Working at Apple is a dream job for some but a nightmare for others, particularly those who value having free time. Via Business Insider, an ex-Apple employee named Ben Farrell recently quit his job at the company and penned a not-too-happy blog post about what it’s really like to work for the company. It goes without saying that Farrell, who “spent two years in the Apple camp managing customer service improvement for their technical support contact centers,” seems very happy to no longer be working at the company.
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First, Farrell found the culture at Apple to not only be demanding but also rather petty and centered around trying to get others around you to fail so you could succeed.
“Sixteen hour days are filled with meetings after meetings followed by more meetings,” he writes. “Whilst this is somewhat standard in most organisations, meetings at Apple wreaked of toxic agendas designed to deliberately trip people up, make fools of the less respected and call people out. Team spirit is non existent as ‘internal customers’ attack individuals and push agendas that satisfy their morning egos. Hours upon hours were wasted in meetings to prepare for meetings in preparation for other meetings to the point where little work actually got done.”
That doesn’t sound healthy.
So what else did Farrell dislike about working at Apple? Here are some more relevant excerpts:
- “Drinks with colleagues revolved around the same stories told again and again as drunken management spoke of times when Apple executives made ‘strategic’ decisions to cut jobs and shut down Apple sites so swiftly and carelessly. Like boy-scouts around a campfire, employees eyes would glow and twinkle at this notion of power and embrace these stories with awe but with utter disrespect for the actions Apple has on the broader community of contractors, vendors, partners, resellers and business partners they have bent over a barrel of non-profitability.”
- “Sickness, family emergencies, and even weddings are given no respect at Apple. 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.”
- “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?”. I received rude voicemails on my phone when I was one minute late to a meeting and was harassed about my ‘Australian work ethic’ with management out of Singapore even commenting that Australians are ‘unfriendly’ and that we ‘only like to work with other Australians’.”
All told, Farrell sounds like he’ll be much better off working elsewhere. Check out his full post by clicking here.
