Former patent attorney sues Apple over harassment & discrimination
A former patent attorney for Apple has sued the company over discrimination and harassment after she complained about a male colleague.
Apple under fire for discrimination
Jayna Richardson Whitt sued the company in California, claiming Apple retaliated against her after it learned of her "domestic abuse victim status" by turning her down for higher-level positions. She seeks unspecified compensation for economic losses and emotional distress.
During her time at Apple since 2006, she had various roles, such as Director of IP transactions. Her complaint alleges that a white male supervisor "favored Caucasian males and subjected minorities, females, and employees with disabilities to discriminatory treatment."
She was forced to secure her devices, Wi-Fi, and accounts by herself, without help from Apple's global security department.
Whitt says she shared a video of her male colleague pointing a gun to his head and sharing evidence of "death threats and terrorization" and wrote about the experience in August. But despite sharing the video, Whitt says that Apple left her "defenseless."
After writing the article, Whitt's complaint claims that Apple launched an investigation into her conduct before firing her in July, according to a Tuesday report from Bloomberg. She wrote that Apple HR chastised her for "allowing a personal relationship to interfere with my work, not adequately securing my devices and accounts, and being unprofessional during the investigation."
In 2021, former employee Cher Scarlett and others founded the #AppleToo movement to highlight the problems within the company. The formation of the group came after weeks of public statements from Apple employees about internal complaints going unanswered or ignored.
The movement aimed to highlight issues within Apple
Scarlett had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in 2021. Although she agreed to request a withdrawal after reaching a settlement with Apple, the board deemed it to be unlawful and denied the request. It is currently still investigating the matter.
In September 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook and SVP of Retail and People Deirdre O'Brien partially addressed employee relations topics in a meeting. Issues such as pay equity were among those discussed.
At the time, Janneke Parrish, another #AppleToo leader, spoke publicly that she was disappointed with the meeting, saying "we weren't heard." She was later fired.
Apple made a statement on the matter in August, saying its policies on discrimination are clear.
"There are some accounts raised that do not reflect our intentions or our policies and we should have handled them differently, including certain exchanges reported in this story," Apple said. "As a result, we will make changes to our training and processes."
AppleInsider will be covering the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in person on January 2 through January 8 where we're expecting Wi-Fi 6e devices, HomeKit, Apple accessories, 8K monitors and more. Keep up with our coverage by downloading the AppleInsider app, and follow us on YouTube, Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos throughout the event.
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Apple under fire for discrimination
Jayna Richardson Whitt sued the company in California, claiming Apple retaliated against her after it learned of her "domestic abuse victim status" by turning her down for higher-level positions. She seeks unspecified compensation for economic losses and emotional distress.
During her time at Apple since 2006, she had various roles, such as Director of IP transactions. Her complaint alleges that a white male supervisor "favored Caucasian males and subjected minorities, females, and employees with disabilities to discriminatory treatment."
She was forced to secure her devices, Wi-Fi, and accounts by herself, without help from Apple's global security department.
Whitt says she shared a video of her male colleague pointing a gun to his head and sharing evidence of "death threats and terrorization" and wrote about the experience in August. But despite sharing the video, Whitt says that Apple left her "defenseless."
After writing the article, Whitt's complaint claims that Apple launched an investigation into her conduct before firing her in July, according to a Tuesday report from Bloomberg. She wrote that Apple HR chastised her for "allowing a personal relationship to interfere with my work, not adequately securing my devices and accounts, and being unprofessional during the investigation."
Not the only one
Other women have publicly shared their stories of discrimination, abuse, sexism, and other issues at Apple.In 2021, former employee Cher Scarlett and others founded the #AppleToo movement to highlight the problems within the company. The formation of the group came after weeks of public statements from Apple employees about internal complaints going unanswered or ignored.
The movement aimed to highlight issues within Apple
Scarlett had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in 2021. Although she agreed to request a withdrawal after reaching a settlement with Apple, the board deemed it to be unlawful and denied the request. It is currently still investigating the matter.
In September 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook and SVP of Retail and People Deirdre O'Brien partially addressed employee relations topics in a meeting. Issues such as pay equity were among those discussed.
At the time, Janneke Parrish, another #AppleToo leader, spoke publicly that she was disappointed with the meeting, saying "we weren't heard." She was later fired.
Apple made a statement on the matter in August, saying its policies on discrimination are clear.
"There are some accounts raised that do not reflect our intentions or our policies and we should have handled them differently, including certain exchanges reported in this story," Apple said. "As a result, we will make changes to our training and processes."
AppleInsider will be covering the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in person on January 2 through January 8 where we're expecting Wi-Fi 6e devices, HomeKit, Apple accessories, 8K monitors and more. Keep up with our coverage by downloading the AppleInsider app, and follow us on YouTube, Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos throughout the event.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
"In 2010, I became the Head of Patent Litigation and was compensated commensurate with the job's stress level. I soon found myself making over $1 million a year."
She goes on to say she couldn't handle all the travel required, so she deliberately changed positions, and I must assume that reduced her salary.
She admits to having an unusual relationship with her Apple co-worker and explains it got very bad by saying "by this point we had become adversaries" yet then says she agreed to make their relationship public: "So I finally agreed, and we posted a picture on social media."
The whole tale is so strange, one would be hard-pressed to imagine even Hollywood creating it. Read her statement in full.
It will become boy who cry wolf
Gah! I couldn't even get through the full statement. Can't help but think that she invited this chaos into her life, and then is blaming Apple for her own mistakes.
So with that in mind, it boils down to the specifics of this lady's firing, about which we only have a small taste. Apple is a pretty left learning entity, so I don't think they fired her for shallow reasons. I would like to know if the man accused of these atrocities has been investigated? And what opportunities did Apple give this lady to retain her job in despite of the drama?
Another consideration is that most of us really don't have any love for "blood sucking lawyers." So that makes us naturally biased against anyone with attorney credentials.
Let's open our minds, take a wild leap, and assume her statement is both (1) 100% accurate and (2) she was squeaky clean perfect in all this. How would we go about proving that to clear her name? Certainly, it is not our job to do that, but still. Some of that will have to play out in court UNLESS Apple considers it too costly to litigate and decides to settle instead. Lawyers know more than the rest of us how common it is to "just settle" and a liar walks away with hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. So it could be that most of the story was made up in order to sue with the understanding as a lawyer that Apple probably would settle and she would receive a reasonable profit, even after legal fees were paid. But that is merely a guess on our part.
The "Not the only one" line in the article somewhat convolutes this new story because it makes us think they are somewhat related, when in reality they mostly likely aren't. We really ought not to compare and just ponder each case individually.
In the end, all we have is one of the most insane stories I've ever heard coupled with an utter absence of facts to know what the real deal is.
With all of that said, we really don't know much about the case cited in the original article because we've not heard from the man involved. Even then, how would we glean the truth outside of a court? Speaking of which, I am reminded of the Johnny Depp / Amber Heard court case. Based on your definition and the outcome of the case, it would seem Heard is in the covert narcissist / abuser category. Quite sad this is so prevalent.