Apple Store Worker Says Staff Routinely Get Death Threats From Customers

[masterpace]

The article doesn't provide the full picture. Also, it would be fair to compare the global "Package" of a UK Apple Store specialist to another local similar job.

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Reality check: I have an employee contract, and it says that I mustn't give away any confidential information of my employer. Is it enforceable? Well, I don't want to find out, because the only way to find out is to publish anything confidential, get fired, and have an employment lawywer tell me that the company was absolutely right.

Apple store employees receive training about new products. As common sense would dictate, they get this training before new products are released. Before the public knows about new products. Not only is this kind of NDA enforcable, it is also essential to keep trade secrets intact. If for example details of an iPhone 7 are a trade secret, then the moment that store employees get training about it without an NDA, the trade secret status is lost.

What you say is true. And it is also true a lot of NDAs and confidentiality agreements are not enforceable. I think you are taking a very reasonable approach not testing it, since it will only waste your time, money, and job to do so. And this is precisely what the company and its legal team is relying on: intimidation. They know that they may not win a suit against you for violating the employment contract. They know they probably don't even want to waste the money on that lawsuit. So they make you sign it, show you their lawyers, make it sound scary, and 99% of the time no one bothers to test it.

Many NDAs, especially trade secrets, are enforceable, so everyone should be careful out there and consider if it is really worth it to risk it. IIRC, a few former coke employees have been indicted for selling off the secret recipe to undercover employees.

 

[MH01]

It is absolutely disgusting that Apple treats their retail employees with so little respect and human decency. Pay them a livable wage and promote them when they do a good job. Is it that difficult?

This is click bait journalism, Apple is also a supporter of child workforce labour cause materials used in thier devices are sourced from mines that a child was present at....

The idea that Apple staff routinely get death threats is a joke and disgusting journalism , it's by even what this article is about, but hey....it's doing to job and creating debate and page impressions , each one ad revenue...

Welcome to retail. Maybe a journalist can do some actual work and compare the top 5 tech companies and show the pros v cons of each one for retail staff. Problem is that they will all be almost identical at Apple will probably look good, and no debate / story there.

 

[Thunderhawks]

Retail is usually for people straight out of high school

Because there are people who are incapable to hustle (independent employment) or don't have the capacity to get higher education and get a respectable job...OR....they have no idea what they want to do with their lives.

Yes, yes, and yes.

Now how is that Apple's fault. (Or any other company's)

 

[pat500000]

Yes, yes, and yes.

Now how is the Apple's fault. (Or any other company's)

You're just assuming things now.

 

[Thunderhawks]

This is click bait journalism, Apple is also a supporter of child workforce labour cause materials used in thier devices are sourced from mines that a child was present at....

The idea that Apple staff routinely get death threats is a joke and disgusting journalism , it's by even what this article is about, but hey....it's doing to job and creating debate and page impressions , each one ad revenue...

Welcome to retail. Maybe a journalist can do some actual work and compare the top 5 tech companies and show the pros v cons of each one for retail staff. Problem is that they will all be almost identical at Apple will probably look good, and no debate / story there.

Many people do not understand that a lot of jobs are downright unpleasant, not well paid, but there are workers needed to do these jobs.
It is like a pyramid of education. Those with better educations and smarts will enter someplace and progress.

The pyramid will include some that FEEL trapped due to they circumstances, but it is not fair to distribute other peoples money, just because they have it.
Would anybody say Donald Trump should pay his employees double, because he has money? Why not ask all corporations that make money to pay their workers double?

All pretty unrealistic.

 

[coolfactor]

With all Apple's billions of savings, Apple should be treating its staff much better-- better pay, better conditions. Steve Jobs had been noted to have spoken highly of the way Hewlett Packard used to treat its staff when working for them as a teenager. A bit more of this old fashioned genuine appreciation for employees is required. When I think of Apple, I often think of McDonald's and the poor way they conduct their business and treat their staff.
Saying this, death threats is not a tolerable situation and Apple should be reporting these customers to authorities.

I have a very different view on this subject. The problem is that "enough" is never enough. If Apple were to start paying all of its staff more, then they would demand even more. And on it goes. Sure, the wages I see in the article are pretty pathetic and could use an increase, but that's not really the issue, is it? Raise wages, costs go up, and then wages need to go up again. It's a vicious cycle.

And my experience is that McDonald's does not treat its employees poorly. I worked at McDonald's for four years (20 years ago, mind you), and it was a very positive, incentivized environment. They recognized hard-working, achieving employees. My only bad experience there was when I started dating someone and her sister didn't like me. Her sister got management on her side and I was out the door. Oh, memories...

 

[Thunderhawks]

You're just assuming things now.

ha,ha, can't tell if you are serious.

