Are Apple Retail Employees Allowed To Use Non-Apple Products?

Molecule · Jan 1, 2012

Hi. I was hoping someone knowledgeable about Apple Retail (ie. current or former employees) could offer some advice. I'm considering applying for a job in an Apple Store at some point in the not-too-distant future, and I'm wondering what their policy is on employees using non-Apple products. Don't get me wrong, I love Apple and all, but not to the exclusion of all others. For example, if I were in the market for a smartphone, I would buy a Windows Phone. If I were to buy a tablet today, it would unquestionably be an iPad. But if Windows 8 tablets were on the market right now? Perhaps not. And for my next computer I am considering buying (or, more likely, building) a PC, although this largely depends on what Apple does regarding the Mac Pro.

Would any of this be frowned upon by coworkers, or more importantly, bosses? If so, would it threaten my employment or would it just make things a little awkward? Bear in mind it's not as if I'd be getting any of these products out and showing them to customers...

Many thanks in advance for any replies.

Molecule

miles01110 · Jan 1, 2012

Common sense would be that you keep these treasonous thoughts to yourself at work.

Hellhammer · Jan 1, 2012

They can't control what you do with your money. It would be different if they gave you free hardware. Then you would most likely have to have e.g. an iPhone as your work phone.

Suno · Jan 1, 2012

Can I work at Burger King but eat at McDonalds?

Can I work for Verizon but use AT&T?

The same line of thought would conclude that yes, you can use non-apple products. At the very least, they can't ban or fire you for not using a non-apple product. But if they give you a product for free, then yes, you probably would have to use their product for anything work-related.

Carl Sagan · Jan 1, 2012

Can't see it being an issue although I doubt they'd like to see you using your phone in view of the public...

Apple OC · Jan 1, 2012

Molecule said:
I'm considering applying for a job in an Apple Store at some point in the not-too-distant future, and I'm wondering what their policy is on employees using non-Apple products.

have you considered applying at the Windows Store instead? ... maybe get a discount on that Windows stuff.

wpotere · Jan 1, 2012

Of course they can't tell you how you spend your money. However, they may offer a nice employee discount.

gnasher729 · Jan 1, 2012

Molecule said:
Hi. I was hoping someone knowledgeable about Apple Retail (ie. current or former employees) could offer some advice. I'm considering applying for a job in an Apple Store at some point in the not-too-distant future, and I'm wondering what their policy is on employees using non-Apple products. Don't get me wrong, I love Apple and all, but not to the exclusion of all others. For example, if I were in the market for a smartphone, I would buy a Windows Phone. If I were to buy a tablet today, it would unquestionably be an iPad. But if Windows 8 tablets were on the market right now? Perhaps not. And for my next computer I am considering buying (or, more likely, building) a PC, although this largely depends on what Apple does regarding the Mac Pro and the next iMac.

Would any of this be frowned upon by coworkers, or more importantly, bosses? If so, would it threaten my employment or would it just make things a little awkward? Bear in mind it's not as if I'd be getting any of these products out and showing them to customers...

No employer can tell you what products to use privately, unless your position is so high up that you are in the public eye and questions would be raised. On the other hand, I don't know exactly what Apple is doing, but many businesses give decent rebates to their employees and I suppose Apple would do the same; you would have the best tech support in the world if you are an Apple employee using Apple products, so I very much doubt that buying a PC is a sensible thing to do.

BTW. Many Microsoft employees use iPods, iPhones and iPads.

maflynn · Jan 2, 2012

Its better for apple, if they believe in what they sell, and I'm sure they give nice discounts so there's even more motivation but they cannot force them.

JoeG4 · Jan 2, 2012

I'm not really sure how they'd find out anyway. It's not as if you'd be using your phone in the store hehe.

Most people don't have the guts to criticize someone in person for what they use. If you've been a Mac user for a long time and had an Apple laptop with a glowing white logo on the back you probably already know this

The one time EVER, that someone criticized me they indirectly did so when talking to another person in the same room, and I knew more about Windows than they did. Go figure.

maflynn · Jan 2, 2012

JoeG4 said:
Most people don't have the guts to criticize someone in person for what they use.

