Apple’s Retail Staff are Second-Class Employees

A Memoir from the Fruit Stand

37 min readFeb 11, 2022

No other business in history has ever exceeded a valuation of $3 trillion, but Apple recently did so, in part, by exploiting its most vulnerable employees and discounting their well-being. Apple easily has the financial resources to be the exemplar of a modern, progressive workplace, but instead has established itself as the paradigm of capitalist greed. My objective with this article is to bring awareness of the ways that Apple can better the lives of its 65,000 retail and customer support staff, whom Apple executives see as the dirt underneath their shoes. Several of these grievances are not exclusive to Apple, but with great power comes great responsibility.

“The Verge spoke with 16 current and former employees on Apple’s retail, support, and sales teams who say their complaints about working conditions and pay have largely been ignored. Some say they are governed more by algorithms and systems than actual managers, making it difficult to get holistic help. All of them note that while they came into the job believing in Apple’s mission, they see a profound breakdown in how the company’s corporate values translate to the frontlines.
‘They say “our soul is our people” but it really didn’t feel like that to me,’ a former employee says.”
— Apple’s frontline employees are struggling to survive by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

My career at Apple began in 2016, nearly a decade after the original iPhone reshaped the company into the technology behemoth it is today. Like many of my peers, I was fresh out of high school, looking to take roots in an establishment that could help me grow both personally and professionally. Previously, I worked at T-Mobile (before it consumed the last of Sprint’s soul), in an atmosphere rife with shady sales tactics and commission-based sales goals. Later, I befriended some of the employees at my local Apple Store, who encouraged me to apply because of my experience in consumer electronics and passion for Apple’s ecosystem. It appealed to me because Apple’s ethos was purportedly about “enriching lives” rather than the aggressive, uncomfortable carrier attitude I was familiar with. Even though it was just a retail job at the end of the day, there was an allure working under the same brand in which Steve Jobs and Jony Ive shared a vision.

It was a grueling hiring process, with four interviews that spanned over six months, but I was eventually hired at $15/hour as a Technical Specialist. Apple “Core,” our training and initiation, was almost exclusively about Apple’s culture of inspiring and enabling people to materialize their creativity. Throughout my first year, I learned an immense amount by troubleshooting Apple’s hardware and software, including their philosophy to customer service. Our Genius Bar was among the best in the eastern United States, earning four consecutive “Ovation Awards” in 2017 for the highest customer survey scores (known as NetPromoter Scores, or NPS). After one year, my own accomplishments were rewarded, and I was promoted to $18/hour as a Technical Expert. Now renowned as a tenured resource, I became officially certified to repair iOS devices, and contributed to training new employees.

Then, in early 2018, an ominous cloud fell over Apple Stores around the globe, famously dubbed “battery-gate.” For months, our store opened every morning with dozens of customers ready to axe our heads for policy decisions far out of our control. Quickly, we learned how to tune out the verbal abuse and discern which customers were worthwhile to lend an empathetic ear. Some were understanding that we were simply the conduits to a solution, and others designated us to be their impetuous punching bag. Nevertheless, we carried on and replaced countless iPhone batteries open-to-close until it subsided. As burdensome as it was, in some way I was appreciative for the circumstance because it sharpened my technical aptitude. At the end of the year, I was recognized as the Genius Bar technician “Most Likely to Recommend,” another statistic calculated by the highest overall NPS. Thus far, I was ecstatic with my role at Apple and had no desire of a job elsewhere.

I day-dreamt of all the legitimate career paths that were possible with Apple, beyond its retail division. I was midway through college, and grateful for Apple, not only for the profession itself, but also for paying the majority of my tuition. I shifted all my effort and ambition into securing an internal internship (known as a Career Experience). These internal internships were limited and honorary, offered only to select, top-performing retail and customer service employees. Ideally, Career Experiences were meant to offer a path from other sections of Apple into corporate, especially for those looking to deepen their expertise into positions otherwise practically impossible to attain. The most fortunate ones were flown out to California and paid to live there for six months whilst learning their new craft and making invaluable networking connections. Regrettably, I was never so lucky.

Early 2019 was a solace with our Genius Bar again earning two more Ovation Awards, but it didn’t last long. Sales were down because of all the iPhones from the year before that were now breathing new life, and it was making executives and stockholders agitated. Leadership unleashed a pressure campaign, in which the warm, caring culture of the Apple Store mutated. We became, in effect, the very thing that was claimed to separate us from the other carrier stores. The internal crusade, tagged with the apothegm “All-In on iPhone,” was that of capitalizing on every possible sale that walked through our glass doors. Opposite the year prior, in which device repairability and longevity was principal, we were coerced into manipulating customers into upgrading. If we didn’t have a handful of forced upgrades a day, we were pulled aside to be scolded about why our numbers weren’t good enough. Gone were the days of prioritizing the customer journey, and the era of metrics-driven incentives reigned. Morning “Daily Download” meetings purely consisted of accessory sales, business leads, and AppleCare+ attach rates. Admittedly, while this isn’t an egregious violation of retail, it superficially corrupted the spirit of what the Apple Store was intended to be.

“‘It’s not just the net promoter score anymore,’ the score that customers give Apple retail employees based on their experience in the store, [an employee] said. ‘Now it’s, “Hey make sure we’re selling iPhones and AppleCare and accessories.” There’s so much pressure on the leadership team. If you don’t have a leader whose focus is their people, their people will be the first thing to fall away.’”
— Apple store in Texas closes in Covid outbreak by Zoe Schiffer, NBC News

That obnoxious mood did weaken once Apple’s stock turned skyward again. However, it was at this point that my personal relationship with Apple started to crumble. Late in the winter of 2019, I applied for my next role as a Genius Admin. It wasn’t technically a promotion, despite the “Genius” moniker, so it was considered a lateral move. I’d served my time on the frontlines of the Genius Bar, successfully mastering every aspect of customer service, troubleshooting, and repair prowess, and I was ready for something new. Moving into Genius Admin would give me the ability to work behind-the-scenes and supervise the organization of our repair staff and strategy.

