Apple Plummets to Lowest Ranking Ever in Glassdoor's Annual List of Best Places to Work

[star_nerdy]

Trying to enforce a PC culture does not bring out the best in your workforce.

I still believe you get the best out of people if they fight what they believe in, even if that results in debates that are perceived at conflict, as long as its constructive, you get better products.

Have you ever worked at Apple?

I bet you haven’t. You’re not talking from experience. PC culture has zero to do with why they are where they are. Relentless seeking of profits, demanding employees work holidays instead of hiring more people, people never getting the raise they deserve because of quotas, lack of upward mobility, hiring from outside their stores for management positions, lack luster products that cost a fortune for employees to purchase and so many more reasons are why they are where they are.

PC culture is not why they are down.

 

[2010mini]

Not too long ago, there was an article about Apple employees complaining about the open office setup in the new campus.

I personally would hate an office like that, and can understand why there were so many complaints.

I wonder how much impact this had on Glassdoor's ranking?

My job has a wide open space. Doesn’t affect my work one bit. It was weird at first, but now I don’t even notice it.

 

[mainomega]

Clickbait garbage looking for free views.

 

[recoil80]

Not too long ago, there was an article about Apple employees complaining about the open office setup in the new campus.

I personally would hate an office like that, and can understand why there were so many complaints.

I wonder how much impact this had on Glassdoor's ranking?

Now I work in a room with 8 people, sometimes there is too much noise but I don't complain.
I've worked in open floors with 40+ people, and it really hurt my productivity.
As a developer I like quite environments, some colleagues isolate themselves by putting on headphones with noise cancellation but I don't like that, I hate when I have to wave my arms in order to get attention after I try to call a person multiple times.
I'd like remote working, at least once or twice a week. Sometimes I need to work during weekends and I do it at home, I don't work many hours but I'm very productive since I have no distractions.
I'll chose my next employee based on his flexibility about remote working, since it is something I really care about.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Apart from the stunning drop, falling below the likes of snooze fest companies like Adobe and MS really tells a bigger story. It's not that Apple is a horrible place to work, obviously it's still relatively good. But good isn't enough in this highly competitive area where the best of the best engineers and idea people is required to stay on top. It's also another data point that TC can talk a good game in this area but the words don't match reality. Clearly more Apple employees are not as excited to go to work in the AM as they once were.

 

[jordii]

1. Bet there's a higher proportion of apple retail employees replying this year. T-shirted shopping mall clerks are not treated like Swift jockies or materials designers back at the mother ship.

2. Speaking of mother ship, lots of pique about the open office design there. They'll work it out.


Those two factors surely responsible.

 

[adamjackson]

"Glassdoor said the rankings are based on its proprietary awards algorithm, which calculated the quantity, quality, and consistency of company reviews submitted by employees between November 1, 2016 and October 22, 2017"

This includes Retail as well? Retail employees outnumber corporate like 2:1, right? I'd imagine retail employees are not making a career out of working at apple and therefore don't mind airing their grievances and besides, retail is hard on someone emotionally and physically.

When Facebook opens 500 retail stores, their score is going to drop dramatically.

 

[Glideslope]

....and this is a surprise? Tim needs to go.

 

[MacsRgr8]

I guess this explains iOS 11.

.... and macOS 10.13

 

[zorinlynx]

Oh this. So much this. The people who designed "open workplaces" should be forced to work in it 24/7 to see how it feels.

What they should do is have both kinds of work environments, and place the people who work best in a certain environment in the right one.

Someone works well out in the open area, doesn't mind being interrupted, has good focus even with noise and activity around them? Put them in the open area.

Someone is easily distracted, needs to focus on a problem for hours at a time and needs some privacy? Private office.

Every person is different and works their best in different ways. Just provide options.

 

[Glideslope]

Clickbait garbage looking for free views.

Could you enlighten us on your current position and work experience within Apple Inc?

