Apple

Cool products, high expectations, and smart coworkers.

I've worked collectively at Apple for over 14 years. When I first started working at Apple, Inc., the group I was in was highly collaborative with many growth opportunities. The group I was with was a complete nightmare. These are the top issues.

1. Severe harassment of employees that was encouraged by upper management. Apple is not a diverse and inclusive place. My manager, who was female, believed that women who had children should not be allowed to work at Apple. She complained to women in my group and to management that "breeders" destroyed the culture at Apple. She told me that she would only hire young men and she has held to that promise; she hired three young men. She said she would never hire another "breeding" female. Her behavior is known by HR and management and encouraged.

When my coworker had to drive her sick kid to the doctor, she was furious. She said when she was a kid, she rode her bike to the doctor and she didn't understand why we had to drive our kids to the doctor.

When I was out for two days with the influenza A virus (only two days were missed), she required that I send a positive test result (which I did because I didn't realize it was illegal) to get the two days of sick time approved.

My manager also spoke out against larger-sized people in public spaces, calling people, including me, fat and saying fat people are lazy and shouldn't work at Apple.

After working almost 10 consecutive weeks without a break, I ended up in the ER with a heart arrhythmia. I was told by my manager that people with my heart condition should not be allowed to work at Apple and that I should leave. I only missed one weekend of work because I was in the ER.

My manager also had a policy that if we were sick, we had to publicly email everyone about our sick leave and the nature of the illness. Talk about embarrassing. Thankfully, HR did stop her from doing this.

Also, my manager and Apple in general is strongly ageist. I've been a part of interviews where hiring managers would pass by older (in their 40s) candidates based solely on age. There were also snide comments and decisions made about clothing choices (too nicely dressed) of people interviewing.

Myself and many others were repeatedly called stupid; it was humiliating. I have 13 years of engineering with a graduate degree. If she found your work to not be of value, you were called stupid and publicly and privately humiliated.

One of my coworkers used to go to her car at lunch every day and cry. They eventually drove her out and forced her to retire.

1. Speaking out is strongly discouraged, and if you're brave enough to speak up about the toxic culture, your career at Apple will be destroyed, even if you have HR involvement. HR promised me there would be no retribution for speaking up; they lied.

My breaking point is when my manager threatened to fire me because I wouldn't give up the name of the person who heard her talking about me and others as being fat. After years of harassment, I went to HR for help. After an extensive HR investigation, nothing was done, at least nothing I could see from my end. Her treatment of me and my team members got worse. Her reputation of being a lethal bully transcended our group and organization. Her own husband admitted to my friend she would be a nightmare to work for. The end result of the HR investigation was my career at Apple, with the help of HR, being destroyed. Speaking up has destroyed many people within the organization.

1. Promoting people to management positions that have no idea how to manage or even interact with other humans. Just because someone is a good engineer doesn't mean they can be a good leader.

2. No opportunity for growth or even transfer within Apple. There are some organizations, mine was like this; they took complete offense if you asked to transfer. I wanted to learn how to automate, learn new skills, and take on more responsibility. I was told that I was to stick to what I was doing and I would be nothing more than that. When I first asked for support to transfer, I was told I was not allowed to transfer. When I interviewed with other groups, who were very excited to have me working with them, I was blocked by my manager. If you want to grow or transfer, it will not happen.

3. Women are paid significantly less than male coworkers doing the same work. For example, I had almost 14 years of experience at Apple, had managed, and had multiple degrees. A male new hire who was new to this kind of engineering work (recent grad) was paid $25k more than I was making. My other male coworkers (who had much less experience) made significantly more than I and the other women did.

4. Apple will work you to death, literally, with no remorse. People are fodder for the engine that makes Apple billions. The working hours are brutal. Families are destroyed. Employees burn out, have breakdowns, health issues; some have even committed suicide (shot himself in the head in a meeting room). This is true for every group I've worked at Apple. There were many nights of sleeping under the desk when you got a chance. I once had 10 weeks in a row with no weekend break. There was one week that I never got to see my kids at all.

When the weather became horrible in California, I was trapped by roads that had washed out. I was told to leave my children at home (alone) and get a hotel (which cost more per day than I made) next to work. Because I refused to leave my kids at home for the 2 days I missed, I was called out in my review for not getting a hotel. Can you imagine?

The stuff that happened in China and Apple was not surprising, given how they treat their US employees.

Change things. No marketing BS, no smoke and mirrors to distract people. Apple is rotting from the core and it will eventually cost the company billions. Right now you are still standing on the shoulders of giants, and that is not sustainable.

You will need to make real change to support your employees. They are your greatest asset, and they are treated like chattel.

You need to remove toxic management and the managers that support them.

Apple preaches diversity, but when managers are making snide comments about trans people or people who are blind, then something is broken. These people need to be removed.