Foolishly, I thought I was an easy choice because I was cross-trained for the few instances that our existing Genius Admins were out sick, and my only competition was a coworker whom I had trained. Further to my advantage, that coworker resigned halfway through the interview process, leaving me as the solitary candidate. Not only did I have the qualifications, but I was now the last person standing. All of those factors left me dumbfounded when I was turned down, especially considering that the only feedback that I was given was “We know we could put you in this role today, and you’d be great at it. But we’re looking for someone with a more positive personality.” In short, I was told that I wasn’t happy enough. Instead of choosing the only willing and qualified candidate, my managers chose someone from Product Zone (the sales half of the store) with no Genius Bar experience because they fit the charisma that my managers already had in mind.

There wasn’t much time to dwell on it because a lot happened in 2020. Another year, another Ovation Award. And as COVID-19 exploded in the spring, Apple led the way in the retail scope. They were the first major retailer to close amid the rising cases, which eventually gave way into lockdown. Initially, we were blessed that Apple not only wasn’t furloughing us, but they were going to continue paying our full wages, too. Through March and April, we essentially had all the time in the world to ourselves, and like everyone else stuck in lockdown, found passions and hobbies that we otherwise never had time to explore. I read books that had been on my list for years, became an avid daily biker, and spent ample quality time with my fiancée.

As Apple and the rest of the world realized that COVID-19 wasn’t fading away any time soon, in April they asked that we change our workflow and work from home to help the recently overwhelmed online support teams. Though the program was formally voluntary, we were heavily pressured and guilted into participating as a supposed show of solidarity between retail staff and online support. While it felt like a regression from the unbound freedom we had in the months prior, many of us thought that we owed Apple some gratitude for maintaining our livelihoods amidst one of the most uncertain times in our existence. I relented a spare corner of my apartment and was sent an old iMac and some cheap headphones to take customer service phone calls.

“After Apple closed all its retail stores in 2020, it gave employees at certain retail locations the option of enrolling in an at-home adviser program to help customers over the phone. The experience was initially meant to be voluntary, meaning that employees would get paid either way. But at [Apple Southlake], the store manager called some workers and said that the program was mandatory, according to two employees.”
— Apple store in Texas closes in Covid outbreak by Zoe Schiffer, NBC News

Our training was inadequate, to say the least. Because of our pre-existing foundation with Apple, we didn’t have to undergo any instruction about the ecosystem, which normally takes up to a month. By contrast, we had just a week to absorb the surprisingly unfamiliar computer systems, and only the final day was spent practicing customer calls. The following week, we were thrown to the wolves with practically no support. My newfound “manager” that was assigned to me had never managed a team before. They were appointed, along with many others, to oversee the endless waves of incoming retail support personnel, despite lacking their own preparation to do so.

Besides the opening week of training, I had virtually no contact with my manager whatsoever. If I had a question about a customer or systems issue, we were directed to an internal chat that was overflowing with other people just like me. We could also consult other jurisdictions of Apple’s support, but finding both the right department and/or someone who wasn’t freshly hired was a difficult task. Many advisors weren’t even genuine Apple employees — they were third-party contractors who were ignorant to Apple’s policies and promised outlandish resolutions to customers. Somehow we were expected to use these resources without leaving a customer on hold for more than a few minutes at a time. The reward of finishing a call was 8 seconds of blissful silence, at which point the next call automatically rang.

“About four years ago, Apple started hiring vendors to manage some of the chats and calls. For tier two advisers — people who were tasked with taking calls that couldn’t be resolved by lower-level employees — this meant a sudden onslaught of angry customers. Vendors didn’t receive the same level of training as in-house Apple employees, according to multiple employees, meaning issues were constantly being escalated. By the time a tier two adviser got the call, customers were often irate.”
— Apple’s frontline employees are struggling to survive by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

Obviously, it’s not unusual for customer service to be very mentally taxing. However, taking these repetitive calls was unimaginably disheartening, exponentially more than working in a store environment. Without sufficient support or social release, working at home was desperately isolating, and my apartment became toxic. Even though I had nowhere to go, I’d end my shifts by escaping to my car and driving for hours as if my brain was simulating driving home at the end of a workday. If there was a difficult customer in store, we at least had other coworkers to reinforce us or vent to, but none of that existed alone at home. I was locked in a room with infinite antagonistic, belligerent customers who held me liable for a society in which I was also at the bottom of the food chain. The door to exit was only accessible by giving up or presenting an acceptable outcome, though I didn’t always have one to offer.

My mental health crashed, and all of it was happening during my last semester of college. I suffered so much that after stubborn insistence from my fiancée, I asked to withdraw from the program. My managers implied that I may not qualify to be removed unless there was a legitimate reason to justify it. When I confided that it was because of my rapidly deteriorating mental health, I was told that it was because I didn’t have any goals for myself, and I should be thankful for the opportunity to work. Some of my coworkers who were battling with identical difficulties were told that if they could not participate, they’d have to go on a leave of absence, which may or may not be paid. Eventually, after confessing that I was weighing quitting regardless of the pandemic, my withdrawal was finally granted. Almost simultaneously, we heard the news that our store was reopening to the public.