 

[convergent]

Is Glassdoor that important? I’ve nevet used it. Do many people here use it?

Glassdoor is useful in the job market. I don't think it really matters if you are 1 or 80 in the ranking though. But if a company is way below its peers in raw numbers, I'd be concerned and probably not take a job there. I did once, and should have paid more attention to the Glassdoor reviews, because the place had some real issues. You do have to look through the reviews, and not just at the score though. As someone else said, it could be all retail employees complaining, or it could be all developers complaining. You can pretty easily figure that out if you spend a few minutes going through the actual reviews.

 

[sirozha]

This.
Last year I became a father, obviously I need to earn money but I want to spend as much time as possible with my family.
Companies like Apple are a good fit when you're young, maybe single and you're willing to work very hard, get a lot of money and have a great name on your resume.
10 years ago I'd have been willing to work at Apple, now I'm not sure I'd apply for a job there.
I don't think they force you to work 7 days a week, but I guess they expect you to work overtime every time they need it.

You don't make a lot of money when working for Apple. If you work for Apple in the Silicon Valley, you can't afford to live there unless you are an executive. If you work in Apple retail, you are not making anything at all. You have to get in when you are young and you have to know how to advance through the ranks fast to be able to make good money with Apple, Google, etc. Otherwise, it's a fun place to work when you are in your early to mid-twenties, but by the time you are approaching 30 and have not advanced to upper management, it's time to leave the sweatshop.

Apple treats job applicants as though they are winning in a lottery by being interviewed or hired. The attitude is extremely arrogant, such as, "You would be working for Apple, so what the hell are your concerns all about?" Again, this is the attitude that the guys and gals in their early to mid-twenties would agree with, but those who are ready to settle down and start a family cannot work 12-hour days for years on end and having to commute 50 miles to work because they can't afford a house near their job. The work environment in companies like Apple and Google is exciting for single young adults, but eventually, this type of work wears you down and you are ready for a change. It's no coincidence that so many talented engineers leave companies like Apple and Google.

I interviewed for both Apple and Google 10 years ago as an engineer, and I thought Google actually was a lot friendlier to job applicants than Apple. But, in hindsight, I think I made the right decision not to work for either of them even though it was very tempting, especially Google.

 

[coolfactor]

Come on Apple - get it together.

So you read something online and believe it to be the holy truth?

Glassdoor may be reputable in some regards, but at the end of the day, where you work and how you feel about it is a highly personal thing.

 

[_Kiki_]

Avoiding taxes by Apple doesn't help them too

 

[KidAKidB]

Many people from the outside want in. But, keep in mind why companies build HQ's like Apple - the expectation to work 24/7 and force work becoming your life. You couldn't pay me enough to work there.

Same... I refuse to sell my soul to a company.

 

[johnbalash]

In practice, those who espouse "Tolerance", are quite intolerant to anyone who disagrees with them.

If Tim could manage to get Apple OUT OF POLITICS (much like Jobs did); and instead of focusing on all that energy on product development, perfecting the OS, and creating better support and environment than the competition, they would not only improve their sales, but accelerate the growth across the market. Then focus on supporting the Mac Pro, which was a very well received, expensive desktop; and take the Mac Mini back to the 2012 design - so people have the option to increase the DDR3 RAM, add a second hard drive. The 2012 i5/i7 Mac Mini can easily be modified to be much more powerful than the top of the line 2015 Model - and this is ridiculous.

How would Apple being tolerant of people affect an employee? I'm sure this has less to do with any of Apple's politics, as that really doesn't affect a day to day employee, but how they treat retail employees. I'm sure it's Apple retail employees bringing down this ranking. They're treated well for retail but it's still retail.

 

[vincenz]

I bet a lot of reviews come from Apple’s retail positions. Not an entirely fair comparison, I’d say.

 

[star_nerdy]

I visited Apple's campus in SF a few months ago (during WWDC) and met up with a designer who had worked there for over a year.

