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Steve Jobs' Infamous Temper Lives on at Apple in Bug-Wrangler Kim Vorrath

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Steve Jobs was infamous for his temper, with a famous story about him blowing up at the MobileMe team following a rocky rollout of that service in 2008.

However, Jobs isn't the only employee at Apple with a short fuse. A profile in The Information studies Kim Vorrath, Apple's vice president in charge of "program management" for both iOS and OS X. She supervises Apple's thorough testing process to discover bugs and is the final arbiter of deadlines to ensure that software updates come out on time.

ios8.png
One story in particular, relayed by Business Insider, tells of Vorrath's displeasure when she found out a co-worker was leaving work early before the launch of the first iPhone in 2007.
Ms. Vorrath, who has worked on all seven iOS releases, generally operates by asking lots of questions of engineers, sticking to the facts and getting them to explain in plain English why a particular feature should be included in the operating system. She's easy to get along with, say former colleagues, who recall playfully mocking her 1990s feathered hairstyle and late 1980s fashion sense. But she isn't known for chitchat and has been known to "blow up" on occasion when people miss deadlines or make excuses, colleagues say.

During a tense time before the first release of iOS software in 2007, Ms. Vorrath grew irate when a colleague was heading home early before another marathon weekend meeting. She slammed her office door so hard that the door knob broke, and she locked herself in. Mr. Forstall grabbed a baseball bat to try to break her out, people who worked at Apple at the time recall.
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The Information says Vorrath has been working at Apple since 1987, starting as an intern and eventually becoming chief of staff for Scott Forstall. Now, she is said to be working directly beneath Apple executive Craig Federighi, who is in charge of Apple's software engineering teams.

Article Link: Steve Jobs' Infamous Temper Lives on at Apple in Bug-Wrangler Kim Vorrath
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/22/kim-vorrath-bug-wrangler/
V

valanchan

macrumors member
Jan 6, 2008
63
14
She's been working there for nearly 30 years and this shows she's got a hot temper?

Slow news day?
 
M

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,662
1,242
The Cool Part of CA, USA
rorschach said:
Old story. Here's an article (originally from Wired) from 2008 that mentions this: http://www.siliconbeat.com/2008/01/10/the_iphone_story_score_one_for_the_irresistible_force/
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Thanks for that link--it mentions the same story, but is phrased much more clearly as to what happened and why there was a baseball bat involved:

A product manager slammed the door to her office so hard that the handle bent and locked her in; it took colleagues more than an hour and some well-placed whacks with an aluminum bat to free her.
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As worded in the quote on the MR post, it sounds like she intentionally locked herself in and Forestall took up a baseball bat to violently get her out of her office. The Wired story, however, makes it clear that the temper part was her slamming the door so hard that it broke the handle, which trapped her in her own office. The baseball bat was to free her, not force her out. Which makes it clear that, yes, she has a temper, but she's not nuts.

Compare to:

She slammed her office door so hard that the door knob broke, and she locked herself in. Mr. Forstall grabbed a baseball bat to try to break her out, people who worked at Apple at the time recall.
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It's amazing how much difference the phrasing can make in the way a story is interpreted. While the second quote is technically true, by saying "and she locked herself in" rather than "locking her in" or "trapping her in the room", it leaves it open to wild misinterpretation of what was going on.
 
S

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
Who gets to yell at her? If she's responsible for testing, I'd say quite a few things have gotten past her... And yet she's not the one grabbing headlines on the tech sites as being remotely responsible.
 
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impulse462

impulse462

macrumors 68020
Jun 3, 2009
2,085
2,872
Chatter said:
Luckily no one asked you. But you do sound like one, if you ask me. :cool:
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I'm sure. This is a forum where I give my opinion. I think you forgot about that.

TechGod said:
So if a guy did it's OK and he can let of steam but if its a woman with the same reaction, she's a bitch? That's what I interpret it as
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Never said she was an ass because she was a woman. If a guy pulled a similar stunt, my reaction would have been the same.
 
T

TBV

macrumors newbie
Apr 22, 2014
1
0
Mountain View
Wait...who's the whiny ass?

impulse462 said:
"..locked herself in." Sounds like a whiny little ass if you ask me.
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Just pointing out that this occurred in 2007... What year is this? (It's 2014. Just pointing that out in case you didn't realize.) Also, what's YOUR job? Maybe uneducated college student? Unemployed "computer programmer"? I think you might be doing something wrong in your life...you're not as enough of a "whiny little ass"... Or many too much of one. :apple:
 
macs4nw

macs4nw

macrumors 601
Sep 21, 2010
4,336
1,933
Next-door from the little old lady from Pasadena..
impulse462 said:
"..locked herself in." Sounds like a whiny little ass if you ask me.
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The original story said: "A product manager slammed the door to her office so hard that the handle bent and locked her in".

Hey, we shouldn't judge; excessive stress does different things to different people. If it wasn't for people like her who care that much about perfection, Apple wouldn't be what it is today.

Besides, this kind of stuff probably goes on in many companies with deadlines looming, but we don't hear about it.
 
LordQ

LordQ

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Sep 22, 2012
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Ms. Vorrath, who has worked on all seven iOS releases, generally operates by asking lots of questions of engineers, sticking to the facts and getting them to explain in plain English why a particular feature should be included in the operating system.
Click to expand...

So she's responsible for quick reply still not in iOS?
 
impulse462

impulse462

macrumors 68020
Jun 3, 2009
2,085
2,872
TBV said:
Just pointing out that this occurred in 2007... What year is this? (It's 2014. Just pointing that out in case you didn't realize.) Also, what's YOUR job? Maybe uneducated college student? Unemployed "computer programmer"? I think you might be doing something wrong in your life...you're not as enough of a "whiny little ass"... Or many too much of one. :apple:
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My job has nothing to do with it. Also quite to the contrary, if I'm in college, I am getting "educated." I'm liking the personal insults I'm receiving based off of my opinion on this. Also the year it happened has nothing to do with it as I didn't hear about it until now. Unless she was a 12 year old 7 years ago, and then went through puberty, I hardly doubt it makes a difference.

In my opinion, slamming the door and locking yourself in the room because you are angry seems like something a 16 year old would do when told by their parents they can't hang out with friends due to bad grades. It doesn't seem like the behavior of a vice president at Apple. People get angry; it happens. How you deal with it shows your maturity.

macs4nw said:
The original story said: "A product manager slammed the door to her office so hard that the handle bent and locked her in".

Hey, we shouldn't judge; excessive stress does different things to different people. If it wasn't for people like her who care that much about perfection, Apple wouldn't be what it is today.

Besides, this kind of stuff probably goes on in many companies with deadlines looming, but we don't hear about it.
Click to expand...

You are right. Stress does affect people differently, so it may not be my position to judge.
 
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