Rare Layoffs at Apple Impact Dozens in Sales Roles

[MacRumors]

Apple is making cuts and has laid off dozens of people in sales roles, reports Bloomberg. Apple is aiming to simplify the way that it sells products to businesses, schools, and governments.

Affected employees received notice over the past couple of weeks, and positions eliminated include account managers for large businesses, schools, and government agencies, plus staff at Apple's briefing centers for major customers. Employees were reportedly surprised by the layoffs, but they are able to apply for other positions within Apple.

Apple told Bloomberg that it is making changes in its sales team to better connect with customers.

To connect with even more customers, we are making some changes in our sales team that affect a small number of roles. We are continuing to hire and those employees can apply for new roles.

While Apple says it is restructuring some of the sales team, affected employees apparently believe that Apple wants to move more sales to third-party retailers. Pushing sales through retailers allows Apple to save money by cutting salary costs.

Apple is giving employees over a month to find a new role. Those who haven't gotten another position in the company by January 20 will receive a severance package.

Article Link: Rare Layoffs at Apple Impact Dozens in Sales Roles

 

[germanbeer007]

It's to pay for the patent trolls. All those wishing Apple to "pay up" are literally asking Apple to lay off people's jobs. Great going, guys.

 

[kotaKat]

Apple was never too charitable when it came to business-to-business dealings. As much as you could get a lot of human support and handholding (probably the only thing it was worth), deals were never there. What was their volume pricing deals again - like five bucks off an iPad at 10x or 100x quantity or something?

Makes sense to pass B2B over to firms like CDW/PCMall (as absurd as it sounds) in the long run, speaking as someone who’s done a lot of volume hardware purchasing and dealt with account reps across the board.

 

[jz0309]

affected employees apparently believe that Apple wants to move more sales to third-party retailers.

don't most bizs as well as education and I suppose Govs work directly with the PC makers (eg Dell, HP etc)? this seems an odd viewpoint ...

 

[yabeweb]

It's to pay for the patent trolls. All those wishing Apple to "pay up" are literally asking Apple to lay off people's jobs. Great going, guys.

Hope this is a joke I do not get as non native speaker ....cause it does not make much sense..

 

[EugW]

Hope this is a joke I do not get as non native speaker ....cause it does not make much sense..

I'm a native speaker, and agree, it does not make much sense.

 

[LizardOfSoul]

Apple is not the company it used to be. Apple is still doing “Forever Layoffs” in other major groups like AppleCare and select retail stores.

They no longer want skilled US based labor. They want to continue to send US based jobs overseas.

If you call Apple USA today, you’re going to get a 3rd party vendor about 80-90% of time the time.

Half of that, you’re not getting a US citizen.

All for pure profit while lying about being a progressive US based company.

 

[coolfactor]

Hope this is a joke I do not get as non native speaker ....cause it does not make much sense..

I'm a native speaker, and agree, it does not make much sense.

There are some that believe Apple is automatically guilty of violating patents simply because they are owned by someone else. But it's not the simple. Some patent owners are "trolls" that are abusing the patent system just to make free money.

 

[EugW]

There are some that believe Apple is automatically guilty of violating patents simply because they are owned by someone else. But it's not the simple. Some patent owners are "trolls" that are abusing the patent system just to make free money.

We understand what was said, but the point was that what was said does not make any logical sense.

 

[0815]

Laying of dozens of people (especially for such a big cooperation) is these days nothing - other (bigger) companies are laying off thousands of people (and its often not reported on - my company just let go of tons of people, and we can't even figure out how many were fired, you just find out by people no longer responding), especially in the tech sector. If you look for the tech job these days - good luck, you need it. If you are looking for a technical talent, now is a great time.

 

[coolfactor]

We understand what was said, but the point was that what was said does not make any logical sense.

The original commenter is suggesting that Apple is laying off staff to pay for patents instead of salaries. And you're right, there is no logic in that.

 

[bmark]

It's to pay for the patent trolls. All those wishing Apple to "pay up" are literally asking Apple to lay off people's jobs. Great going, guys.

That's a really bad take. It's more like they are laying off underperforming sales reps.

 

[Darajavahus]

They should layoff all of the people making the cringy tv ads

 

[Fumblerooskie]

Is this the Boomer’s fault too?

 

[germanbeer007]

Hope this is a joke I do not get as non native speaker ....cause it does not make much sense..

Apple has unexpected bills. So they fire people to make up for the unexpected bills. Hope that makes sense for you now.

 

[germanbeer007]

That's a really bad take. It's more like they are laying off underperforming sales reps.

Agree to disagree.

 

[jonnysods]

This explains why our local Apple Business team keeps cold calling and emailing.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Apple was never too charitable when it came to business-to-business dealings...

Back when I worked with a company that wanted to use Apple hardware but not the software, they weren't even just un-friendly, they were actively hostile.

 

[ajfahey]

Apple is not the company it used to be. Apple is still doing “Forever Layoffs” in other major groups like AppleCare and select retail stores.

They no longer want skilled US based labor. They want to continue to send US based jobs overseas.

If you call Apple USA today, you’re going to get a 3rd party vendor about 80-90% of time the time.

Half of that, you’re not getting a US citizen.

All for pure profit while lying about being a progressive US based company.

So, you're in favor of political policies that are designed to keep jobs in the US?

 

[now i see it]

They’ll find another job.

 

[Pedro Simões]

Shameful delays in AI, total dependence on Google, engineers leaving en masse, Tim Cook resign now!!!!

 

[lowlymarine]

If you call Apple USA today, you’re going to get a 3rd party vendor about 80-90% of time the time.

This has been true for at least fifteen years - yes, even before Jobs died - so it's hardly an "Apple of today" thing.

 

[t0rqx]

Every penny counts at Apple.

 

[tridley68]

Thanks Tim Cook right before Christmas you should be so proud of yourself . Prayers to their family's

 

[PlayUltimate]

dozens? Not sure that number is even worthy of a report. Especially since Apple has 166,000 employees. Assuming 4 dozen were laid off, that amounts to 0.029% of the workforce.
Especially since some companies are announcing 10% layoffs. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/full-list-major-us-companies-220813398.html