I was surprised to learn that his work phone was an old scrappy iPhone 5C, and that workers at Apple are never prioritized for getting the latest gear to do their work on.

We headed over to Café Macs where I was again surprised to see that every worker had to pay for a simple coffee, as if it would have been a commercial café. I would have expected free snacks, drinks, coffee and meals for working at such a successful company and I don't understand the nickel-and-diming here. I know that the work culture in the US is a bit different than where I'm from (Sweden), but it really tarnished my idea of Apple as a "magical/amazing" place to work at. It felt very cold and big-corporate.

I don't understand why the wealthiest company in the world can't supply proper tools and coffee & snacks to the people on which their success are built on. And maybe they are silly remarks. But it really gave me the feeling that working at Apple is not a very great experience and that you're not really cared for as an employee.

Oh it’s worse!

I worked from home and had to get a desk to meet their requirements for ergonomics. The desk was too big and really expensive and I had to pay out of pocket. They said they’d check to see if it was good via FaceTime and it didn’t matter. I could have gotten a smaller less expensive desk, but nope I got that one.

They gave me $50 a month for internet, good luck getting high speed internet for less than $50. I have internet anyways, but with data caps and using VOIP, that cap was an issue.

When I got injured while clocked in and had to leave to go to a hospital, they complained that I had to leave my shift and docked my pay despite needing medical attention.

I am in graduate school and they wouldn’t let me take time off to go to conferences that were required for my Phd since I ran out of holidays due to attending another conference.

The time between calls was 10 seconds. Think about that when you call in.

We routinely had people bug us during calls if we went on too long. Some customers genuinely need an hour of attention and our average is still under 12 minutes a call, but they didn’t care.

Some of the second tier of support is outsourced to IBM and they can be dicks. For example, if a customer demands a manager, you’re obligated to pass that up immediately. Go to a tier 2 Apple employee and rarely do you have an issue. Go up to an IBM employee and you’re going to get pushback and have to cite the manual.

I had a sticky note to justify a bunch of mandatory escalations for when I got pushback.

Support for new products was basically, good luck we launched something hope your training worked with no discussion.

Team meetings were basically pretend we are all happy loving coworkers and now do as you’re told or else.

I can do this all day. In the end, I just couldn’t take it. The customers were never the issue. My skill set and ability to do the job wasn’t an issue. I left because Apple makes bank and treats some of their employees like pawns.

They have billions on the bank and I get paid more as a part time teaching assistant than I did working for one of the largest and most successful corporations in the world.

 

[convergent]

What they should do is have both kinds of work environments, and place the people who work best in a certain environment in the right one.

Someone works well out in the open area, doesn't mind being interrupted, has good focus even with noise and activity around them? Put them in the open area.

Someone is easily distracted, needs to focus on a problem for hours at a time and needs some privacy? Private office.

Every person is different and works their best in different ways. Just provide options.

Typically you would put teams together, especially if doing development. Not sure how you'd have a collocated team where some people are in the open and some are not.

One thing I tried where we had an open area for development was had quiet/coding times scheduled for several hours in the morning and afternoon. During those times, we discouraged people standing up at desks and talking. This allowed them to have peak periods for coding, and other times for collaboration. If they needed to collaborate at the quiet times they could go to an area designated for that away from the people trying to get stuff done. We talked about getting one of those "On the Air" lighted signs and setting it up on a schedule, but never did.

 

[duffman9000]

What they should do is have both kinds of work environments, and place the people who work best in a certain environment in the right one.

Someone works well out in the open area, doesn't mind being interrupted, has good focus even with noise and activity around them? Put them in the open area.

Someone is easily distracted, needs to focus on a problem for hours at a time and needs some privacy? Private office.

Every person is different and works their best in different ways. Just provide options.

Agreed. Being in an open environment means anyone walking by can see what I’m doing. After I eat lunch, I need at least 15 mins to space out. I miss being able to shut my door and refuse visitors.

Also, I miss being able to rip one with impunity.

