Work Life Balance:
Many engineers endure hours of meetings 6/7 days a week, 2-3 hours before and after the standard work day, and during lunch; The company’s response is (1) “no meeting day” every 1-2 months
Many engineering teams work during federal holidays and over company vacation periods due to deadlines.
Those that complain about it or refuse to work during off time are treated poorly by their management and affected negatively when performance reviews happen
There is no regard for new parents recently returning from maternity/ paternity leave; The day they start back working, the early morning meetings and late-night phone calls resume as if there isn’t an adjustment period needed or off limit hours (especially since there is a new baby with a sensitive sleep schedule) those that complain about this are also negatively impacted during review time
1 person is hired for every 3-4 jobs actually needed
There have been several instances of engineers having anxiety attacks/ mental breakdowns needing to take medical time off due to workload and stress
Many people (those fortunate enough to be able to) quit with less than 2 weeks’ notice due to the toxic environment would rather be unemployed than treated like slaves.
For those requiring visa sponsorship, they have much less of an opportunity to quit due to workload and have limited options to find a company that will also sponsor them if they leave. This is clearly reflected in engineering recruiting demographics
Nepotistic Environment:
There is no merit-based award system
Team managers have full reign to decide which employees get bonuses, stock, or promotions based on personal decisions rather than tangible contributions to the company or assigned workload
Managers personal preferences and affiliations often cause a hostile working environment due to favoritism and nepotism while hard working /overworked employees get overlooked
On some teams, employees with 5 years of experience are making the same as another employee with 15 years of experience simply due to a hiring manger liking someone more or sharing the same ethnic/ geo- political background as some direct reports
There is very little ethics or diversity training encouraged or required to be taken by leadership and very little oversight by HR to verify fairness
Morale:
It is a widely known fact that there is little benefit to doing a good job, and little consequence for doing a poor job once you have been hired
Apple refuses to fire underperforming employees due to fear of wrongful termination lawsuits so laziness, incompetence, and lack of accountability is rampant in certain teams like responsible for internal asset logistics and facility/ janitorial teams.
This causes a lack of morale and mistrust of leadership, as well as a stressful environment for those who require interaction with these teams to complete their own work; Complaints go unaddressed and then generate retaliation without consequences
*APPLE DOES NOT DISTRIBUTE CLIMATE SURVEYS BUT SHOULD
Diversity:
Just go on linked in if you are interested in learning what the demographics are. Retail stores (lowest paying jobs) have a large amount of minority employees while corporate (the higher paying jobs) have hardly any African American, Native American, or Hispanic employees. There has been little effort to change this and is received as intentional among employees.
Keeping the lack of diverse leadership in positions of power is directly impacting hiring and retention and breeding a continuous environment for discrimination and glass ceilings for minority employees
Pay equity:
There are dozens of lawsuits regarding female engineers being paid less than male counterparts with the same level of education and experience
Internal communication channels providing a place to discuss and compare wages internally have been banned
HR is supposed to conduct annual pay analysis to find these discrepancies but only actually address pay equity issues once an employee formally complains
Compensation
At first glance, pay seems comparable and may be reasonable for what initial job duties may indicate. However once hired, work and expectations will increase and although pay will not. I encourage you to consider what you are being paid vs. how much time you spend working.
The standard cost of living increase given annually is 2% but inflation has increased over 6% in the past 3 years.
Apple’s favorite way to compensate employees is through RSU’s (long term restricted stock units) rather than immediately available bonuses. RSU’s are granted over time as you continue to work for the company, but you will lose any future stock if you leave anytime during the vesting period before the stock vests. This is an effective way to deter employees from leaving, and many people stay because of the long-term stock value even though they are miserable
Quality of Internal resources:
IT and HR are practically impossible to get phone support due to lack of staff. Wait times for help are similar to trying to call the IRS or post office.
Submitting a ticket often takes weeks to address
Some contract staff supporting these roles were even reduced further due to leadership budget cuts despite their leadership informing them that they would be renewed. This directly affects employees and their ability to get help when needed or even to do their jobs.
You would expect this form a small company but not a trillion-dollar tech company. Now that you know this, do yourself a favor and work somewhere you will be appreciated and compensated fairly.
