Acting like that to your employees is a quick way to make them disappear. Apple was Apple, nothing was going to make them leave, no matter how much of an asshole Jobs was. I would listen to a CEO/Managers tirade once, before I started looking elsewhere. It's only a job.
I don't doubt that jobs is an asshole from time to time. You kinda have to be to get where Apple is today, from where they were. But unless you were present at the firing of your friend, or he recorded it, I don't think it's 100% fair to quote Jobs, especially out of context. Just because he can be an asshole at times, doesn't mean we get to slander and spread hearsay. Your friend wasn't doing what his boss wanted. The boss said something mean for whatever reason. Anyone in a long term relationship has said something mean. So if an employee isn't the right fit for the company, chances are, every once in a while, something mean will be uttered when they are canned. You're making to much out of it. Unless that's the typical way Jobs fires someone. Then he truly is an asshole.
That's not how the world works. Number one reason for employees leaving, is management. Just because it worked for Apple, absolutely does not mean it works for all companies. Else that would just be the norm, and we wouldn't be talking about it. Being a tyrant, and ruling with an iron fist, does NOT work historically.
What behavior are you talking about that would cost him that position today? Jobs wasn't physically assaulting employees. It isn't illegal to be mean or rude to people. At worst it might cost Apple a few workplace lawsuits/settlements.
FWIW, as an Apple employee I have no idea what the hell he's talking about.
I've worked here 4 years and I absolutely love. my. job. I take days off to work from home whenever I feel like it. We drink at the office on occasion. I'm never harassed for not being constantly online. I don't have endless meetings. I'm constantly praised for the work I do, I get great reviews, with large bonuses.
My impression from reading this article is that he either had a shitty manager (it can happen, Apple's a huge company) or his department wasn't very well-run. (It is customer service, that's never known for being a great environment almost anywhere you work.)
I feel bad for the guy, in a situation he described I would've left too. Fortunately I'm not in that situation, and neither is anyone else I know here. People have their issues with small things but at the end of the day I think everyone I work with loves what they do.
Standing up for your quality of life and questioning stupid company policies isn’t being an “asshole” or a prima donna. More of us should be doing it, and more of us are.
Apple’s arrogant attitudes regarding its employees were always going to have consequences, given the caliber of people they employ. A lot of us don’t like being forced to work in an office, in no small part because the people who want us there are often toxic coworkers who make it harder for us to do our jobs. I expect the companies who continue to be unreasonable about these quality-of-life issues will find themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to hiring and retaining talent.
I don't see why you can just find a new job and tell them to sod off. Sure its not always the right answer to leave and try to effect change from within. But if Apple is SOO stacked against the employees I am not sure why anyone wants to be there.
Yeah but with apple you hear people loved working there even if jobs was harsh. Looks like there's a balance between getting the most out of people and just creating a toxic work atmosphere.
Agreed. I've got a rant or three about how Tim Cook's Apple has become cold and calculating, but this guy was not fired for helping his friend. There was something between him and his manager. Maybe his manager is a dick who wanted to replace him with a buddy, but if that's the case it just means there's a few dicks in Apples' 140K employees. Maybe this guy has a long list of warnings.
Apple doesn't own people. If employees want to change employer, they are free to do so. Apple of course knows this, so it tries to terrorize current and future employees into submission.
Steve Jobs comes by and every employee tells him that he can't ask what they're working on and they all quit the next day? That sounds a little hyperbolic.
My wife -- not a current or ex-Apple employee -- had a very similar experience as this, at a different company and in a different geographical location than Apple.
It's unfortunate that workplace abuse is so easy to do and hard to fix. She called their bluff when they told her they could easily replace her, after she spoke up about the treatment. They were shocked that she would actually leave. I was so proud of her.
The hiring was a massive mistake even if you discount the person's attitude toward his prospective co-workers:
He had very publicly ridiculed user privacy, which is one of the core defining values that Apple purports to uphold.
He had very publicly aired all sorts of dirty laundry about previous employers, which was virtually guaranteed to happen eventually after some period of employment at Apple, and which is something Apple particularly hates.
So it's entirely beyond me how anybody thought he was a good fit at Apple.
That said, once hired, I think he's owed some monetary compensation for steps he took in reliance on the new job (at least morally, and quite possibly even legally, even in an at-will state).
How could they be ordered to do anything if they are no longer employed by Apple? Resigning is a pretty powerful statement, being compelled to work for an employer you no longer want to work for is orders of magnitude worse than anything else suggested in this whole sordid saga to date.
Compelling a company to produce a product is bad enough, let's not add treating people like chattel on top of it.
Very good point. He didn't demand the termination, that was a power play by the heads of HR who seem to be the real bad guys here. But I'm sure there was a mirror image of activity going on at Apple.
How did you get “he didn’t like the company” from that story?
People routinely have feelings and opinions way more nuanced than this. And Apple is not a monolith. That’s certainly what happened here, as made apparent by the employee selectively leaking things that he wanted to kill.
If he had valid cause to walk out, surely he could've gone to HR with his grievances against his boss? Since we're only getting one side of the story here, I have no way of knowing what parts of his story are true and what's been embellished. The story we're hearing is that a guy's boss was a jerk, but what if he himself was being an insufferable diva and his boss had no intention of renewing his contract for that reason?
For some reason I don't feel like Apple suffered a great loss here.
I mean, what would have happened if Apple Employees called for Jobs to step down for being to much of an arrogant hard ass? (I'm just trying to say it in very plain terms, without going into it to deep.)
I'm not sure the reaction would be the same. Jobs probably would have just fired them and nobody else would voice an opinion out of fear the same would happen to them.
It makes me wonder at what point should a persons personal views be carried over to their day to dat job. Given this guy is CEO, maybe more than a normal employee that had the same views? Because he more represents the public view of the company?
This makes me think that maybe I should look more at the views of those that run the companies I will work for present and future.
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