“From the start, the job was stressful. Employees spent eight hours a day fielding inquiries from angry customers.
[A Pennsylvania employee] says he didn’t hear much from his manager until July 2020, when he was told that his [customer satisfaction scores] were good. So good, in fact, that he was going to start taking tier two calls. If a lower-level adviser couldn’t answer a customer’s questions, they could escalate the call to him. He asked if the job came with a pay bump and was told it did not.
Employees wanted a raise. They were dealing with the same existential angst as the rest of the population weathering a global pandemic, all while being yelled at on the phone by customers who barely treated them like people. The Pennsylvania employee said his mental health started to suffer. When he tried to talk to his manager about how he was feeling, he was told to try opening a window or put a plant on his desk.
One day, the employee was doing a screen share with a customer who was having issues with her display. The device wasn’t under warranty — he told her it would likely cost $500 to fix. The woman started to cry. ‘I’m a college student, can’t you make an exception?’ she asked. He said he was sorry, but it wasn’t up to him. Then the woman opened Photo Booth on her computer screen — activating the webcam — and held a razor to her wrist. ‘This is what the stress you’re giving me is doing to me,’ he says she told him.
In early 2021, Apple Stores started to reopen, and the employee asked to go back to in-person work. ‘I have asthma, my wife has a chronic illness, but we were forced to wager my mental health against my physical health to see if it was worth going back to the store,’ he says.”
— Apple’s frontline employees are struggling to survive by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

Apple was cautious in the beginning. Employees and customers alike were required to wear masks, sanitize their hands and devices, and limit how many people could be in the store. I was in the minority of employees that were recalled, whereas the majority were still being deployed at home. With staff already spread thin, the workload was exhausting. Nevermind that details about COVID-19 were still relatively unknown, it didn’t discourage customers from faulting us for the political and economic repercussions of the pandemic. Arguments about whether masks were a violation of constitutional rights and freedoms were an hourly occurrence. Throughout the summer, it was a dance between restricting customers in the store, letting them in freely, and a continuous back-and-forth until Apple settled on the “express” storefront for the holiday season. In this setup, the front of our store was cut off by plexiglass, and the only customer interaction came from sliding their devices underneath. Security guards were contracted, and they were accountable for filtering out unruly customers who refused to comply. For a while, the express model appeared safe enough, but it didn’t stop customers from lining up and creating a scene if they couldn’t have immediate gratification. No customer was empathetic of the conditions we tirelessly worked through, and their intolerance was demoralizing. We also attempted to call customers ahead of their appointments to flush out any unnecessary traffic, but it was seldom prosperous. Nevertheless, we trudged on into the new year.

Typically, I preferred to work New Year’s Day because we earned time-and-a-half, and it often wasn’t busy. Immediately after clocking in from my lunch break though, there was a sharp pain in my chest, and I suddenly lost my ability to breathe. The doctors at the emergency room informed me that it was a spontaneous pneumothorax, commonly referred to as a collapsed lung. I was fortunate that it didn’t necessitate surgery, so I was back in the plexiglass castle within a few weeks. The Apple Store was barely recognizable from its past form, and it matched the employees who were sorely burnt out. No longer did customers arrive to be cheerfully greeted or taught exciting features of the new products; it was boiled down to straightforward monetary transactions. Each day became a battle of will. I wondered if Apple was still where I belonged, or if my time had run its course. As if God himself was listening to my thoughts, I was approached by my managers that, after years of applying for a Career Experience, my prayers were finally acknowledged.

Specifics about the Career Experience were scarce, but it was certain we wouldn’t be traveling to Apple Park because of COVID-19. Myself along with two other coworkers from my store were selected, and it was presumed that we’d be gone for a minimum of a few weeks or months. Unclear what our project would encompass, we excitedly speculated about what Apple may be working on for the upcoming product launches or WWDC. I was partnered with another coworker whom I had trained, along with the same employee that had surpassed me for Genius Admin a year ago. It was in the past now, and we were all eager to dive in. The group that had requested us were from the Apple Media Products team, and they were looking for employees who were technically savvy and could learn new computer systems quickly. Without a doubt I knew that I fit that description, and I was delighted that my managers concurred. I absolutely wanted to seize this opportunity, so I invested in a new pair of AirPods Max and revived my home office setup.

I wholeheartedly believed this was my chance to prove that I could apply my skills outside of retail and potentially lay the groundwork for a corporate role. Alas, that fantasy vanished before my eyes. Upon further discussion, my managers blocked my nomination for the Career Experience because I was declared “too vital to daily store operations.” Conversely, my other two coworkers were not retracted. They decided that because staff was already strained and I was the most competent employee of the three designated, they couldn’t afford to spare me. My coworkers were regarded as expendable, whereas I was not. Somehow because I had more Genius Bar experience, it was now inhibiting me from expanding my horizons. My managers had typecast me, useful for one purpose only. To be clear, I held neither of my coworkers in contempt. In fact, I was content to watch them succeed (one of whom was just offered a permanent corporate job after their Career Experience manager recommended them), but it was painfully arduous to come back to work after that. I resented the work I was doing because it didn’t seem like I was working towards something constructive anymore. Meanwhile, the overall store morale further decayed into an outright spiral.

The Present

Throughout the rest of 2021, our store has fallen apart both mentally and physically. Contrary to the flagship stores in major cities, our store is in a physically decrepit state, with the roof leaking in our break room, our repair room, and even directly above our sellable inventory. We’ve also had a mass exodus of revered employees — in the last year, we’ve lost three of our Leads (effectively Assistant Managers), two of our most-cherished Geniuses, our sole Business Pro, our sole Technology & Merchandising Pro, four of our Technical Experts, and approximately a dozen more have gone on medical leave of absences for mental health stress, some of which are unpaid.

