It's ironic that the big tech companies which are most affected by issues of racism, misogyny, safety... Are also the ones doing the most preaching about it in the media.
Just because these corporations and the media are rotten to the core, they assume that the rot is all around as well. It's not.
These big tech corporations just attract the worst people.
My Experience at Apple
371–380 of 840 posts
Re: My Experience at Apple
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never had a startup that hasn't roped me into a production support on-call for a month or more in addition to regular duties. Under 10 engineers, 50 engineers, 500+ engineers: they've all done this.
I've never worked on a product where it ever made sense to be "on call." I'm an engineer, not a doctor.
This was the first thing that really shocked me at my first job (startup in SF back over a decade ago). The attitude that what we're doing really matters, and if something was found broken on the weekend we'd get a call and have to come into the office. Fucking absurd hubris all throughout SV.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
Documenting everything is good advice, but it can give false hope to people in these situations. Hiring a lawyer is never as easy, cheap, or as quick as it sounds from internet comments. It's easy to armchair quarterback these situations and talk about hypothetically lawyering up, but what's the endgame? Suing your company won't suddenly convert a toxic job into a happy job, regardless of the outcome. Settlements, if…
Good lawyers won't take cases that don't appear winnable from the start. Very false. Generally, the difference between a good lawyer and a bad lawyer is that the good lawyer will counsel the client about the chances of not winning the case, especially after discovery has concluded, while a bad lawyer won't. If the the winnability of a case was apparent at the start, there wouldn't be a case as the parties would settl…
The point was that good lawyers won't take blatantly unwinnable cases.
At some point or another, a lawyer must start putting their name on the line for the cases they take. If a client arrives without a shred of usable evidence or a blatantly unbelievable story (happens frequently) then a good lawyer is not going to throw their reputation on the line to see if it pans out.
The legal world isn't as big as you might think, and lawyers can expect to run into a lot of the same other lawyers, judges, and so on for decades of their career. Taking obviously unwinnable cases is a quick way to get yourself branded as a toxic lawyer.
This Medium article is a good example of a case that would be challenging from the start. Much of what the author claims comes from unrecorded meetings, in-person interactions, and other situations that lack any usable evidence. However, the author also goes on record admitting that they were struggling to finish their work and other such performance issues (Yes, I know it's from the company's abuse, but think in terms of evidence here). If anything, publishing this Medium article has done the author far more harm than good.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't exactly work when HR is toothless and one is seeking legal action against literally the richest company in the world and already inundated in lawsuits. Not to mention the author was on a student OPT visa- how is someone being sponsored by a company going to risk their status by suing that company?
Even if she did, would she have been able to even stay while the lawsuit plays out over months to years? Unlikely.
> Even if she did, would she have been able to even stay while the lawsuit plays out over months to years? Unlikely.
It is not necessary for a plaintiff to be a U.S. resident for a lawsuit to proceed in a U.S court.
I'm not an expert on immigration law, but if a foreign resident needs to appear as a witness at trial in a U.S. court, then they can usually enter on a tourist visa or some other visa.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#375Apple is a big company with a great reputation, but there are bad apples in every bunch. My biggest takeaway from this article is that the author should take this advice: Before you accept a position, find out what project you will be working on, and get to know the people who you will be working with. If you are being hired to replace someone who left, try to find out why they left (or were fired). I have not done m…
> She no longer works for Apple, and probably doesn't want to ever work there again, so why the threat, and why the ultimatum?
I'd definitely check with a lawyer on this. I think one could get into serious legal trouble when publishing names
Re: My Experience at Apple
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
In NY (and, I think, California), that's illegal. I found this out, because at the company at which I worked, managers kept making verbal commitments, then gaslighting me about them. I could never get them to commit in writing, and my own "reflection" emails (the standard advice about this) were worthless. I considered walking around with a little digital recorder in my pocket. But many states have explicit laws agai…
It is not illegal in New York to record a conversation if the person recording is part of the conversation (one-party consent).
However, it is illegal in California, where the original author was located.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
- The primary lesson I learnt is that it doesn't matter if you work hard. Nobody notices, and even if they do you will likely not get anything out of it. Do your job, but don't kill yourself over it. Work-life balance is king. This has been my experience as well. Nowadays I work hard only while most of the following are true: - I'm making top dollar (good salary + equity value is high) - Work is interesting (somethin…
Throwaway for obvious reasons I work for a company belonging to Accenture. I can only agree. Shareholders get +10%. Employees get nil. It is expected that we do at least 15 - 25% overtime without compensation. Project manager promises everything the client asks for. Even if they know we cannot in any universe deliver this without massive overtime. At the same time they introduce new mandatory processes to follow cost…
> Accenture
Large consulting firms seems to operate this way, being basically a pyramid with endless layers of non-programming "Enterprise Architect Solution Expert". I've had folks tell me explicitly when joining these firms post-grad that their goal was not to code in two years.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#378I worked for Apple retail in San Francisco. Being an early retail employee in the Bay Area, we had very close ties to Cupertino. I worked when Steve was still alive. * Retail management in my store ruled by fear. I heard from other stores across the US this was the same as well. * Promotions were handed out to those who kissed ass the hardest. Even if they were unqualified or cheated on promotion exams, if they brown…
> Being an early retail employee in the Bay Area, we had very close ties to Cupertino. I worked when Steve was still alive. Steve Jobs actually interacted with retail underlings?!
Their post doesn't say that, and I too read the chosen wording twice. Their employment overlapped with Steve Job's lifespan, that's it. That's important to them to say, and is completely useless to us. That's all.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#379I worked for Apple retail in San Francisco. Being an early retail employee in the Bay Area, we had very close ties to Cupertino. I worked when Steve was still alive. * Retail management in my store ruled by fear. I heard from other stores across the US this was the same as well. * Promotions were handed out to those who kissed ass the hardest. Even if they were unqualified or cheated on promotion exams, if they brown…
> Apple comes off as a happy family friendly company, when in reality behind the scenes it’s a rule by fear culture. Just like any other company.
Not really. Worked for 5 companies, 2 were ruled by fear culture (including an explicit stack ranking of employees every 2 quarters, with the bottom ones being fired), one by desperation, one by... inertia maybe. The 5th is Google. Still can't figure out what it's ruled by exactly, but absolutely no fear, yet it mostly works. That's why I'm sticking around, I guess.
I've moved teams and orgs quite a bit, so I don't think it's just me being lucky with a manager. If there is fear, it's in quite isolated pockets.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not a hard decision. You unquestionably walk away from a situation like this. If your interactions with the team are going this poorly, walk immediately. There’s nothing to be gained from trying to hang on in a situation like this. This person should have walked much earlier. It’s agonizing how much broken US immigration policy plays a large role in forcing talented people who have decided to join our country to…
Not sure why you refer to the US immigration policy, this is how it works essentially everywhere. In the UK, for example, you get around 60 days to find a new job or you have to leave the country. https://iasservices.org.uk/tier-2-visa-termination-employmen... I am not saying that the immigration policy is not broken or broken, I am simply stating the fact that other countries literally do the same.
If you're on a H1 (or some of its cousins here) and you lose your job, you have no option to even try to find another. Your legal status in the US is coupled to that job, not just any job.