Alderwood Apple Store employees threaten walk out over ‘abuses’
Without saying what the issues at hand are, although they intimate that federal and state labor laws may have been broken, workers at a Washington state store say they will protest their treatment. If it comes to pass, this will be the first labor action by Apple Store employees.
Quoting “insiders” at the Alderwood Mall Apple Store, ifoAppleStore reports that staffers say their complaints about “abusive†management and possible state and federal labor law violations at the store have been ignored by Apple. Moreover, they promise to stage a walk at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3 if their complaints aren’t fully investigated by the company’s human resources department. According to ifoAppleStore:
After reaching an impasse with senior vice president of retail Ron Johnson over the issue, a group of Specialists, Geniuses and Creatives say they will walk out to bring attention to their complaints, and that several former employees will join the protest.
Are Apple’s geniuses all grannied out?
If Alderwood employees do walk out, it would be the first labor action against Apple retail stores that I’m aware of. However, this year has seen Taiwanese labor unions protest over alleged abusive conditions at factories in China owned by Apple’s OEM partners.
In July of this year, a young engineer employed by iPod manufacturer Foxconn (Hon Hai) committed suicide after repeatedly “losing” iPhone prototypes left in his care.
Further, here in the US, a number of middle managers sued Apple over purported abuses of employee manager status, saying that workers with little or no supervisory duties held the title in name only so the company wouldn’t have to pay overtime, which would have been significant.
What’s the truth of the present case? I don’t know, but retail — even on a good day — sucks.
Any former Apple Store employees out there? Good, bad or otherwise, sound off in the comments below.
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September 22nd, 2009
I worked for Apple for a year and three months, and I held the position of Lead Visual Specialist for almost 5 months before I left the company, but was only being paid for the position of Specialist. There were always promises of having the title on paper but for now I would just have to do the work of a Lead without getting paid the salary of a Lead.
I wasn’t the only case in my store; there was a cashier doing the work of a Lead, with the same promises I was receiving from management. She’s been with the company for just about two years, and acting on the management’s requests to do the work of a Lead for over ten months without the pay increase. She just recently received the title for Lead Cashier earlier this week..
September 23rd, 2009
Although it’s super easy to personify these issues and blame the store managers, I strongly suspect it’s corporate jamming P&L discipline down their throats.
September 23rd, 2009
As a former Apple Retail employee, what they usually do is dangle a carrot in front of your face. They promise a promotion, so that you’ll work hard for months and months… then they hire from the outside, making all those months of hard work meaningless. Usually, it’s the middle managers who do it to the low level peons, but sometimes corporate does that to senior store managers as well. Regarding the visual team, at my store, the visual team was a voluntary team, so people who didn’t want to deal with customers and wanted to work afterhours or before the store opened usually joined the team. Also, they’re pretty sexist. Girls with boobs were usually hired as concierge (as my former manager said, concierge are usually pretty girls who are clueless about computers!!), and they are never considered for back of house.
Apple Retail is generally a dead end job. Most people work there before getting a real job. Sometimes, as a morale booster, upper management (like regional managers) will promise a job in Cupertino, but that’s a once in a blue moon kind of a deal. Pay is good for retail and they have excellent benefits (yay stocks!) but job security sucks, and you rarely move up. Find a real job, and be happier.
September 23rd, 2009
I worked at Apple for about 9 months. During my interview, I explained to them I had ADHD and asked about there attendance/punctuality rules. I was told that they were very “lax”. Months after getting hired I got written up for lateness and calling out sick that had occurred during the four month period from my hire date. I was devastated because not once had I received any type of verbal warning. I loved my job even though they would schedule me for ten days in a row knowing of my disability. They would also schedule me to open immediately after closing the night before. People with ADHD need to have a schedule of consistency; my schedule was everything but consistent.
Basically, I should have contacted a lawyer. I was fired for reasons caused by my disability. I asked numerous times if anything could be done regarding my ADHD, they told me there was nothing they could do to accommodate me for my ADHD, management practically laughed at me.
After I was fired I contacted HR. They told me that they did in fact make accommodations for people with ADHD; (I was blatantly told by my management that they did not.) The lady at HR mentioned that they would have needed proper documentation; I would have provided this for them just like I did for the college I went to, Loyola College of Maryland.
Two months after the Decision Review was started, they told me that they did not think that my lateness, the reason for my termination, related to my ADHD. Thus, they told me “no, you can’t have your job back.”
I had considered contacting a lawyer but basically decided not to because Apple is just “to big” of a corporation.
This happened two weeks before Christmas of last year, and I haven’t been able to find a job since.
September 23rd, 2009
“Although it’s super easy to personify these issues and blame the store managers, I strongly suspect it’s corporate jamming P&L discipline down their throats.”
Then again, there’s a certain kind of bastard that thrives in a supercharged environment like this.
Thanks for all the great comments — more, more, more please!
October 27th, 2010
I know this article is very old, but I just wanted to comment that I am an Apple employee who is currently dealing with a situation of abuse by my lead store manager. I will probably call HR, but am afraid to since if he finds out I called, he is likely to get even worse…I wish I didn’t need this job because the verbal abuse from both customers and this manager are incredibly hard to take.