Turnover is not necessarily unusual, especially in retail, but almost two-thirds of our store is now comprised of employees who were hired in just the last few months. This has critically exacerbated every dimension of store operations, including longer wait times, poor product and repair knowledge, and more customer escalations, all of which consequently proliferates the workload of veteran employees. It is arguably more expensive and reckless to perpetuate such a high employee turnover rate because of countless sales missed and customers deterred as the result of inept employees. By investing in their workforce and conserving skilled employees, Apple can cultivate a more efficient and fruitful store. It has evolved into a cyclical issue that our managers and their executive superiors have failed to address, and the Omicron variant of COVID-19 indisputably exhibited Apple’s overall carelessness for its retail staff.

“Now, 22 employees ‘have shared that they’re positive for Covid-19,’ a store manager told staff during a Webex meeting on Wednesday, according to employees who attended.
NBC spoke with four current and former employees at the [Apple Southlake] store who said they’ve received calls from their manager encouraging them to come to work, even when they called out sick.
‘It was really bad, my voice was really scratchy and my customers definitely noticed,’ they said. ‘It was worse because it was Black Friday and the store was busier than normal, and my customers were not wearing masks.’”
— Apple store in Texas closes in Covid outbreak by Zoe Schiffer, NBC News

That quote is not anecdotal. My store also was forced to close for over three weeks during the holidays after a staff outbreak of 26+ COVID-19 cases, some of whom were confirmed to have worked on the same day they tested positive. It’s fair to note that the Omicron variant is much more contagious than previous variants, and therefore harder to limit. And although Apple has reinstated its mask mandate and provided consistent testing, Apple has also regularly subjected its retail employees to high exposure for the sake of not turning away customers during the most profitable time of year.

A year ago, our store’s morale scored so low in our annual “Pulse” employee survey that it triggered an investigation by HR (known as the People team). More than a dozen employees from my store were interviewed to talk about the attitude and confidence in our store’s management team. Once widespread issues were identified, the People team was rumored to have compiled a 12-page report, but as of the publication date of this article, nothing has been presented to us about what it included nor how our store’s management team plans to respond to it. I have chosen not to publicly reveal names as I did in my exposition to the People team, but I will share the same complaints about both my store and Apple Retail as a whole.

“Apple tells us that all the time … that the people at AppleCare and retail are the reason people keep coming back, and that we’re critical to the company’s success. But it’s all words. When more and more people started complaining about how the working conditions are unfair and we’re not being treated as well as we should be, Deirdre O’Brien came out with a video with no other purpose other than to ‘say thank you.’
[By taking action, Apple can] help better the lives of thousands of employees around the world. I don’t think they’re unreasonable requests, and I think they can set an example for other retail and support companies around the world on how to better treat their employees. We work for the same company, and we should be seeing the same success and benefits that our managers and corporate counterparts are seeing.”
— Apple Can Do Better by “Johnny Appleseed,” Medium

Communication

Attendance & COVID-19: The paramount issue with communication is related to COVID-19 protocols, which has been a treacherous source of hypocrisy within Leadership and retail altogether. Apple’s defined attendance policy is vague, but the general rule is no more than three absences and three tardies within three months, which is completely sensible in normal conditions. An international pandemic is not normal conditions. Apple preaches that we should not hesitate to call-off if we feel sick, but the attendance policy remains unchanged. Many of my coworkers have been given written warnings (known as Documented Coaching plans) for exceeding attendance guidelines throughout the pandemic. For example, one coworker was accused by a manager that “it’s impossible to be sick as often as you are.” Dangerously, Leadership has adopted the stance that if someone is trying to call-off because of suspected COVID-19 symptoms, they are to call in to have a manager adjudicate whether they are actually too sick to work. And in one case when it was justified, the response from the manager was “Great, you just took out the entire team,” and then they hung up. As stated by the quotes earlier in this article, this issue is not isolated to my store. Other stores’ managers may have different backgrounds, but none of my managers are certified doctors. CDC guidelines are questionable in their own right, but Apple should not blur that line further for their convenience.

Pandemic aside, Apple’s regard of its retail staff has perpetually eroded. Just last month, Northeast Ohio had the largest overnight snowfall since 2008 with multiple cities recording more than a foot of snow. The National Weather Service tweeted that “We implore you to stay home if you can. Road conditions across the area are treacherous and won’t improve until after snow stops.” Unwavering, our managers promptly texted us that morning to emphasize that we were still expected to commute to work. They didn’t dispute that conditions were too dangerous to drive, but our Market Leader was on vacation in Florida, which created a bureaucratic labyrinth to receive approval to close. It wasn’t until 5 hours later and innumerable call-offs that Leadership conceded opening wasn’t viable. By that time, several coworkers had already risked their safety by traveling through the cold to avoid being marked absent or tardy. COVID-19 and its consequences are still somehow controversial, but weather is apolitical.

Scheduling: Not one retail employee enjoys having an unpredictable schedule. Studies have shown that an inconsistent sleep schedule is a contributing factor to health complications, including anxiety and depression. Apple used to have an in-store role, aptly called the Schedule Planner, but recently abolished it in favor of a centralized corporate team. Its purpose was to have more predictable schedules with less scheduling conflicts. Dismally, this team is alleged to be grossly understaffed with a large amount of their workload being outsourced to third party vendors that have no understanding or care about Apple’s frontline employees. In practice, scheduling conflicts appear to be no less common than they were before, and it’s now much harder to have those issues resolved. For example, every year, history repeats itself, and new products launch in March, June, September, and October. Yet every year, Apple pretends that it has no inclination as to when products will be launched, thus requiring multiple weeks of schedules to be re-written as a reaction. Understandably, Apple’s corporate culture is very secretive about new products to maintain its signature “surprise and delight,” but it isn’t illogical that the corporate scheduling team should have access to crucial launch dates. It isn’t unthinkable to assume that one of the most powerful technology giants could find a solution to this problem, whether it be more (Apple-experienced) personnel or machine learning algorithms.

