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

Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 337 posts

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#301

Post by tablespoon »

tablespoon wrote: post #263
exhilaration wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way the janitors are Apple employees. Standard procedure at big companies is to hire contractors for janitorial and food services.

>> Think about it the other way - you could have been a janitor for Apple and your new employers would be none the wiser. > There's no way the janitors are Apple employees. Standard procedure at big companies is to hire contractors for janitorial and food services. Maybe so, but retail clerks definitely are Apple employees, so the point stands. Personally, the word "associate" by itself brings to mind Walmart store w…

> and an applicant's job title came back as "associate," I would raise suspicions

Correction: ...and an applicant's job title came back as "associate," it would raise suspicions...

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#302

Post by edmundsauto »

frankfrankfrank wrote: post #123
tedivm wrote: post #18

I think it's really important to note that Apple does not have to share their database with these third party companies, but not only do they choose to do so they also make sure the information is wrong. Apple is, essentially, being unethical on two levels. They're selling or sharing employee information, and they're purposefully making it so that information is wrong. I want to stress this- I ask during the intervie…

I don't necessarily agree that what they are doing is unethical. It seems more a preservation of their business practices. Which is understandable and actually the ethical thing to do since Apple has no obligation to help others, including competitors. There is also an argument that what they are doing is the ethical thing to do by not feeding data into yet another mass surveillance and control system to manage and c…

It feels gross to change an employees' official title without at least notifying them and getting them to sign an acknowledgement. I work in big tech, and this is one of many reasons why I wouldn't apply there. (Mostly, their work culture is #1)

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#303

Post by sumeno »

torstenvl wrote: post #167
sumeno wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on the article it obviously isn’t widely enough known to prevent people from losing job offers over it.

And in that scenario, Apple is the bad actor for referring to a non-C-suite employee as an associate, not the employer who fired someone over unverified information and poor assumptions?

They weren’t fired, they had an offer revoked.

But either way, two things can be bad at the same time

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#304

Post by SSLy »

samhw wrote: post #254
ghaff wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way back when but assume this is still the case, there were positions in the CIA (in DC, i.e. not agents) where you officially worked for someone like the Navy and weren't supposed to tell people you worked for the CIA. I was offered such a position but didn't take it.

Yeah, this is my experience too, at least in the UK. We had a close family friend whose father, the patriarch of the family, worked for 'the Army' his whole life. It was only after he died that they discovered - somehow - that it was actually 'intelligence' work. I'm sure it's different for secretarial roles, leadership roles, etc, but for the bulk of people it seems like the usual career path is up through the norma…

Arabic and Russian are "exotic" now?

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#305

Post by lupire »

ProAm wrote: post #200
reaperducer wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also can’t imagine verifying or asking HR to verify someone’s level or salary. They’d start questioning if I understood the point of the interview. The whole prior salary thing is very touchy now, and in some states potential employers aren't allowed to ask. The company my wife works for will only confirm whether an employee was employed at a given date, or not. No salary information. No titles. Nothing other than…

> in some states potential employers aren't allowed to ask. You dont need to when you can just look this up. Plenty of services offer this now. You're salary is pretty much public info. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29834753

That's not public.

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#306

Post by lupire »

pempem wrote: post #185
paisawalla wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I cannot wait to check back in with you when you're trying to get a new job and negotiating salary. Hi, checking in. Your current/previous salary is no business of your future employer. You don't have to share it, and it shouldn't form the basis of your future salary. If this seems alien, or improbable to you, people can and do learn how to tactfully steer conversations away from disadvantageous topics.

People do manage to do so. In fact I work with folks to help them find the right words for this situation and others. Still a trend I'm seeing is occurring in negotiation. Specifically "do you have a counter you want us to match? prove it with an offer letter" orthogonal but still related.

That's not a new trend.

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#307

Post by ghaff »

SSLy wrote: post #304
samhw wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is my experience too, at least in the UK. We had a close family friend whose father, the patriarch of the family, worked for 'the Army' his whole life. It was only after he died that they discovered - somehow - that it was actually 'intelligence' work. I'm sure it's different for secretarial roles, leadership roles, etc, but for the bulk of people it seems like the usual career path is up through the norma…

Arabic and Russian are "exotic" now?

I imagine that native or fluent English speakers are less likely to be fluent in those languages than other western European languages. So, yes, they're "exotic" or at least less common in that sense.

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#308

Post by axiosgunnar »

Wiseacre wrote: post #194
trenning wrote: post #20

Sounds like when you leave Apple you are free to give yourself a title promotion since they wipe all that info. I would also pass on any company that needs references to my job title because their dystopian background check through the infamous Equifax says I'm an associate, even with a software engineering background, haha that part was beyond silly.

I'm sure a non-zero number of ex-Apple interns will try putting "Senior Software Engineer" on their resume for a $350,000 director gig at a startup.

and risk going to prison for fraud?

Re: Every employee who leaves Apple becomes an ‘associate’

#310

Post by ProAm »

lupire wrote: post #305
ProAm wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in some states potential employers aren't allowed to ask. You dont need to when you can just look this up. Plenty of services offer this now. You're salary is pretty much public info. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29834753

That's not public.

It's essentially public for any serious employer doing background checks or verification.
Post reply on HN