Apple designer quits; blogs about harsh work conditions online

Smartphone and tablet companies like Apple and Samsung are said to be the best companies in the world. These companies are giants and they pull in huge money every financial quarter. But, looking beyond the glitz and glam of the devices and launches, there is something else. Well, how about how these companies treat their employees? A former Apple employee, has blogged about the harsh life of Apple employees beyond the glamour of this tech company.

Jordan Price, ex-Apple employee has opened up the floodgates on how Apple treats its employees by his post on blogging site Medium. The post opens up about how he after being initially enamoured by the prospect of working at Apple, was left disillusioned by how Apple treats its employees.

Extract from Price’s blog post.

“I had also taken a substantial pay cut, but I figured I was making a long-term career investment by working for such a prestigious company. On boarding was super bumpy, and they had so many passwords, accounts, and logins that it took nearly a month just for me to get on the server. There were meetings all the time which were disruptive to everyone’s productivity, but they seemed to be a necessary evil in a company that’s so large with such high-quality products. It was all a bit bothersome, but nothing that would be a big problem in the long-term I thought.

Then my immediate boss, who had a habit of making personal insults shrouded as jokes to anyone below him, started making direct and indirect insults to me. He started reminding me that my contract wouldn’t be renewed if I did or didn’t do certain things. He would hover over my back (literally) like a boss out of Dilbert and press me to finish some mundane design task that he felt urgently needed to be examined. He was democratic about his patronizing and rude comments, but it didn’t make me feel any better when he directed them towards my team members. I felt more like I was a teenager working at a crappy retail job than a professional working at one of the greatest tech companies in the world.”

So, is it an attempt to scandalize Apple or a true story? Well, from reading his post, one can gage that this is nothing more than an honest account of working at Apple. Rather than slogging it out at a job he hated, the man has quit, but not before letting the world know of his plight. The man, from his site and his work seems quite adept at his work. But he surely has taken his chances writing this blog post, which might threaten future employers while hiring him. Apart from that, we also would like to make it clear that Jordan was not permanent employee but a contractual one which only lets him rant about his job online and not file a wrongful labour practices suit against Apple.

Apple hasn’t responded to the post as yet.