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My Experience at Apple

ex-apple-engineer.medium.com

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Re: My Experience at Apple

#601

Post by chadcmulligan »

nojvek wrote: post #194

What surprises me is how abusive Amazon and Apple can get to their employees while ship fantastic products to their customers. May be the whole you need great talent and treat them well isn’t true. You just need to treat them well enough so they don’t leave and pressure them enough so they don’t crumble. At the end of the day, management is about getting the most out of your employees and that’s what they are doing r…

You left out Disney, IBM, Microsoft... American corporates are awful to work for imho. I worked for one once, never will again, they do make great products but so many abusive middle managers.

I couldn't watch office space for years after - it was too much like real life.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#602

Post by EricE »

boxmonster wrote: post #209
exApple-anon wrote: post #9

Posting anonymously for obvious reasons. Unlike others, I actually find this story fairly believable. When I first joined Apple, straight out of college - a good program, top three in the country - I was abused similarly. I joined a team that was on a project behind schedule. Our manager was a brusque, no-nonsense sort of dude. But he clearly had anger problems. On the team were 2 senior engineers, me, and a junior e…

I find it totally believable that a Muslim would get harrassed given the current toxic political climate.

  I've read lots of workplace complaints and talked with lots of different people about their workspace experiences and this persons description rings hollow in many places. You are crazy if you think a publicly traded company the size of Apple would tolerate religious discrimination or anything like what is described in this post.
Double so for Apple who has gone woke. I'd expect a white Christian to get hazed LONG before anyone would even THINK of harassing a Muslim at Apple.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#603

Post by dlgeek »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #594
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any company that has to change its name to avoid bad publicity is not worth working for.

Can you give us additional info please?

Accenture used to be Arthur Anderson but changed the name as a result of the Enron scandal.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#604

Post by programmerslave »

nojvek wrote: post #194

What surprises me is how abusive Amazon and Apple can get to their employees while ship fantastic products to their customers. May be the whole you need great talent and treat them well isn’t true. You just need to treat them well enough so they don’t leave and pressure them enough so they don’t crumble. At the end of the day, management is about getting the most out of your employees and that’s what they are doing r…

It works because of the booming stock.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#605

Post by asdff »

abdabab wrote: post #280
someonehere wrote: post #232

I 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…

You can sense it when you walk into an Apple store. I met a few unnecessarily rude salesperson and wondered how or why they were still there.

I've had that sort of experience at the genius bar of all places.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#606

Post by yanderekko »

jiggawatts wrote: post #521
romanovcode wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually don't get what's the problem here. I manage a team and one time I booked a vacation and then we hired a guy. He quit (he was the only person to ever quit that was working under me, company is treating employees good) and said in the review that this was horrible from my side. Am I not suppose to take a vacation ever?

You can take vacations whenever you want, but you can't hire new staff and just let them twist in the wind concurrently with you taking time off. Holidays are planned ahead. Don't hire at the same time. Easy.

On the great hierarchy of potential conflicts that can be caused by taking your vacation on day X instead of Y, missing a new direct report's start date by a couple days is a very minor concern. Particularly at a larger company where a new hire will have to go through a bunch of onboarding busywork and has a buddy.

I can understand why this would be bad optics to someone who's insecure and junior, but it really shouldn't be a big deal.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#607

Post by throwawy937203 »

griffoa wrote: post #318

I dont quite remember the meeting room names in Mathilda 3 over at the Apple on Mathilda Ave, but if the MA03 (in the screenshot) refers to "Mathilda 3", then this story is totally believable. I worked at Apple and it was absolutely horrible. I remember sitting on the train and actually thinking about killing myself. Reasons were many, but mostly I just didn't fit in there, I think. I felt like people there were also…

Mathilda 3 is 'MT03'.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#608

Post by hinkley »

apricot wrote: post #589
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way that weasels (BTW: The Way of the Weasel , by Scott Adams, is downright prophetic about this kind of stuff) deal with it, is to not respond at all. Then, when you bring it up, they say “I never agreed to/said that!” If you then share the email, they say “I never got that. I would have corrected it, if I had.” Their manager always has their back on these exchanges.

That's why my reflection email always includes at least one question about some detail of the statement I want to confirm. "Per our conversation of this morning when you asked me to delete all our backups, do you want me to erase the disks or should I also roll over them with the company steamroller?"

How about, “I’ll get started on that as soon as you confirm.”

Re: My Experience at Apple

#609

Post by lenkite »

exApple-anon wrote: post #9

Posting anonymously for obvious reasons. Unlike others, I actually find this story fairly believable. When I first joined Apple, straight out of college - a good program, top three in the country - I was abused similarly. I joined a team that was on a project behind schedule. Our manager was a brusque, no-nonsense sort of dude. But he clearly had anger problems. On the team were 2 senior engineers, me, and a junior e…

Shows how terrific output can be achieved with abuse and slavery of youth. You only need to look at the Pyramids of Egypt to know that it really pays off for the folks at the top. These corporate overlords really need to be brought down several pegs. Please break up Apple.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#610

Post by lenkite »

ineedasername wrote: post #56
reactordev wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, you can fill in the blank with any FAANG company with this story. I’ve heard it a thousand times. Toxic management. Sorry you went through that, sorry that was your first taste of engineering out of college. Glad you stuck with it. It’s a tough spot to be. Do you roll over and do the job your being yelled at to do even though you know any concessions are BS? Or like the senior folks, do you walk? It’s a really…

You can put just about any company in the "Apple" role here. A bad manager anywhere can cause a workgroup to turn toxic. I've seen it happen literally everywhere I've ever worked, though luckily only 1st hand at one location. (Actually there was one exception: working at a Barnes & Noble during college. I'd heard horror stories about other locations while I was there, but the store I worked at was run by an extremely…

I disagree. There are many large, profitable companies (>50k people) who don't need public or media attention to fire the whole managerial line-org once abuse is discovered and then hold several workshops for all senior employees and managers detailing out what exactly is acceptable in the workplace and what is not.

In-fact you don't get your bonus if you don't attend these workshops and score in these tests. HR regularly queries all low-level employees about their work/life balance and other other work-place issues and regularly sends feedback to senior management. Actually senior management even regularly has meetings with entry-level employees with team leads and management sent away from the room to obtain proper assessment.

But then this is a German company and not a US one. I will never work for a US MNC in my life after the bad experience I had early in my career.

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