Writing from first hand knowledge. I am dealing and have dealt with a lot of workers who due to education, non existent hustle or not caring about the job they do, will never make a lot of money. (Whatever amount that is, adjusted by their wants)

Some are permanently in work avoidance mode and have to be supervised like children and pushed along for their own good. Some cannot follow or retain the simplest instructions.

Sad for me to see, because I want everybody to do well, but I cannot help everybody and neither can corporations.

 

[pat500000]

ha,ha, can't tell if you are serious.

Writing from first hand knowledge. I am dealing and have dealt with a lot of workers who due to education, non existent hustle or not caring about the job they do, will never make a lot of money. (Whatever amount that is, adjusted by their wants)

Some are permanently in work avoidance mode and have to be supervised like children and pushed along for their own good. Some cannot follow or retain the simplest instructions.

Sad for me to see, because I want everybody to do well, but I cannot help everybody and neither can corporations.

I can relate to you too in a sense as I might self was placed in that position, but I decided that I wanted a better life and refuse to live in a mediocre life. I admire that you care for others...but you can't always be there when they don't want to push for the best.

 

[5105973]

If I'm patronising, it is because that is a horrific situation. In many ways your country seems medieval to me.

Actually, before you go nuts at me, consider that I was making a joke about how backwards your country is (and, to be fair, I still think I've got a point). In fact, on some level it's actually patronising to me that you'd expect other countries to work in the same cruel and unfair way as yours does, and start making claims without even the most basic information you need to understand the topic.

As you rightly admit, you don't know the very first thing about how public health works in the UK. Yet you comment on it. And then you start criticising me for joking about how your entire perspective seems outlandish and bizarre to a native. I don't consider making jokes to be rude - there's a line and I didn't cross it. If you can't laugh about some of the ridiculous things that happen in every country, including your own, you're taking yourself too seriously.

Maybe you should consider what rudeness and politeness mean in a broader context. It's not just saying 'please' and 'thank you'.

It IS a horrific situation. I was trapped in it myself. I noted a number of policies at my employer that made it extremely difficult, if not impossible for even a content worker to stay employed there. I myself had replaced a woman who retired. There were a handful of employees who were working toward retirement there. They started their time there in an era that was more humane and allowed for lifelong employment in those jobs.

In my time there, I saw a sudden rush of policy changes that came with a new upper management regime that seemed designed to ensure there would be a high level of attrition. They then replaced the experienced aging workers with young, inexperienced new hires at lower salary levels and decreased benefits packages. The new system was designed so that it would be very challenging for a young person coming into any of the branch jobs to stay long enough to accrue two weeks vacation, let alone work toward an adequate retirement.

It IS backwards. Now if you were appalled that I was implying such a thing would be permitted in the UK, well where I was coming from with that is that it is Apple, an American based company bringing over to the UK the same practices I've read in other articles that they use here in the US. Since they don't actively have any policy that discriminates based on age (as that would likely also run afoul of laws in the US) Apple MIGHT be trying to keep a fresh flow of young energetic workers via policies that almost ensure a certain level of attrition, even if they brag about high retention rates. One way to ensure people leave is to block their upward mobility within the company.

When I get back home and have more time I will try to track down the other article I'd read on the subject.

I wasn't trying to imply anything against the UK but was proposing the possibility that Apple is trying to keep a flow of fresh employees in its stores. I thought it was possible that they were doing so for the same reason my employer was...to reduce responsibilities to older workers. But it's just conjecture. They may have other reasons I don't have enough firsthand experience of their corporate culture to discern.

Sorry if you were joking I was not able to determine by your tone and your words that you were. In the USA it's generally considered unfriendly and patronizing to tell an adult his or her contribution to a discussion is "cute". It's also not considered polite to tell someone their country is backwards but I was willing to overlook that anyway because we in the USA are often guilty of such arrogance. And you did have an interesting point.

 

[Mac 128]

I would hope anyone with such precious photos would rely on their own backup plan, like a simple USB drive (or two backups if its super-important) and not a third party.

Well any Apple employee will tell you that you only need 16Gb on your iPhone because iCloud will safely and securely back up your precious memories. No need for you to do anything else. Just sign up for iCloud and pay for as much storage as you need.

And then that same employee has to break the news to you after your iCloud data has become corrupt and your iPhone has dropped into the toilet, that no backup system is foolproof, and you should have had multiple strategies. And that's why employees get death threats.

 

[JamesPDX]

Would L. Ron have allowed this?

 

[DUCKofD3ATH]

They need to call them something else, calling them a genius gets them a lot of hate from the get go.

Sure. Calling them The Barely Adequate Bar would have soothed customers much better.

 

[blacktape242]

But did you die?

 

[FieldingMellish]

The real outrage is about those privileged enough to afford Apple products. Hang your heads in shame.