Minor in comparison, but the same people are regularly prioritized for favorable shifts like iPhone/Mac repair or “runner” support. At my store, one technician holds a monopoly on iPhone/Mac repair shifts, and it is essentially their full-time job. I have flagged this discrepancy to my managers at least a half-dozen times. Each time I am told that it is something they’re looking into, but nothing ever changes. Furthermore, corporate trainings about business conduct and other topics are de-prioritized by Leadership, and we are encouraged to skip through them as quickly as possible to avoid excess time off the sales floor. Guaranteeing that every employee in a given role has equal time to learn all necessary content is vital and should not be overlooked.

Feedback: The bedrock of Apple’s retail culture is built upon a concept of “fearless” feedback. In principle, this allows any employee to give applicable feedback to any other, irrespective of what rank both hold. Particularly with Managers, there are three key errors in this logic:

First and foremost, it is unreasonable to expect that all feedback can be truly fearless. Though Apple’s official policy may forbid retaliation, they tend to subscribe to an “innocent until proven guilty” mentality. Apple’s HR is not a court of law, it is part of a multi-trillion dollar conglomerate that’s only mission is to protect itself. Some employees who maintain a good rapport with certain managers may feel comfortable giving direct feedback but many don’t. To be sincerely fearless, there should be a way to give anonymous feedback that removes the risk of vengeance entirely.
Secondly, feedback is worthless if those it is given to discard it. Personally, I can count on one hand how many times my feedback was utilized in my 5 years’ time. Managers should disclose a periodic recap and create proposals to act on widespread or important feedback submissions. Apple does sponsor an annual “Pulse” survey, but it isn’t enough, largely because responses disappear into the void with very few having tangible impacts. Loop, our internal social network, does help to proliferate change in terms of app or tool optimizations, but falls short of impacting policy revisions. To foster a culture of fearless feedback, managers should always have an available forum and seek input from employees, not just once a calendar year with no transparent procedure to implement those responses.
Thirdly, some feedback is recurrently used by managers as a tactic to stifle objections. Myself along with other coworkers have raised concerns, only to be told that we have to work on “managing ambiguity” or “being flexible” with uncertainty. Sure, there is some truth to that in situations that are not explicitly black and white, but it is not the same as managerial negligence, which is mistakenly conflated. Competencies like those are referenced in conversations about raises or promotions, and to cite them against us is unjust if inaccurate.

“Although the company specifically says that its policies ‘should not be interpreted as restricting your right to speak freely about your wages, hours, or working conditions,’ the reality is that there’s a strong expectation that internal problems should be kept internal.
Apple historically dissuaded employees from talking about work on social media — even in seemingly harmless ways. The company’s guidelines are vague: ‘Be thoughtful about how you present yourself in online social networks,’ they read. ‘The lines between public and private, and personal and professional, are blurred in online social networks. In particular, it’s a priority that we respect the privacy of our customers and other employees.’
Still, multiple employees tell The Verge that those who tweet about Apple quickly receive a note from the business communications team asking to chat. They don’t always get in trouble, but the message is clear: Apple executives are watching.
If Apple had a playbook for how to respond to allegations of discrimination and abuse over the last four months, it was ‘ignore the problem, say as little as possible.’”
— Apple’s fortress of secrecy is crumbling from inside by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

Development

Quite a bit of the content above about feedback is also applicable in terms of development. Most recently, I was again denied a promotion to Technology & Merchandising Pro after the third and final interview. While the feedback wasn’t meritless, my managers chose to ignore that the outgoing Technology & Merchandising Pro had written me a letter of recommendation to replace them, and instead promoted someone who has a year less experience. I’ve now spent almost 4 years in my current role and have been repeatedly exemplified as the paragon Technical Expert. In spite of that, I am still mysteriously undeserving of a promotion or Career Experience.

(Maybe it’s a trivial point, but “Career Experience” is an overlapping term within Apple. Corporate Career Experiences are prized and can open doors that are traditionally shut. There also exists Career Experiences that are for pre-existing in-store roles, but realistically, they are scams disguised as development opportunities. Usually they are manufactured to substitute for an employee on a leave of absence, but in actuality, they tempt employees into performing more work with no supplementary compensation.)

One thing that Apple does do exceptionally well is attract great talent, but internal candidates are habitually bypassed in promotions. External hires undermine every existing employee because it sends the message that none of them are good enough, no matter how hard they’ve worked. The majority of our managers, our Market Leader, and our Market Director were all hired from outside companies with “professional management” experience, and they earn up to 10x more than the employees beneath them.

