Employee Claims Apple Has Threatened Termination Over Viral TikTok Video

[Nuno Lopes]

Humm, don’t know how to go about it.

I lived in an era were people would give advice one to one. Someone within the circle of friends or people familiar would call, or email that was just it.

Having an employee giving customer support at will to half a million to millions of people over the company products is an entirely different matter. What if an advice goes wrong? Nope. She should have directed the person to customer support or supplied links to the company docs.

It’s just common sense. There is no freedom without common sense. I feel people are loosing it with the social media histeria.

The fact that than she then went public over what seams to be a reasonable internal company procedure … well … shows that common sense is not her strong.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

It’s crazy what people will do for views and followers on social media, even risk the job.

Yeah, crazy people just trying to be helpful. We could use more of *that* kind of crazy and less of what we have now.

 

[Xavier]

My partners new phone was stolen in LA in January. Within the week, it had been shipped to china and stripped for parts or had the HD swapped (at least that's what I'm guessing). The chances of getting a stolen phone back are pretty slim but yeah, some of these tips are at least worth a shot.

 

[DesignTime]

Apple can’t support or allow non Apple approved influencers. It’s part of Apple’s “approved” influencers agreements.

 

[psac]

The part about "We don't pay you to make videos" makes me wonder if she was doing these while on the clock, or at least that's the company's suspicion.

Otherwise, my company (not Apple) has a very clear social media policy that if we ever mention the company we work for, we have to make it very explicit that we do NOT represent the company and this is our sole personal opinion, and that even so, we must still represent the company well because we have mentioned the company. She probably would have been much better off explicitly saying that she worked for them and she was not speaking in an official capacity instead of beating around the bush as to who she worked for.

 

[XXPP]

I saw that TikTok! It… only seemed to reinforce what an Apple support document would tell a user to do in that situation. I’m not sure why she’s getting reprimanded! She’s not leaking any secrets nor saying anything bad about Apple….

She looks terrible, speaks irritatingly, her behavior is "weird". If I imagine someone like that as an Apple employee, I lose confidence in that company

 

[Mr. Dee]

What do you expect when you run by a bean counter and a bunch of MBA bros? I’m truly worried for Apple these days.

 

[BellSystem]

You are either a mindless drone and they love you, or someone with a brain and they hate you. Working for Apple at any level is not great. They do not encourage anything but super 24/7 positivity about everything. Anyone that is critical of anything they do ends up on the list of people to go. They are the worst company to work for, period.

 

[Turribeach]

Despite what everyone says I think she should be fired. There is absolutely no reason to identify yourself as an employee of a company, specially when you have such a large social media following. This was a massive mistake. There is no law that prevents you from identifying yourself as a company employee but once you do the company has the right to enforce their social media policies since you have now put a target on your back. Anything you do or say online can be seen as coming from the company so the company has to protect their reputation. And it's not hard to find stupid social media posts from anyone really. So either don't reveal who you work for, don't use social media or have a curated social media presence, those are your only 3 options.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Have you tried playing the video backwards? .......If you do you'll hear her blabbing secrets about products in the pipeline. Of course it's coded so it sounds like gibberish to those that don't know how to decrypt it.

Paul is still dead...

 

[I7guy]

[…[ I don't think she even violated the letter of it and certainly not the spirit. […]

Clearly you are not privy to that information:

What is more frightening is the number of Apple apologists I always see on these forums defending them even when they are being ******s.

What’s even more frightening is the num we or apple backbiters that assume guilty before innocent.

Consider my name: machugger. As in Mac Hugger. That's how much of a "fanboy" I used to consider myself. The behavior of Apple corporate on so many things like this has slowly turned my stomach over the years. Apple (and its evangelists - including me) were far more likable when they were hungry. The software initially made me fall in love, the amazing hardware is holding me (by a thread) but man, am I getting tired of holding my nose to cover the stench.

The relationship I have with apple is they produce products, I buy their products. If the stench turns you off maybe it’s time to move on.

 

[MrPresident]

The part about "We don't pay you to make videos" makes me wonder if she was doing these while on the clock, or at least that's the company's suspicion.

I too wondered about this. Is it a reference to the fact she makes an insinuation that her employer is Apple and is therefore representing the company perhaps? The videos don’t appear to be an area of an Apple workplace.