I'd have to disagree with that assessment. I've worked at computer stores back in the day selling both Apple and PC software and I remember getting a lot of criticism for using Macs. At various IT sites I worked it, I also incurred direct criticism for being a Mac person.

I'm not alone, many of the long time apple users I know dealt with the same thing and there's still a lot of prejudice against apple products in IT shops

KnightWRX · Jan 2, 2012

maflynn said:
I'm not alone, many of the long time apple users I know dealt with the same thing and there's still a lot of prejudice against apple products in IT shops

Really ? Each time I whip out my MBA and use it instead of the computer approved HP laptop everyone else is using, people usually just ask me about it and just stare for a good 5 minutes.

IT people love Macs. But I guess that goes with the territory when you work in a mostly Unix house. Then again, the few Windows people we do have also like our Macs.

I've never seen this prejudice against Macs. I've seen tons of insecure Mac users that jump on the defensive as soon as someone mentions something about PCs (not even thinking about the Mac side) though. But that was ages ago, back in the 90s in my tech support days when Apple was quite irrelevant anyhow.

JoeG4 · Jan 2, 2012

Seriously, being a 20-something college student I'm around many 20-something college students KNOWN for their acts of immaturity, and I have never dealt with that. I've had a few acquaintances and friends that openly disliked Apple, but they respected my decisions and we got along just fine, although we did poke fun at each other sometimes.

Well, there was that one time! Oh well.

I have much bigger problems with the crowd that believes Apple is a status symbol and mere mortals (that use MetroPCS) shouldn't be allowed to own such things. It's funny, I was just reading on reddit a day ago about how Hollister is very image-centric when they hire employees, and in light of this I'm glad Apple doesn't do the same.

(If you worked for Apple retail and can prove me wrong go for it, but I've seen plenty of different kinds of people working Apple both in retail and in their HQ and I've never seen a 'type' preferred)

noisycats · Jan 2, 2012

KnightWRX said:
Really ? Each time I whip out my MBA and use it instead of the computer approved HP laptop everyone else is using, people usually just ask me about it and just stare for a good 5 minutes.

IT people love Macs. But I guess that goes with the territory when you work in a mostly Unix house. Then again, the few Windows people we do have also like our Macs.

I've never seen this prejudice against Macs. I've seen tons of insecure Mac users that jump on the defensive as soon as someone mentions something about PCs (not even thinking about the Mac side) though. But that was ages ago, back in the 90s in my tech support days when Apple was quite irrelevant anyhow.

Wow, we run in completely opposite circles. While I get the occasional honest interest, it is way overshadowed by the seemingly endless suggestions that I overpaid and that Dell/HP/Sony/Samsung/Android...you name it...are so much better and so further advanced.

And this is most often from our IT guys.

Molecule · Jan 9, 2012

Thank you to all of you for your advice. As far as employee discounts goes I think the figure i heard was 25% on 1 Mac per year or something, which does sound very tempting. But like I said, it largely depends on what Apple does with the Mac Pro - I want something that's expandable so it can grow with my needs, and be made to last longer than a notebook or all-in-one ever could (and I don't want to have boxes everywhere.). Still, even if I built myself a PC, it's not as if I'd be abandoning the Mac completely; I'd still have my MacBook Pro.

Once again, thank you all for your help.

Molecule

Mr_Brightside_@ · Jan 9, 2012

Just to add my .02-
They don't care, as long as you're knowledgeable about Apple's products.

the8thark · Jan 9, 2012

In your own time they probably won't care. But on work time they could make you only use Apple products cause they could call it advertising for the competition. Yes being seen with a product is a form of advertising.

Mr_Brightside_@ · Jan 9, 2012

the8thark said:
In your own time they probably won't care. But on work time they could make you only use Apple products cause they could call it advertising for the competition. Yes being seen with a product is a form of advertising.

They don't care. I mean, you can't just be texting on the clock, but if you pull out a Blackberry on your break it's not a problem.

kolax · Jan 9, 2012

You're free to use whatever technology you want. The issue would be if you had a huge bias towards other technology products and this was influencing your sales abilities at the Apple Store.