“What [people] need is a common vision, and that’s what leadership is.
We went through that stage in Apple where we went out, and we thought ‘Oh, we’re going to be a big company, let’s hire professional management!’ We went out and hired a bunch of professional management. It didn’t work at all. Most of them were bozos. They knew how to manage, but they didn’t know how to do anything!
And so if you’re a great person, why do you want to work for someone you can’t learn anything from? You know what’s interesting, who the best managers are? They’re the great individual contributors who never ever want to be a manager, but decide they have to be a manager because no one else is going to be able to do as good of a job as them.”
— Steve Jobs

Executive Disconnect

It’s hard to extrapolate how high up Apple’s executive disconnect goes, but I can only infer that it is multiplied by each rung of the ladder. While I genuinely believe our managers care about us, it does not absolve them nor the institution of blame for poor governance. To illustrate, a few months ago, Apple required that we participate in a mental wellness training, which included a Webex meeting to review our health benefits. A manager later approached me to ask if I had any insight about the store’s low morale. I spoke about the obsession with metrics, the over-booking of customers, and dissatisfaction with compensation. Later in that same conversation, that manager bragged about a conference call in which another store manager remarked “Oh, you’re the show-offs from Market Team 7 that make everyone else look bad.” It exhibited that in the face of an impoverished workforce, Leadership was egoistic of their power to push us to our limits. Again, not a shocking revelation in retail, but exhibits that numbers are undoubtedly definitive at Apple. Managers are incentivized to prioritize statistics because they earn quarterly bonuses on them, none of which are shared with their employees (more on that below).

“I know that my managers and their managers are trying their best. I realize that they actually do care about us, and they’re stuck in the awful position of having to deal with burnt-out, stressed, dissatisfied employees while also trying to help the company stay afloat, keep up its image, and not be crushed by the stress of it themselves. I do not blame my managers for any of the things they cannot make direct changes about, but I do blame the system that made it this bad in the first place.”
— Apple Can Do Better by “Johnny Appleseed,” Medium

It’s compounded by the smothering of customers we are expected to help, especially in the context of COVID-19 restrictions. Disregarding our pleas, Leadership vehemently refuses to turn away customers, no matter how short-staffed we are. Until our store’s COVID-19 outbreak the week of Christmas, we were instructed to unquestionably accept any and all walk-in customers on top of the multitude of Genius Bar and shopping appointments booked every hour. In years past, this wasn’t unusual, and it was a workload we had come to expect. Nowadays, it is nightmarish to think about how overrun Leadership willingly let us become. The modest uptick in hiring was mildly assuaging, but the loss of so many irreplaceable employees has been counterproductive. To be fair, I don’t think most of these policy judgements are being made directly by our store’s management team. I suspect that most are being dictated by the Market Leader & Market Director, neither of whom have ever held a position in-store. It may reach far above them, but it is nebulous to us beyond that.

“‘Corporate makes decisions based on what they think will work in the stores without talking to people who work in the stores,’ a former colleague says.
While Apple’s corporate offices take a proactive, deliberate approach to product development, Apple’s customer support function operates in a reactive mania, using a vast array of processes and metrics to keep employees on task.”
— Apple’s frontline employees are struggling to survive by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

Inclusion & Diversity

Race & Gender: Apple touts itself as leading inclusion & diversity endeavors in Silicon Valley, but our store is not reflective of our community, which is especially apparent in Leadership. Our metropolitan area is approximately 60% white, 30% black, and 10% other races. Our store’s management team (Managers + Leads) is composed of 9 white, 0 black, and 1 AAPI individuals. Possibly even more unacceptable, out of almost a hundred employees, we only have 2 non-white individuals at the Genius/Pro level, 4 non-white individuals at the Expert level, and all other employees of color are at the Specialist level.

Unlike race, our store does have a decent balance of gender representation, at least towards the top — our store’s management team (Managers + Leads) equally includes 5 men and 5 women. Oddly reminiscent of high school though, multiple female employees have been reprimanded for dress code infractions, and feel that harassment concerns have not been properly handled by Leadership or the People team. For example, one female coworker said she “has to wear a jacket tied around my waist so my male coworkers don’t make sexual comments regarding my body.” Another was told by a manager that “Maybe Apple just isn’t for you” after airing some of their concerns. The Genius Bar is also distinctly male-dominated with only three women promoted in the last four years (compared to seven men). Apple’s company-wide statistics may look convincing on the surface, but it is irrefutably failing to match the population demographics that its stores operate within.

“Today, Apple released updated diversity figures indicating it has made slight but steady progress in hiring more women and underrepresented minorities — and ensuring those employees are paid the same as their white male counterparts.
Apple still overwhelmingly employs white males, with men representing 67 percent of its workforce and white employees representing 54 percent of the total workforce. Those numbers have changed by no more than 1 percentage point since 2014, when Apple began publicly cataloging the numbers.”
— Apple says all US employees now receive equal pay by Nick Statt, The Verge

Sexual Harassment: I do not have any immediate experience with sexual harassment, but some of my trusted current and former coworkers have volunteered and to share their own stories, all of which have been published with their consent.

“[Redacted Employee] told me in 2018 that the piercing on his dick would make me feel good. I immediately walked off the sales floor and reported it to [Redacted Manager] in the office. Since there was ‘no proof,’ he was supposedly given a misconduct warning. If something happened again, he would be terminated. It happened again. He wasn’t terminated. Now fast-forward, he was promoted to Expert over me. Last time [Redacted Former Manager] was in the store, I sought them out and asked them for advice. I shared my path, and they told me ‘Stay close to [Redacted Manager], that’s how you’ll get promoted. I worked with them before at [Redacted Company].’” [Redacted Employee] has since been reputedly placed on paid leave pending his third investigation for sexual harassment.
“I asked a customer politely and firmly to stop calling me ‘honey’ because he was patronizing me, and [Redacted Lead] did nothing when I requested not to work with him. He then said ‘women shouldn’t be allowed to work in tech and should stay at home.’ [Redacted Lead] continued to help him.”
“A customer asked me ‘if I’ve ever been kidnapped,’ and [Redacted Manager] laughed because ‘it was a sweet old man being silly.’”
“A guy groped my ass, and I was told to continue working while he leered at me.”

