Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple • Hacker News Board

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#141

Post by dls2016 » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

Bud wrote: post #65

The leader of this small group of "unrest" folks, Cher Scarlett, apparently got hired in April and has worked for 8 other tech companies, according to this story. Color me unimpressed. She starts agitating after a few months of working entirely from home at a highly-paid gig? Did she even have time to get a clue about whether Apple's doing bad things or not? Or does she just kinda flit around from gig to gig looking…

> I'm guessing less of the former, and more of the latter.

Nice guess, but what's the problem with rabble-rousing? People fight actual violent battles with their employers, perhaps not so much in this country anymore. But that doesn't mean all the work to improve labor is finished. Apple and Google were fined for fixing wages only seven years ago (perhaps an eon in SV time, I wouldn't know). I'm sure I could walk into any multinational corporation and find a distasteful practice worth fixing, to pretend otherwise is the height of naivety.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#142

Post by Bahamut » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

vimy wrote: post #5

If I was Tim Cook I would immediately shutdown slack and mandate everyone go back to using email. It’s always a tiny minority of activists organizing on slack who are causing a lot of the unrest in tech companies.

Just a note, before Slack a lot of the company was just using iMessage - nobody wants that, 30+ people group chats with messages at all hours of the day was the worst digital communication experience I've ever seen at a company.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#143

Post by luffapi » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

thebraxton wrote: post #136

luffapi wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only on HackerNews does someone read this story and decide the handicapped retail worker is the bad guy.

Saying that the accommodation is unreasonable doesn't mean he is a bad person. Apple has one view and he has another, one can be wrong without being bad

It’s not unreasonable at all. The person is deaf, Apple should provide any resources the employee needs to do their job.

1. It’s the right thing to do.

2. If Apple can afford multi-billion dollar toilet shaped offices, they can hire interpreters.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#144

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

sidkshatriya wrote: post #121

ekianjo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Providing an iPad to type messages on is a reasonable accommodation Doesn't that make communication slower? When I want to buy something, I certainly don't want to start chatting on a tablet to get my point across. It seems like a poor choice of position for that employee.

It can be difficult to communicate this way but I think there is a social benefit to making the extra effort for people with disabilities. Often you don’t choose to be disabled. What if you were unlucky to be disabled? Would you like your opportunities to be thoroughly reduced in life? I try to make an effort because I could have been in that employee’s shoes. I am lucky… this is the least I can do.

Further, most people will have some sort of temporary or permanent disability at some point in their life. People break their legs, get older and become deaf, or blind, etc.

Interacting with people with disabilities gives us an opportunity to think about how we can make society a little better not just for them, but for ourselves in the case that we become sick, or injured, or just live to be elderly enough that parts of our bodies have fulfilled their expected useful life and stop working.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#145

Post by yunohn » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #127

ALittleLight wrote: post #51

"she had left Apple after spending several years fighting a decision to reassign her to a role that she said had involved more work for less pay. She said Apple had begun trying to reassign her after she complained that the company’s work on the minerals was not, in some cases, leading to meaningful change in some war-torn countries" I'm impressed that Apple let her spend "several years" fighting a reassignment. I'm…

>She said Apple had begun trying to reassign her after she complained that the company’s work on the minerals was not, in some cases, leading to meaningful change in some war-torn countries" What other geopolitical problems does this person think Apple should be tackling other than resolving tribal conflicts in war torn central Africa? The Taliban? Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women? Haiti’s poverty? Ridiculous.

I think you’ve misunderstood. I interpreted her stance as Apple’s efforts not actually making a change, and being more about posturing.

This is often the case with corporate green-washing.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#146

Post by luffapi » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

AbrahamParangi wrote: post #139

luffapi wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only on HackerNews does someone read this story and decide the handicapped retail worker is the bad guy.

This is an interesting comment because it reveals a philosophical disagreement: is good/bad mostly about moral character or mostly about power?

In this case Apple has all of the power and none of the moral character.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#147

Post by autoliteInline » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

imgabe wrote: post #8

> Richard Dahan, who is deaf, said he had struggled at his former job at an Apple Store in Maryland for six years because his manager refused to provide a sign-language interpreter for him to communicate with customers, which federal law requires under some circumstances. This just doesn't seem like a reasonable accommodation for a retail job. Your whole job is to communicate with the customers. If you need to hire a…

>This is like if you're in a wheelchair and you get a job to hang drywall.

You could view it as a full employment plan.

The next logical step is to have a deaf man who only signs in Irish Sign Language. The first interpreter converts that to ASL, the second into spoken English.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#148

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #94

ALittleLight wrote: post #51

"she had left Apple after spending several years fighting a decision to reassign her to a role that she said had involved more work for less pay. She said Apple had begun trying to reassign her after she complained that the company’s work on the minerals was not, in some cases, leading to meaningful change in some war-torn countries" I'm impressed that Apple let her spend "several years" fighting a reassignment. I'm…

A job is a job. You just quit and find another one if your employer no longer wants you or wants you to do something you don’t care for. Is this attitude possibly because these companies hire based on the entire emotion that you’re special and elite and we’re all going to link arms and save the planet?

[deleted]

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#149

Post by Pulcinella » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #120

barbazoo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a form of inclusion that might not be perfectly efficient as you point out but greatly improves lives of people with disabilities.

Then society should pay for it directly.

Society compensates Apple quite handsomely.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#150

Post by yunohn » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

ALittleLight wrote: post #51

"she had left Apple after spending several years fighting a decision to reassign her to a role that she said had involved more work for less pay. She said Apple had begun trying to reassign her after she complained that the company’s work on the minerals was not, in some cases, leading to meaningful change in some war-torn countries" I'm impressed that Apple let her spend "several years" fighting a reassignment. I'm…

“She said Apple had begun trying to reassign her after she complained”

You quoted this, but seem to have ignored it. This was not a role that got deprecated, rather she complained that her/Apple’s work in that role was ineffective.

This is a very valid complaint, and the sign of a valuable employee. However, most corporations respond by covering up ineffectivity, which is why it turned out badly for her.