 

[Rogifan]

I visited Apple's campus in SF a few months ago (during WWDC) and met up with a designer who had worked there for over a year.

I was surprised to learn that his work phone was an old scrappy iPhone 5C, and that workers at Apple are never prioritized for getting the latest gear to do their work on.

We headed over to Café Macs where I was again surprised to see that every worker had to pay for a simple coffee, as if it would have been a commercial café. I would have expected free snacks, drinks, coffee and meals for working at such a successful company and I don't understand the nickel-and-diming here. I know that the work culture in the US is a bit different than where I'm from (Sweden), but it really tarnished my idea of Apple as a "magical/amazing" place to work at. It felt very cold and big-corporate. In contrast, I've visited the Spotify HQ here in Stockholm and you have access to free coffee, snacks, nuts, protein bars, catered meals, salads, sandwiches, drinks, sodas, energy drinks, etc 24/7 at no charge, you get the latest mid-high specced Macbook Pro and iPhone Plus/X, etc.

I don't understand why the wealthiest company in the world can't supply proper tools and coffee & snacks to the people on which their success is built on. Maybe these are silly remarks. But it really gave me the feeling that working at Apple is not a very great experience and that you're not really cared for as an employee.

The company I work for is #6 on the Fortune 500. We do over $200B in revenues in a year. The only free stuff we get is tea and coffee in the break room. We don’t get free snacks or meals and if we want Starbucks we pay for it. Is it just a Silicon Valley thing to expect all this free stuff from the company you work for?

 

[bgraham]

Probably because they force you to go in at 3am on a Saturday to fix a basic time-based bug in the second biggest mobile operating system.

 

[cljmac]

Apple has ranked 84th on Glassdoor's annual list of the best companies to work for in the United States, after finishing no lower than 36th every year since 2009. In fact, heading into 2012, Apple was 10th on the same list.

It is Apple's lowest-ever finish over the decade that Glassdoor has published these Employees' Choice Awards:
o 2018: 84th
o 2017: 36th
o 2016: 25th
o 2015: 22nd
o 2014: 35th
o 2013: 34th
o 2012: 10th
o 2011: 20th
o 2010: 22nd
o 2009: 19thApple trailed well behind several other technology companies in the rankings, including first-place Facebook, fifth-place Google, 21st-place LinkedIn, 31st-place Adobe, 39th-place Microsoft, and 65th-place Yahoo.

It's not just technology companies that are on the list, with fast food chain In-N-Out Burger and Southwest Airlines among others that made the cut.

Glassdoor said the rankings are based on its proprietary awards algorithm, which calculated the quantity, quality, and consistency of company reviews submitted by employees between November 1, 2016 and October 22, 2017.

Apple earned a 4.3-star rating out of five during that period, compared to Facebook's leading 4.6-star rating. Glassdoor says the average company rating is 3.3 stars among the more than 700,000 employers reviewed on the jobs site.

Apple has an overall 4.0-star rating on its Glassdoor company profile. Apple CEO Tim Cook was ranked the 53rd best CEO of an American company on Glassdoor last year, with a 93 percent approval rating.

The rankings mirror a recent survey of the most ideal employers for tech professionals in the United States, in which Apple ranked fourth, behind Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. In that survey, however, Apple was ahead of Facebook.

We've reached out to Apple to see if the company has any comment about the results, and we'll update this article if we hear back.

Article Link: Apple Plummets to Lowest Ranking Ever in Glassdoor's Annual List of Best Places to Work

Apple is also one of the only ones that have a retail chain. Most of the negative reviews that I have read are from retail. Totally different from corporate.

 

[Stella]

The open planning setup is what really puts me off the HQ. Its terrible in practice, my opinion.

I love open plan offices. I suppose it depends on the job type too - whether you like or dislike it. I've worked in offices were everyone had their own cubicles, I hated it. I quit the job very soon after. Communication was awful, everyone worked in their own silo despite being in the same project. Ugh....