Customer Abuse: Not all abuse stories were sexual in nature, but there have been numerous incidents in which Leadership refused or failed to defend us from hostile customers. COVID-19 has made people unbelievably cruel and insensitive to customer service and retail workers. We should not be expected to work with customers that do not respect us as human beings, no matter the logo on our shirt or the amount of money they’re willing to pay.

“A customer had a concealed carry and was yelling at us. His partner told mall security that she was going to punch them in the face. We had to keep helping them, and we still sold them a phone after that.”
“A customer was wearing Trump stuff, and he said he wouldn’t work with ‘colored people.’ Also he demanded that I type the password for his wife, and her password was the n-word. I was still expected to help them.”
“I asked [Redacted Lead] once to ask someone to leave because their hoodie said ‘retarded’ in the Nascar font, and they just said ‘We don’t know what to do about it.’ It was a week after the training that literally used the r-word as an example of what not to allow in store.”
“I asked [Redacted Manager] for help with a customer who refused a mask and then chose to wear a bandana. He repeatedly lowered it and said rude things to me. I showed [Redacted Manager] the part on Apple’s website that said bandanas were not acceptable for masks, and they said ‘We’ve never followed that rule, and I won’t going forward. We’ve let lots of people in like that.’”
“[Redacted Manager] told me that the reason I was probably being perceived as ‘rude’ compared to [Redacted Employee] was because I was wearing a mask and they were not. They were able to see [Redacted Employee’s] face and not mine, so that was holding me back.”
“I asked a customer to leave because they wanted their Mac repaired same day with water damage, and we didn’t have a Genius working. Management had told me to cut off all Mac appointments because we also closed in less than an hour. The customer began screaming, calling me a ‘bitch,’ a ‘shitty retail worker,’ demanding a manager, etc. I repeatedly called for a manager, but none of them were on radio. I told them to leave, saying we would not help them since I didn’t want her to treat my coworkers like that. I was so shaken and worked up from the verbal abuse that I walked up to [Redacted Manager] and asked for a moment to calm down. They wrote me up for ‘losing my composure’ and ‘abuse of authority’ for kicking the customer out without consulting with a manager. That was then used against me when they declined me for a promotion.”

More than a hundred stories like these have been published by #AppleToo. Perhaps equally as worrisome, employees are vigorously discouraged by Leadership from talking about workplace matters, citing “privacy considerations.” Apple has officially stated that employees are free to talk about pay equity, but most other issues are still strangely taboo.

“Bailey and two former colleagues say there have been multiple HR complaints filed against the manager (Apple would not confirm the complaints). But nothing ever seemed to change.”
— Apple’s frontline employees are struggling to survive by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

Pay Equity

Presently, I earn $21.18/hour, which is roughly a 40% increase from my starting rate. After my last promotion in 2018, all applicable raises were given in accordance with our annual compensation policy. By most standards, this is extraordinary in comparison to other retail jobs, especially with the health insurance benefits and stock options in tow. Frustratingly, the reality is that we are underpaid for the quality and quantity of work that is expected of us.

On our busiest days, each individual employee sells literally tens of thousands of dollars of product per hour, and our compensation is a fraction of a percent of that revenue. We are also upselling hundreds of dollars of monthly subscriptions that customers don’t ask for.
Apple’s policy forbids us from earning commission or accepting tips. In contrast, Managers earn quarterly bonuses when we reach their sales goals or appease other various metrics. We do not receive any dividends of it.
Employees hired post-COVID now start at a rate of $20/hour, but all existing employees were not adjusted accordingly.* In context, that means my raise of $6.18/hour is really only worth $1.18/hour. My 5 years of experience, loyalty, and a promotion is only worth an additional dollar and a quarter each hour over someone hired today. Not much to incentivize pre-COVID employees to stay and build a career at Apple.
The annual compensation increases are based on our metrics throughout the fiscal year, and typically fall into a range of 1%-3%, which barely equals the average inflation rate of 2% (or the recent astronomical inflation rate of 6%). Because very few earn the coveted 3% raise, most employees’ wages are flat or declining year-over-year without the extra buoy of a promotion.
Even if someone does stay at Apple for an extended time, such as a decade or more, retail positions are pay-capped. Meaning there is a glass ceiling in which each role can no longer earn raises without a promotion. There is no valid reason for this other than to penalize long-term employees.
More than a year and a half into the pandemic, we were finally given a $1,000 bonus (minus taxes) for not walking out, yet newly hired employees also received similar bonuses, too.

“You only get a good raise if your managers believe you exceeded their expectations, and that bar is so ridiculously high that if you are exceeding those expectations it’s practically performing the duties of the role above yours. If you didn’t spend every day doing your absolute best, if you didn’t outshine every other employee in the store, then you’re left with a pittance raise that barely matches the inflation of the economy around you.”
— Apple Can Do Better by “Johnny Appleseed,” Medium

Ignoring whether or not we are underpaid, it is undeniable that pay disparities do exist, and they don’t make any sense as to why. For example:

I earn $21.18/hour as a Technical Expert with 5 years of experience. One of my coworkers earns $21.75/hour as a Technical Specialist with 4 years of experience. Why does someone that is a role lower with a year less experience make 57¢/hour or an additional $1,200/year more?
Our lowest-paid Genius earns $22/hour with approximately 6 years of experience. Our highest-paid Genius earns $27/hour with approximately 3 years of experience. Why does someone with half as much experience earn $5/hour or an additional $10,000/year more? To worsen the situation, that lowest-paid Genius asked our store’s management team for a raise to match, and they were told that all raises outside the annual compensation policy are only done by the People team.