 

[locovaca]

I too wondered about this. Is it a reference to the fact she makes an insinuation that her employer is Apple and is therefore representing the company perhaps? The videos don’t appear to be an area of an Apple workplace.

Employees are still WFH for a little longer

 

[msackey]

Gosh, before so quick to air dirty laundry, I hope the TikToker made sure they used the internal channels before escalating to making this a public case. For instance, sometimes what managers say are wrong and their supervisors may “overrule” their decisions. Just because it’s coming from a manager does not necessarily mean it’s coming from the institution though yes, the manager is representing the institution. So before making the case go public, I hope homework was done to make sure that supervisor of manager also thinks policy was violated etc.

 

[sw1tcher]

"I can't tell you how exactly I know this information, but I can tell you for the last six years I've been a certified hardware engineer for a certain company that likes to talk a lot about fruit."

I also don't get why the tiktoker has to mention that she works for Apple.

She didn't. At least not in the original/1st video which resulted in an Apple manager telling her that she had breached Apple policy.

Apple isn't the only fruit company that has hardware engineers. She could've been an employee for BlackBerry, or Raspberry (Pi), or one of the Tangerine companies (Tangerine AI / Tangerine Innovation or Tangerine Technology).

 

[0828557]

What on earth are you talking about? She HAS her own viewpoints and she HAS the ability to discuss them in the public forum. She crossed the line when she announced she was an Apple employee which meant to many that she was speaking in an official capacity for Apple. That’s the issue here.

No she wasn't.

There is a difference between claiming a reason for possessing expertise on the subject of the video and claiming to be a spokesperson.

This was very clearly the former and not the latter. If "many" thinks she is a spokesperson, that is on them. We should not be holding people responsible for others acting counter to reality when they did not have to.

 

[Rogifan]

I get a feeling that there's more to the story here.

Yes as is usually the case.

 

[rpmurray]

"I can't tell you how exactly I know this information, but I can tell you for the last six years I've been a certified hardware engineer for a certain company that likes to talk a lot about fruit."

I've never really heard Apple talking about fruit; usually they're talking about hardware, software or services. But this comment is really odd since you don't really have to be a certified hardware engineer, for any company, to have read the advice she gives that's the same as what you'd see on any of a number of other forums, including here.

 

[Patchwork]

Apple has always been pretty clear that you can’t say you work for Apple on social media - see Mark Rober’s recent interview with Marques Brownlee about his YouTube channel and the time he worked for Apple as a good example of this. The company I work for has the same policy, which makes sense as you need to be careful what messages come out, especially for a stock market listed company.

 

[bchah]

What surprises me most is that somebody who worked for Apple for 6 years thinks they are going to keep their job after this. They are so crystal clear when you get hired about where the line is on not just social media, but representing Apple off the clock. Calling yourself a "certified hardware engineer for a company that discusses fruit" before giving iPhone advice is pretty rich for someone claiming they don't represent Apple. Matter of fact, the first thing they tell you in training is "You ARE Apple" because for many customers especially in a retail-facing position, what you say and do provides their entire public perception of the company. She may have been toeing that line with her first post, but she completely obliterated it with the followup. I'd be fixing up my resume if I were her.

 

[J___o___h___n]

I've just watched her videos and the information she provided was good and is already publicly published by Apple. She's a little quirky - but I liked that. She isn't dressed in her Apple uniform or doing her content during her work hours - I see no issue here. If she's dismissed, that would certain make Apple look bad. She's done nothing wrong in my eyes.

 

[Wildkraut]

Poor Girl, better leave that Evil Corp…
Disgusting – even for me who dislikes social platforms.

 

[Expos of 1969]

You would think Apple would give her a bonus for having a Tik Tok account considering it is a company that talks about fortune cookies a lot...

 

[Wildkraut]

The biggest mistake what she had done is that she used tiktok.

Or started to work for a rotten fruit company.

 

[Black Magic]

She could have just stated that she was in the tech industry. By attaching herself to Apple, any goofy or inappropriate stuff she does on TikTok will reflect on Apple. People don't need to get on social media throwing around names. Own your own content and stand on your own name.