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I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

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Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#481

Post by paulojreis »

kagamine wrote: post #449
borgia wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If staff are consistently having to work overtime to hit targets then there's either: - A problem with the staff - there's either not enough of them or they haven't the skills to do what is required or - A problem with the management. I've never worked in a role where incompetent people were hired and couldn't get what needed to be done done, but I've worked under plenty of incompetent management.

Alternative 3: a problem with the law. I know 'Murica loves it's free market, dog eat dog, each man for himself ideal. But to us Europeans it looks like many US companies are no better than slave drivers. No regulation, no life for employees. On the other hand, US corps can compete with the Chinese and Koreans, there are no tech giants in well regulated European countries (are there?) because after 3 or 4 in the afte…

> , there are no tech giants in well regulated European countries (are there?) because after 3 or 4 in the afternoon we all go home to our children.

Well, that's not entirely true. Unfortunately, in Portugal, it's more like 6PM; 7/8PM for tech jobs. And no tech giants here, also. :)

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#482

Post by laichzeit0 »

> Management were inconsistent, moody and erratic. I’d often receive aggressive chats at all hours, and harassing texts every fifteen minutes asking “are you online? Your status shows you as away – are you there?”.

As they saying goes, shit runs downhill. I guarantee you these guys are behaving this way because someone above them is giving them the same amount of shit.

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#483

Post by kbart »

kumarski wrote: post #63

I've found it is easy to poach talent from Apple, Google, and other large ventures. It's not the money. It's the vision and the way they treat talent. They don't pay much deference to the consummate creators, the lifeblood of innovation. Long hours, synchronous work schedules with asynchronous dependencies, long commutes, and not an equal pay to warrant education level and mental capacity required for task at hand. I…

"I think the future may consist of Life-Work balance where one's life outside of work, is greater than their work."

Why future? A lot of people do that just now.

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#484

Post by cpach »

tajen wrote: post #473
golergka wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the outside, it definitely looks like the closer it gets to hardware, the better engineers at Apple get. Metal is awesome, Metal shading language and recent clang progress not bad too, Swift a little bit wonky but interesting — but the quality of their customer-facing software, especially ui stuff (not design, but I engineering) is getting worse and worse. It just doesn't "just work" anymore.

> (Mac OSX UI) doesn't "just work" anymore Please, if someone can sell a Linux with the same polish as Mac OSX, and as low-administration time, I would agree to pay about $200 per year for it. I've switched away from Ubuntu after being unable to resolve a problem after upgrade two years ago (which cost me 4 days). I spend 2x more on computers for Macbooks, not because of the hardware but because of Mac OSX. I don't k…

Yes, that would be very cool. And I say that as a happy OS X user. Competition in that space would be good for the customers. Unfortunately all the workstation companies went down the drain. SGI, Sun, etc. But who knows what the future holds in store?

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#485

Post by cpach »

gaius wrote: post #463
skizm wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With something like $150 billion+ in the bank, it might just be a long term viable strategy.

... Until the taxman catches up with them. Then it's game over.

What do you mean? Are Apple not complying with the tax law?

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#486

Post by stephencanon »

scott_karana wrote: post #106
yulaow wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony is that, if I remember correctly for what I read in the book about the biography of Steve Jobs, in the very old apple of Jobs and the Lisa, the team leaded by Jobs was working 120 hours/week and even making t-shirt to brag about it.

And how rich are those employees, because of their stock vesting, compared to current ones, getting paid mere salary? ;)

Why do you think current employees don't get stock?

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#487

Post by kbart »

paganel wrote: post #303

> When I started my role I missed one business trip as my wife was pregnant, fell down the stairs and had to be hospitalised – this was listed as a ‘performance issue’ on my record and brought up during a one on one with management as a major ‘miss’ on my behalf. What the fuck?! How the heck can this happen between two human beings who happen to work for the same company? I'd rather plant potatoes for a living or eve…

"Having no soul" is considered a required attribute for a managing roles in some companies.

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#488

Post by na85 »

shostack wrote: post #210
exelius wrote: post #24

But... the author worked in customer support, managing agents. Customer support in any company is like this: it's full of bobblehead managers who make work to justify their own jobs. It's a cost center, and cost centers are where you put executives who are capable, but not exceptional. This is why OP has stories about how firing people was considered heroic -- when you work in a cost center, the only thing the busine…

You are painting with an overly broad brush. Where I work, our Support Heroes (yes, we call them Heroes because the lengths they go to for our customers are heroic) are one of the main reasons so many of our customers love us and stick with us so long. You've probably heard that it can cost ~5x more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one. An exceptional Customer Support team is your front line in fight…

>If customer support is a "cost center" for you, you're doing it wrong.

But Google showed us that you can build a billion-dollar multinational with abysmal customer support.

Valve Software performs similarly well, and is renowned for having awful customer support.

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#489

Post by lotsofcows »

shostack wrote: post #210
exelius wrote: post #24

But... the author worked in customer support, managing agents. Customer support in any company is like this: it's full of bobblehead managers who make work to justify their own jobs. It's a cost center, and cost centers are where you put executives who are capable, but not exceptional. This is why OP has stories about how firing people was considered heroic -- when you work in a cost center, the only thing the busine…

You are painting with an overly broad brush. Where I work, our Support Heroes (yes, we call them Heroes because the lengths they go to for our customers are heroic) are one of the main reasons so many of our customers love us and stick with us so long. You've probably heard that it can cost ~5x more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one. An exceptional Customer Support team is your front line in fight…

Your support will put there life on the line for a customer? Wow! That's incredible!

Re: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

#490

Post by varjag »

soperj wrote: post #159
nostrademons wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Samsung the main supplier for many of the parts used in the iPhone? And that's the reason why a.) they're in the phone business and b.) they can dominate the Android market? They took the other side of those transactions so they could learn exactly what it took to build a mobile phone, and then once they had phone-building expertise, they just need to ramp up their own production and divert some to internal use…

Except, you know, they've been building phones for far longer than Apple.

That's what Apple pixie dust does to people. I had people seriously arguing that Apple invented portable mp3 player with iPad too.
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