories are specific recollections of harassment incidents, as well as more systemic problems.

The Apple employee organization said earlier in August that it had collected nearly 500 instances of workplace discrimination or harassment since calling on current and former staffers to share their stories.

Scarlett, who was involved in the creation of the #AppleToo movement, recently said that she is being accused of "ruining" Apple for her work in the organization. The #AppleToo movement was formed earlier in August with the goal of exposing patterns of racism, sexism, inequality, and other abuses within the Cupertino tech giant.

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spock1234 · August 30, 2021 11:22PM

“Stories” That sounds about right!

gregoriusm · August 30, 2021 11:40PM

“internal Apple organization.” This is not an internal Apple organization.

fastasleep · August 31, 2021 1:39AM

spock1234 said:

“Stories” That sounds about right!

That's literally what they are. If you're implying they're untruthful, there's no evidence of that.

spock1234 · August 31, 2021 3:24AM

fastasleep said:

spock1234 said:

“Stories” That sounds about right!

That's literally what they are. If you're implying they're untruthful, there's no evidence of that.

Any proof that they ARE truthful? Shouldn’t we check before spreading garbage gossip about people?

Hey World, Fastasleep is a booger-eater! Let’s create a website and invite everyone with an axe to grind to post their stories there. Maybe, I’ll make a few bucks in the process.

As for you, don’t come back until you have 24x7 video proving that you are not eating boogers.

JWSC · August 31, 2021 4:05AM

This is a potential hornets nest of PII spills that are just begging for lawsuits. Does this organization have a law firm on retention? I think they’re gonna need one.

radarthekat · August 31, 2021 1:30PM

Apple should immediately file a lawsuit for trademark infringement and trade dress. The use of Apple’s name in a defamatory movement should get a quick injunction.

Theo_Belk · August 31, 2021 2:39PM

radarthekat said:

Apple should immediately file a lawsuit for trademark infringement and trade dress. The use of Apple’s name in a defamatory movement should get a quick injunction.

That would be stupid. Apple should seek an "injunction" only if they want to incite a riot of bad publicity and get slapped down by the court. This is not any kind of trademark issue. If Apple did claim defamation they would be forced to actually address the claims in the stories. They will never do this because it's likely the stories are substantially true. Furthermore, Apple doesn't need or want your advice. They can take care of themselves.

dewme · August 31, 2021 2:57PM

The biggest question in all of these cases is whether an employer is responsible for or guilty of "patterns of racism, sexism, inequality, and other abuses," i.e., a systemic or cultural behavior, when an individual employee has a run-in or serious incident with another employee or with a member of the public, e.g., customer, supplier, etc?

I have little doubt that there are some bad apples inside Apple because there are bad apples in every organization, even the Vatican. I'm also assuming that any company that wants to survive nowadays has a zero tolerance policy in place and would quickly and forcefully deal with any transgressions of the type showing up in the accusations. They would also document their responses and actions to reported issues in the company's records.

Likewise, I'm assuming that anyone who sees themselves as a victim would at least document the relevant interactions between themselves and those who are in the reporting chain of command and with HR. If they are being stymied by internal reporting procedures or feel as though a crime has been committed against them, they should absolutely obtain legal council, maybe even before obtaining an account on a public grievance & shaming forum.

There's a big difference between engaging in a mutual dialog and discussion as opposed to starting off with a one sided monologue laden with serious accusations. It's not clear whether they even want to engage with Apple either individually or as a collective to address their stated grievances. They've definitely succeeded in burning down the bridge between themselves and Apple with their campaign of public shaming and accusations of systemic abuse. That's kind of like punching someone in the face and then asking "Can we talk?" I think I know what my response would be, but who knows what it is they truly want to come from this. Seems like any dreams of continuing in a personally and professionally fulfilling career inside Apple would be an unlikely outcome.

I do hope everyone works this out and we can get back to complaining about fun stuff like keyboards, overly thin devices, flimsy multitasking, insufficient ports, and dissing Android.

Chock_Mossley · August 31, 2021 3:31PM

So how many of these stories are people who had crappy experiences working in retail locations? I mean, if that’s the case, if there was a #Starbuckstoo, I could give plenty of stories I could see back when o worked there, or my wife could do the same with her years of working retail at Verizon. I thought it would be horror stories from higher up in corporate. Not that I’m excusing the behavior, but it’s something all businesses deal with when you get to the retail level, because it’s a lot harder to enforce.

Not to nitpick the Medium article, but that first story out of the UK made a big deal about the WebEx regarding George Floyd, but said he was shot, which was not how he died.

peter pinto · August 31, 2021 4:18PM

Do these employees need a better employer? Or do they need parents? At least 3 of these 5 stories seem to suggest that they need a mom or dad to sort stuff out at their work place.

It’s not that I haven’t seen stuff like this before. But to have had bad experiences at work and then turn to Apple with the blame is extremely childish in my opinion. It’s probably the first time these people are outside an artificial “safe space”, where teachers and parents make sure that every child is seen and heard - but that’s how life is. The parental preferential treatment stops when you become an adult.

As I wrote: I’ve seen this before, but mostly with parents calling me, demanding preferential treatment for their now adult children. I tell them all that their children are now adults, and that as adults, they have agency and a responsibility to them selves and their own life. I suggest Apple react in the same way.

It goes without saying that all allegations concerning abuse, sexual harassment or racism should be investigated.

fastasleep · August 31, 2021 8:04PM

spock1234 said:

fastasleep said:

spock1234 said:

“Stories” That sounds about right!

That's literally what they are. If you're implying they're untruthful, there's no evidence of that.

Any proof that they ARE truthful? Shouldn’t we check before spreading garbage gossip about people?

Hey World, Fastasleep is a booger-eater! Let’s create a website and invite everyone with an axe to grind to post their stories there. Maybe, I’ll make a few bucks in the process.

As for you, don’t come back until you have 24x7 video proving that you are not eating boogers.

It doesn’t sound like you bothered to read the complaints. There’s likely documentation to support them in some cases, or supporting witnesses in others. Offenders aren’t even named. So cool childish deflection, but these are probably legitimate workplace complaints the likes of what you’d find on Glassdoor on the lesser side of the spectrum, and very personal assault or harassment experiences on the other side that maybe were never properly dealt with or even reported. Not sure what you’re trying to achieve by calling people liars when you’re not even involved. Grow up.

Chock_Mossley · September 1, 2021 1:16AM

Saw a few outrage prone people on Twitter saying how they’re going to boycott Apple because of this and the CSAM thing. I’m thinking, “good luck finding an alternative” I mean Microsoft’s founder, was in the news for inappropriate antics with an employee, and Google is far from innocent. And as for the CSAM measures, the competition has had it in place for years.

But of course this is going to prompt some people to go on social media and say they’re boycotting Apple, because “Apple is evil” and they want a pat on the back for showing how “woke” they are for standing up to Apple…god sometimes, I really hate social media

FileMakerFeller · September 1, 2021 1:26AM

Chock_Mossley said:

god sometimes, I really hate social media

Only sometimes?

#AppleToo publishes first five stories of harrassment, discrimination

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