For example, a customer is interested in buying an iPad but there are Windows 8 tablets on the market, and you tell the customer about the Windows 8 tablet being a good alternative.

As soon as you put on the Apple uniform, you are the biggest Apple fan in the world, whether you are or not. Apple doesn't want people who aren't passionate about their products working for them. I wouldn't want someone like that working for my retail store if I had one..

Mr_Brightside_@ · Jan 9, 2012

Kilamite said:
You're free to use whatever technology you want. The issue would be if you had a huge bias towards other technology products and this was influencing your sales abilities at the Apple Store.

For example, a customer is interested in buying an iPad but there are Windows 8 tablets on the market, and you tell the customer about the Windows 8 tablet being a good alternative.

As soon as you put on the Apple uniform, you are the biggest Apple fan in the world, whether you are or not. Apple doesn't want people who aren't passionate about their products working for them. I wouldn't want someone like that working for my retail store if I had one..

You've got it.

zigzagg321 · Jan 9, 2012

There is no prohibition against non apple products unless you are on the clock... as in, no whipping out your EVO4g while you are on the clock out on the floor.

notjustjay · Jan 9, 2012

Kilamite said:
You're free to use whatever technology you want. The issue would be if you had a huge bias towards other technology products and this was influencing your sales abilities at the Apple Store.

For example, a customer is interested in buying an iPad but there are Windows 8 tablets on the market, and you tell the customer about the Windows 8 tablet being a good alternative.

As soon as you put on the Apple uniform, you are the biggest Apple fan in the world, whether you are or not. Apple doesn't want people who aren't passionate about their products working for them. I wouldn't want someone like that working for my retail store if I had one..

On the other hand as a customer I might be more inclined to trust a salesman who had accurate and unbiased knowledge of the competition. For example, some years ago I was shopping for a Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe (for those unfamiliar with these cars, they were the exact same vehicle mechanics, just different sheet metal and badging). Salesmen at each dealership would tell me all kinds of lies about the other one ("The Matrix has power steering, the Vibe doesn't!", "Ours are built to tighter tolerances", etc.)

Obviously if you work at an Apple store you need to sell the Apple stuff, but knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each (without resorting to lies) would be useful. I've seen too many salesmen at Best Buy, etc. who simply don't know what they're talking about. You don't want to be that guy.

kolax · Jan 9, 2012

notjustjay said:
On the other hand as a customer I might be more inclined to trust a salesman who had accurate and unbiased knowledge of the competition. For example, some years ago I was shopping for a Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe (for those unfamiliar with these cars, they were the exact same vehicle mechanics, just different sheet metal and badging). Salesmen at each dealership would tell me all kinds of lies about the other one ("The Matrix has power steering, the Vibe doesn't!", "Ours are built to tighter tolerances", etc.)

Obviously if you work at an Apple store you need to sell the Apple stuff, but knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each (without resorting to lies) would be useful. I've seen too many salesmen at Best Buy, etc. who simply don't know what they're talking about. You don't want to be that guy.

How can you expect unbiased sales advice from an official retail store of a company? You work for Apple, you sell only Apple products, I think if you expected the sales advice to be unbiased then you are naive..

notjustjay · Jan 9, 2012

Kilamite said:
How can you expect unbiased sales advice from an official retail store of a company? You work for Apple, you sell only Apple products, I think if you expected the sales advice to be unbiased then you are naive..

Well, maybe not completely unbiased, but factual and reasonably balanced. The moment a salesperson spouts an obvious lie, his (or her) credibility is ruined and that causes me to question every other statement they've made.

"Nobody else has this feature" is one such lie (or simply a mistake, easy to do if you don't keep yourself up to date on what the competition is doing). I'd be much more inclined to trust someone who can say "Well, <competition> has a feature similar to this, called <X>, but I've used it and I personally find that Apple has done it better because ____".

I also respect a salesperson who is able to say, after assessing my needs, that maybe their product isn't right for me (without it being an insult).

MUCKYFINGERS · Jan 9, 2012

A number of my co-workers used non-iOS devices (ie Blackberries) while I worked at an Apple retail store.

Are Apple Retail Employees Allowed To Use Non-Apple Products?

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