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

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#161

Post by yunohn » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #158

yunohn wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One should always assume a company’s efforts are posturing.

Her role was not PR, it was about actually trying to implement fair trade supply chains for rare minerals.

Regardless, you are free to assume PR posturing as an uninvolved commenter on HN - meanwhile, we’re discussing an actual person’s job and complaints therewith.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#162

Post by reaperducer » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

optimiz3 wrote: post #129

kyleee wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you ditch Apple if you had a customer service experience with a deaf person and it took 3-5 minutes longer than it would have with a hearing person?

Would you ditch Apple if you had a customer service experience and it took 3-5 minutes longer? Fixed it, and maybe. A decline in customer experience provides incentive for Apple to optimize the slower customer service folks out of the picture.

They're human beings.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#163

Post by technothrasher » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #134

sidkshatriya wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When I go to a store, I'm not doing it out of charity for the employees. I'm doing it because I want to buy something, in the most efficient and/or pleasant way possible. I'd much rather fund social programs which just outright support people with disabilities (and I'd like such programs to be more robust and empathetic than they are today). Frankly, if you're not going to be able to do your job well in the first pla…

Huh, I'm exactly the opposite. While I do donate money to social programs, any time I have the opportunity to help others I'd much rather it be with my time and efforts than with simply handing over cash for somebody else to deal with people who need assistance. It is much more fulfilling for me to be able to interact with people I'm helping, and who may help me some day. If this is as simple as taking a few more minutes to interact with a retail clerk that needs extra time communicating, that seems like an almost no effort opportunity.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#164

Post by eddieroger » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

wolverine876 wrote: post #44

> I understand the secrecy piece is important for product security, to surprise and delight customers When was the last time you were surprised and delighted by an Apple product? I think they make the world's best, and most responsible, products, but surprised by an iPhone upgrade? When was the last time they created a new category?

Last Tuesday - an Apple Watch is coming with a swipe-capable keyboard and edge to edge screen, but doesn't make it so the bands I own don't work any longer. I will soon have a full, cellular computer on my wrist. That is Dick Tracy future tech.

Basically all of the AirPods that support sound cancellation. EarPods that could do a better job of cutting out outside sound than the very expensive Bose headphones I owned prior, but could fit in my jeans coin pocket.

The M1 and every Mac to have it so far.

Just because you're not surprised and delighted by Apple products does't mean others are.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#165

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

Pulcinella wrote: post #149

lotsofpulp wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then society should pay for it directly.

Society compensates Apple quite handsomely.

Apple’s customers compensate Apple. Society is free to tax companies’ profits to pay for assistance to deaf people.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#166

Post by bengale » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #93

majormajor wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it. The most disgruntled people I worked with in the past kept most of their griping off of slack or IM or email because they suspected it was logged. Is constant complaining over lunch really less effective than constant complaining in DMs? Or, if it's large channels with lots of participants - what stopped those channels from happening before? Is the idea that people who would've whined over lunch to a…

I’m pretty sure it is logged. Perhaps someone can confirm but can a sufficiently privileged user (not a Slack employee) read contents of private channels? DMs?

Yes, for the upgraded plans you can export data from all private channels and direct messages. It also doesn't notify users when this happens. You can't watch the chats in real time or anything.

People should assume communication on company services are all logged.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#167

Post by iso1210 » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

Bud wrote: post #73

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know that high earners play this game to avoid the sort of tax liabilities ordinary people have to pay? They aren't nobler by taking a $1 salary.

Yes. The fact remains that Tim Cook could not do what was claimed out of his salary. Period, paragraph. Just as obvious: Tim Cook wouldn't do this if he weren't confident in his leadership. Apple stock is up more than 10x since he took over.

Tim Cook was paid $264m in 2020 [0]

Apple has 4,291 employees in the entire state of New York [1]

That's $61,500 per person.

The average salary for an "Apple Genius" (one of the people who work at apple stores?) in New York City is $53,230

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28573768

[1] https://www.apple.com/job-creation/

[2] https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Apple_Genius/Salary...

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#168

Post by NovemberWhiskey » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

yunohn wrote: post #151

Waterluvian wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

“She said Apple had begun trying to reassign her after she complained” This is called retaliation, and is illegal. It’s not happenstance that she got re-orged after complaining about underlying issues.

It's only retaliation if the employee is engaging in an exercise of their legally-protected rights.

If someone is fired after complaining about sexual harassment in the workplace, that's retaliation because you have a legal right to a workplace free of such harassment.

If someone is reassigned after complaining about their employer's ESG policies, you're going to have to explain to me what the nature of the legal protection is in that case for me to see that as retaliation.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#169

Post by nosianu » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

scruffyherder wrote: post #64

wolverine876 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> thankfully downvoting is limited now How is it limited?

My biggest complaint is that it makes it damned near impossible to read. Why must it become inaccessible to people with bad eye sight? My feelings aren't that fragile

Tip: No idea how HN is used on a phone, but on a PC and browser I just CTRL-A to select all text on the entire page and the light gray text becomes clearly readable. Since this does not impact scrolling location or anything else I'm satisfied with this very simple workaround.

Re: Tim Cook Faces Surprising Employee Unrest at Apple

#170

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

everdrive wrote: post #132

Spooky23 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A business isn’t a social club. More often than not, agitators have an agenda to agitate no matter what, or to provide air cover for other issues. When I’ve run into this sort of thing, telltale signs of bullshit activism emerges from sales and marketing people not hitting the metrics, people at risk of being pushed out for performance issues, or people getting passed over.

> A business isn’t a social club. A lot of them are more social than anything else. Likeability supplants pure efficiency, and people hire friends, or people they want to spend time with.

[deleted]