“Apple insists it does not have a problem with pay inequality. Skeptical Apple employees have been trying to verify that claim by sending out informal surveys on how much people make, particularly as it relates to women and underrepresented minorities. But the company has shut down three of those surveys, citing stringent rules on how employees can collect data.”
— Apple keeps shutting down employee-run surveys by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

The Great Resignation has made retail and customer service wages a lot more competitive, and Apple is falling behind. Starbucks announced that their minimum wage will start at $17/hour (and can be as high as $23/hour starting in 2022). Amazon announced that their minimum wage will now start at $18/hour. My former employer, T-Mobile, announced that their minimum wage will now start at $20/hour. I don’t necessarily endorse a commission system that most carrier stores implement, but I do think there should be some extent of profit-sharing with managerial bonuses. Even some mom-and-pop shops at our local mall are hiring at $20/hour. With the grotesque amount of revenue that Apple Stores absorb, their minimum wage should easily surpass its competition. Trickle-down economics are a myth, and Apple is a textbook example of it.

“In September, Apple announced that all retail and care employees who’d been with the company since March 31st would receive a $1,000 bonus. To some workers, it was a nice surprise; but after years of feeling mistreated, others believe the bonus had more sinister motivations. ‘I think it feels more like they don’t want to get sued for not offering hazard pay after making some of us work in public in the last year,’ the Pennsylvania employee says.
Employees also saw a disparity in Apple’s financial success — reflected in the wealth of its executives — and their own financial precarity. In 2015, Tim Cook announced that he planned to give away his $800 million fortune before he died. ‘When I saw Tim Cook was saying he’s worth nearly a billion dollars and he plans to give all of that away before he dies, I thought, “Well shit, he could start with us in AppleCare,”’ a current employee says.”
— Apple’s frontline employees are struggling to survive by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

*Addendum: As of yesterday, Apple is quietly increasing select retail employees’ pay by approximately 10% starting next month (along with some other modest sick/vacation improvements), which tentatively puts me at $23.84/hour. It’s unknown exactly which employees are receiving this raise and whether the adjustment is based on role, experience, etc., but it appears to be limited to Expert-level employees and higher that were hired prior to COVID-19. While any pay increase is more than welcome, it’s only a drop in the bucket of pay equity, and it still doesn’t clarify whether the aforementioned pay discrepancies have been resolved. Additionally, some older employees who haven’t been lucky enough to be promoted are seemingly not included, and this does nothing to dissolve the pay-caps limiting some employees, too. It’s simple to say that if we’re unhappy, then we should just quit and find a new job, but Apple is also intentionally uncooperative once employees try to leave. I applaud Apple for taking any step in the right direction, but the company is capable of much more.

The Future

Heading into 2022, our store eventually reopened analogous to the “express” model from the early pandemic era. It’s dispiriting that Apple waited to do so until after the holidays and one-third of our store infected. Sadly, our store subsequently ditched that model after less than one day in operation, and now has no capacity restrictions. The Environmental, Health, and Safety team insists that “We regularly monitor conditions, and we will adjust our health measures to support the well-being of customers and employees,” but it is a fallacy to believe that employees’ safety is sacred to Apple.

Disappointingly, all of my friends who’ve landed a Career Experience in California found that almost nobody from corporate has any comprehension of the daily struggles in Apple’s retail half. I hope that this exposé can be educational to them and help us align on a common vision. We may not have the same inequalities, but we can both advocate on each other’s behalf. Likewise, Apple Stores in some European countries are unionized, and it may be time for Apple Stores in the United States to do the same, though Apple has a history of crushing those that try.

“Over the past few months, however, that culture has started to erode. As workers across the tech industry advocate for more power, Apple’s top-down management seems more out of touch than ever before. Now, a growing number of employees are organizing internally for change and speaking out about working conditions on Twitter.”
— Apple’s fortress of secrecy is crumbling from inside by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

Lastly, this article focuses predominantly on the negatives of working for Apple. If my intention was only to damage the company, I could’ve included names or confidential information, but I didn’t. This article was written because I have a genuine adoration for Apple, and it is a company I aspired to work for. My hope is enough outcry will prompt the company’s retail executives or shareholders to think differently about its credo and those who embody it. I will be paying close attention to the next shareholder meeting on March 4th. One of my former coworkers, who left after 6 years because of a cancer diagnosis, posted this on Instagram when they departed:

“The team members who were typically full of life were miserable. Burnt out doesn’t begin to cover it. I know this isn’t unique to just Apple Stores, but I’ve never seen talent put through a capitalist meat grinder quite like that.
I’m glad I was able to get out when I did. It’s not ‘just a retail job that deserves retail pay’ like they want you to think. You guys provide an immeasurable amount of value and your talent can go anywhere, I promise. The pressure is not healthy. You deserve so much more.
In the last few weeks I was in store, the team’s morale was in a place I had never seen. It was heartbreaking. I used to look up to this company so much, and working for them was a point of pride for me.”

As a final note, I have spoken to “Johnny Appleseed” about the article they too wrote on Medium. Like me, they are an equally experienced Technical Expert in the United States who loved Apple but has reached a breaking point in their neglect for us. Today, I’ve submitted my two-weeks notice. I’m aware that this article is the end of my career at Apple, but I have a moral imperative to speak out, especially on behalf of those that cannot. Rest in peace, Mark Calivas.

Special thanks to Zoe Schiffer, Mark Gurman, Reed Albergotti, Janneke Parrish, Cher Scarlett, and my fiancée for inspiring me. #AppleToo