 

[IJ Reilly]

"Purported" is the same without negative implications. For example "the purported witness".

purport verb |pərˈpôrt| [ with infinitive ] appear or claim to be or do something, especially falsely; profess:she is not the person she purports to be.

Definitely a negative connotation, and not appropriate for the usage here, since no false claim was implied. If the person interviewed for the story was being treated as making an not entirely credible claim of being an Apple Store employee, then purported might have been the way to describe them. Nothing about the story hinted as any such thing. So this is just another word frequently used and abused for impact. Just say what you mean is always the best, first rule of writing.

Anyhow, MR changed the wording the story. Now they just need to fix the highly misleading headline.

 

[Undecided]

Many countries around the world have automatic guarantees and warranties and consumer rights that extend much further than Apple's 1 year warranty and 3 year AppleCare. For example in the UK Apple website: http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

"Apple Products and Consumer Laws in the United Kingdom: Under consumer laws in the UK, consumers are entitled to a free of charge repair or replacement, discount or refund by the seller, of defective goods or goods which do not conform with the contract of sale. For goods purchased in England or Wales, these rights expire six years from delivery of the goods and for goods purchased in Scotland, these rights expire five years from delivery of the goods."

And then people have trouble understanding how such requirements affect them through higher prices, like here and here and here.

 

[asiga]

Every time I have gone to an Apple Store, I always got the impression that employees have a very hard and unpleasant job there. Yes, they welcome you with a smile, they act positive, but they really look like they're in the middle of a war there.

What I read in this article confirms the impression I always got after visiting any Apple Store: it's a hard job, comparable to working at Burger King or McDonalds, just they are creative employees who are trained to act positive, but the job conditions look as hard as that.

You know, when somebody enjoys their job, you feel it, and you leave the shop thinking "I'd love to have a job like that". This never happened to me when leaving an Apple Store.

 

[Timur]

Many NDAs, especially trade secrets, are enforceable, so everyone should be careful out there and consider if it is really worth it to risk it. IIRC, a few former coke employees have been indicted for selling off the secret recipe to undercover employees.

To give an idea what these things can look like (this is from an Apple "Non-like-for-like with feature loss" agreement):

6. Confidentiality: Each party agrees to keep the terms and existence of this Agreement completely confidential except that each party may discuss this Agreement with an attorney who may be assisting in negotiating this Agreement.
​

I wonder what happens when a judge is involved in this? Do both sides have to keep the agreement secret from him, since he isn't any sides' attorney?

7. Governing Law and Venue: This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of California. The parties agree that any dispute relating to this Agreement shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the Superior Court of California for the County of Santa Clara or the Northern District of California. Each party submits itself to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of those courts. If any provision of this Agreement is for any reason found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable, it shall be adjusted rather than voided, if possible, in order to achieve the intent of the parties. The remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect.
​

So here is the part about what happens when some part of the agreement is "unenforceable". It's worth mentioning that the "adjusted rather than voided" part might by itself be voided by a corresponding country's laws. Hopefully Apple in the meantime exchanged these kind of contracts/agreements with wording that isn't just expecting every customer in the world to live in the US and go by US rules.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I worked in retail during my college years and never received death threats. Is this a modern thing or are Apple doing something I don't know about? Weird.

 

[mikecorp]

Most of the sellers are useless. I prefer buy online anyway.

 

[alexgowers]

Retail is horrible, working at apple retail is no different but they get paid more. The obsessive stuff could be seen as bad I suppose but the quality of apple products don't match the business side. Apple are a nasty prickly company that make great products but I think people should not get confused and start thinking they're some nice bunch of people.

I loathe dealing with Apple, for a company that charges a fair price for products they don't half want to sell you a tonne of **** you don't need. Radio, apple cover, lessons, contracts, iTunes match, icloud space and much more. And every single accessory seems to fall apart cables I'm looking at you

 

[ant69]

Please tell that to the US burger flippers that want $15 an hour.

It's just human nature to want more. Irrespective of whether they are actually worth it.

 

[vooke]

Should stores employ or remunerate their staff so much that they can afford what they are selling? The most the stores can do is to advance the phones on special credit

 

[hindmost]

I was thinking Disney, not Walmart.

People love to read horror stories about how badly Disney/Walmart/Apple/McDonalds treat their employees. It gives us a sick satisfaction. The bigger the company, the more righteous indignation we allow ourselves. It's therapeutic.

Disney recently canned their longtime 'cast members' at DisneyWorld and brought in H1B visa folks from India.

So, if you speak 'hindi' you will surely get along well with Mickey, Goofy and the gang. Oh, reportedly before they were 'let go' the former U.S. cast was required to TRAIN the boys from Delhi or not receive their dismissal 'bonus'.