While Apple has always made great products, it has never struck the Macalope as a necessarily great place to work. Let’s take a look at how it’s going with Apple’s employees lately.
Retail? Well, have to say… could be better.
“Apple to Appeal Judge’s Ruling That It Violated Workers’ Rights”
Yes, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Apple had violated workers’ rights by “coercively interrogating employees” regarding their union sympathies and restricting the circulation of union flyers.
This comes at the same time an unnamed Apple TV+ executive said the company favors a hardline stance against the entertainment writers’ guild in its strike because a win for writers would “encourages industries in some countries to unionize in order to make more money.”
The nerve of them asking for more from the most valuable company in the world.
Apple’s anti-union stance continues to strike the Macalope as not befitting a company of Apple’s stature. For one thing, Microsoft has taken a better, more mature position. That’s just annoying. The gloating from the Winotaur is unbearable. If you want to make a practical argument about it, it’s bad press for a company that has long been the focus of harsh labor practices at its overseas subcontractors.
It’s also just the wrong thing to do.
Definitely unrelated to that, Apple is losing one employee. Ali Farhadi, who joined the company in 2020 when Apple acquired the AI company he founded, Xnor.ai, for $200 million, is leaving to be CEO of the non-profit his company was initially spun out of.
It’s possible Apple’s approach to machine learning–keeping it mostly on-device in order to retain user privacy–feels restrictive for executives who want a freer hand at development, regardless of someone’s outdated views that their personal data is theirs. It’s also possible it’s just more fun to work with your friends than a bunch of strangers who paid you $200 million.
The Macalope would not know. But it seems like a nice problem to have.
It also appears that some people who used to work for the company seem a little bitter about certain things.
IDG
In an interview with mobilegamer.biz, former head of App Store review Phillip Shoemaker had choice words to say about Phil Schiller.
Let’s just see what he says here…
Phil [Schiller] just needs to get his meaty paws off the App Store.
Whoa. Holding a grudge? More like hugging a grudge. Spooning a grudge.
If he thinks Schiller has meaty paws, one wonders what he thought of Bob Mansfield’s. They’re like honey-baked hams.
According to Shoemaker, Schiller stands in the way of automated app review, a reduced cut for Apple, allowing different kinds of apps on the Store, and peace between Ukraine and Russia. He contrasts Schiller to more “progressive” executives such as Greg Joswiak, Eddy Cue, Matt Fischer, and Howard Zinn.
The Macalope jokes, but there’s no denying that the App Store has been stuck in something of a rut for, well, 15 years. Still, this criticism also comes from the guy who, while working on the App Store, was selling his own fart apps on it. Yes, he made literal crap apps and sold them for a dollar. So, not exactly the best person to criticize someone else’s effect on the Store.
Apple’s employee relations don’t seem to be substantially worse than the industry average. It’s just that it and the industry could all do a lot better.
Author: The Macalope
In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.