Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Experience at Apple

ex-apple-engineer.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 840 posts

Re: My Experience at Apple

#641

Post by m1gu3l »

_-___________-_ wrote: post #585
lubesGordi wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why are you doing it at all if it doesn't matter?

if the only thing that mattered is some system being down not making some suit money, and mgmt has no respect for the work, it doesn’t matter. i work to feed myself not because it matters.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#643

Post by [deleted] »

GeorgeTirebiter wrote: post #200
rmk wrote: post #151

Earlier 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…

Wow, Great List! The last one (juniors calling the shots) really hit home; when I worked in , I was ultimately standing on the shoulder of midgets. The worse part? As a CS grad, I knew how to do better, but: nobody with the power to change things understood how or why what I was suggesting was better(!). I've long thought about this afterward, and concluded it's that 'my world' (which includes a lot of experience, an…

[deleted]

Re: My Experience at Apple

#644

Post by periya »

WatchDog wrote: post #560
chromatin wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know more than one famous scientist who does this. Multiple postdocs working on the same project. Whomever gets there first gets a Cell-Science-Nature paper. The other(s) get nothing. Probably a very common abusive management style at high levels in many industries.

The personal/political aspect aside, I can think of multiple projects that could have benefited from an approach like this. I'm often astonished by the inefficiency of project delivery, particularly in large companies. Teams spending months building sub-systems from scratch, where there is an off the shelf(sometimes open source) tool that will do the same job and better. Man years of work going into chasing trends li…

I disagree, such an approach completely desensitizes the human aspect of work and treats the people working as commodities that are expendable. Engineering is hard, teams might need to go through multiple iterations/generations to get the desired results. A better investment would be to develop the right engineering culture rather than Team A vs Team B duking it out.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#645

Post by xpe »

verisimilidude wrote: post #614

The real story here is that the author depended upon these jerks for his/her work visa, facing deportation back to (I assume) a less pleasant country. It sounds like everyone involved took advantage of that fact. Perhaps systemically. I've faced similarly abusive workplace cliques on multiple occasions. They're very easy to bust if you're willing to put aside your personal shame. But I never had a visa hanging over m…

> They're very easy to bust if you're willing to put aside your personal shame.

I don’t understand what you mean. How do you ‘bust’ them?

Re: My Experience at Apple

#646

Post by Apocryphon »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #630
andreilys wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook had an engineer commit suicide and the company tried to cover it up. Going as far as firing an engineer that spoke up about it - https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvgn9q/do-not-discuss-the-in... So yes, this does happen. Typically to visa workers who are easily exploitable due to their precarious status in the country.

Same thing at Uber https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/04/27/is-uber-...

Apple had its own tragedy, but the details are unknown.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-death-idUSKCN0XP383

Re: My Experience at Apple

#647

Post by swiley »

Diesel555 wrote: post #619

"Unfortunately, Apple became the place that I lost feeling of physical and psychological safety and the terror that it inflicted on me has impacted me on such a core level that the painful memories and flashbacks have replaced my dreams and they will hunt me until I am alive." I really don't understand this. I'm not saying this from a perspective that they are wrong, but that I honestly don't get it, please help me u…

I don't think it takes a whole lot to end up with this sort of thing. I distinctly remember having flashbacks/panic attacks for a week or two after someone kissed me for the first time. (for those of you wanting advice for how to deal with people with less experience, take it slow and simple!)

Re: My Experience at Apple

#648

Post by josto »

olivierlacan wrote: post #532
josto wrote: post #505

Dude go talk to a work comp attorney. You don’t have to pay up front and this is a textbook stress claim, esp if six months employment. It’s sad nobody knows their rights. Your first clue is the fact that they were pressuring you to resign. NEVER RESIGN. It sad he will be dealing with this stress for life but never thought that he should at least consult with an attorney??? THIS IS AMERICA. You think HR and those idi…

I think there are several assumptions in your reaction. - that they would have been able to find let alone retain a lawyer out of grad school - that they knew enough about workers compensation law to event think of that option - that they somehow understood the existence of recourses beyond HR in a highly secretive and litigious company - that they weren't terrified that this could lead to long term stigma and stifle…

1. Search google there are plenty of comp attorneys out there.

2. They would easily be able to find a lawyer.

3. He literally said on his website he went to the industrial clinic at Apple! He even lost time from work! Due to his work injury!

4. It doesn’t matter who the employer is.they will comply with a subpoena.

5. He doesn’t need to know work comp law. That’s what the lawyer is for.

The bottom line is he has a work related injury. Even undocumented immigrants can get comp benefits.

The stigma and visa are the only real issues here. As to stigma and them asking why he left Apple: it was toxic. Maybe some employers won’t like that or it may cause immigration troubles but that is something an immigration lawyer can advise on. Maybe there is a disability exception, maybe not.

The fact is Apple will never change their behavior through hr. These employers only understand one thing: liability. That is how they change. If nobody files a claim nothing will change.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#649

Post by ex_Apple_throw »

sjg007 wrote: post #463
musicale wrote: post #442

I think Apple, like several other notable tech companies, has a ton of great developers and engineers, and a lot of really bad managers (and a few good ones.) As in most tech companies, employees have no power vs. management, and HR exists to protect the company from liability. (And good luck keeping your job if you try to, say, organize a union.) A bummer about Apple as well is that because it is such a popular comp…

Sunday calls are probably to sync up with China’s Monday mornings.

And India. My last Apple manager was always on late night meetings with India because ~80% of the Apple Online Store's work was outsourced to India. Another manager at his level had like 200-300 direct reports located in India. I actually counted the number at the time because it was so many people.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#650

Post by trixie_ »

verisimilidude wrote: post #614

The real story here is that the author depended upon these jerks for his/her work visa, facing deportation back to (I assume) a less pleasant country. It sounds like everyone involved took advantage of that fact. Perhaps systemically. I've faced similarly abusive workplace cliques on multiple occasions. They're very easy to bust if you're willing to put aside your personal shame. But I never had a visa hanging over m…

It doesn’t sound like she was being taken advantage of, they obviously wanted her to leave. She was staying (and killing herself) out of fear deportation which sucks. My question is if California is at-will employment why didn’t they fire her when things weren’t working out? Is it because she went to HR?
Post reply on HN