Apple reportedly blocks pay equity Slack channel amid rising tensions with employees
Apple has reportedly stopped attempts to create an internal Slack channel dedicated to the discussion of pay equity, with the measure coming as employees begin to organize around a number of claimed workplace issues.
According to a Tuesday report from The Verge, Apple barred workers from creating and joining a Slack channel to discuss pay equity, saying that doing so would violate company policy.
"Slack channels are provided to conduct Apple business and must advance the work, deliverables, or mission of Apple departments and teams," an employee relations representative told employees, according to the report.
Apple's Slack regulations say that "channels for activities and hobbies not recognized as Apple Employee clubs or Diversity Network Associations (DNAs) aren't permitted and shouldn't be created," the report said. Pay equity is apparently not among Apple's set of cleared topics for discussion, and reports in August claimed management squashed at least three employee-run surveys on the topic.
The Verge notes other in-office Apple channels -- #fun-dogs, #gaming and #dad-jokes -- do not seem to meet the criteria outlined in the company's policy, but they remain accessible with thousands of active members.
"It sure is very convenient for Apple that these Terms of Use that they wrote are extremely useful for crushing free and open communication among employees," a source told the publication.
Apple's handling of internal Slack communications was previously scrutinized in July, when the company was reportedly mulling a crackdown on a channel that hosted a discussion on remote work issues. Boasting some 6,000 members, the channel was still up late last month, but its current status is unknown.
In addition to internal pushback over pay equity, Apple faces growing discontent from employees who claim the tech giant brushes workplace issues like harassment, discrimination and retaliation under the rug. An effort to surface those allegations, dubbed #AppleToo, launched earlier this month with help from both current and past employees.
Read on AppleInsider
According to a Tuesday report from The Verge, Apple barred workers from creating and joining a Slack channel to discuss pay equity, saying that doing so would violate company policy.
"Slack channels are provided to conduct Apple business and must advance the work, deliverables, or mission of Apple departments and teams," an employee relations representative told employees, according to the report.
Apple's Slack regulations say that "channels for activities and hobbies not recognized as Apple Employee clubs or Diversity Network Associations (DNAs) aren't permitted and shouldn't be created," the report said. Pay equity is apparently not among Apple's set of cleared topics for discussion, and reports in August claimed management squashed at least three employee-run surveys on the topic.
The Verge notes other in-office Apple channels -- #fun-dogs, #gaming and #dad-jokes -- do not seem to meet the criteria outlined in the company's policy, but they remain accessible with thousands of active members.
"It sure is very convenient for Apple that these Terms of Use that they wrote are extremely useful for crushing free and open communication among employees," a source told the publication.
Apple's handling of internal Slack communications was previously scrutinized in July, when the company was reportedly mulling a crackdown on a channel that hosted a discussion on remote work issues. Boasting some 6,000 members, the channel was still up late last month, but its current status is unknown.
In addition to internal pushback over pay equity, Apple faces growing discontent from employees who claim the tech giant brushes workplace issues like harassment, discrimination and retaliation under the rug. An effort to surface those allegations, dubbed #AppleToo, launched earlier this month with help from both current and past employees.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I’d say to let them have at it and then ruin Apple so that they can see for themselves their folly. But the reality is that these ideas have already been tried for many centuries and have failed every single time and people still don’t see. They just don’t want to see, because they’re so in love with their failed ideas that truth is irrelevant to them. It’s like the person who falls in love with someone bad for them and refuses to see the truth of it.
BTW, Tim Cook promised to give away all that money will you do the same.
Also remember the US is the only place where anyone can go from the bottom to the top in a single generation. We have more people who have achieved more than their parents and if you have not, you need to look internal before saying it's everyone's else's fault. The US has plenty of examples of people from all background doing exactly this.
Salary differences are common in the acting world where contracts are negotiated for millions per movie and then they argue that one actor was paid more. Well, they could have asked for more and they don't bother when people with the same identity get paid differently. In movies like Avengers, Robert Downey Jr got paid significantly more than his male co-stars for doing the same job:
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/robert-downey-jr-avengers-endgame-salary-1202156978/
People typically don't talk about salaries because it leads to attacking other people when it's felt that their higher salary is undeserved and then it brings in discussions about identity politics and bias, most of which are irrelevant. As it's been pointed out many times in the past, if companies thought they could get better employees by deliberately paying people less based on their identity, they'd fill their offices with them.
People these days get brainwashed into thinking that people who match a certain set of identity characteristics are responsible for their failures or suffering in the world and that it's not their own fault.
https://www.mic.com/articles/154169/leaked-apple-emails-reveal-employees-complaints-about-sexist-toxic-work-environment
"According to Claire*, "several people" who have quit, citing a "white, male, Christian, misogynist, sexist environment," were not given exit interviews. "Their departure is being written up as a positive attrition,"
It's no wonder the companies are happy to see them leave. Generations of people today are being raised to hate each other based on politics and identity and when they get into the real world where they have to work together, they just vent this onto other people.
The whole economic system is designed to keep everyone down. The purpose of that is to force people to fight each other for success under the assumption that the people who work the hardest or do the best rise to the top. It's like the Joker scene with the pool cue where he drops the weapon among the applicants to fight for the open position:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P10bC0Bxp20
It's not a fair system for everyone because some people who are talented aren't fighters and don't have high self-esteem. Often the system rewards people who have more ego than talent. Overall though it's the most effective system in light of human nature of rewarding more talented workers.
Apple has a responsibility as an employer to maintain a safe working environment for all their employees, which means protecting the privacy of employee information and from undeserved attacks towards people who negotiated better salaries.
If people are unhappy with their salaries, the appropriate route to go is to communicate directly with their employer through the official channels. None of what we've seen from this same group of people who have been repeatedly stirring up trouble has anything to do with legitimate issues, these are career troublemakers as they've openly admitted online, some are looking to sue Apple for millions for wrongful dismissal and HR needs to start cleaning house wherever they can. It's inevitable with such a large company of over 100k employees that a few hundred bad seeds get in but they need to get a handle on this. I can't imagine that Steve Jobs would have let it get this far with public websites disparaging Apple.
you can’t fault the company for shutting down forums where people are openly talking about confidential material or talking negatively about the company. That stuff would get shut down and fast by every other company