Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
In the last couple of years, we have seen a major movement in the tech industry as victims of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination have broken their silence to expose toxicity within their workplaces. Apple may be one of the biggest companies in the world, but it's far from a perfect one. Recently, the appearance of an #AppleToo website composed of former and current employees promised to share stories of toxicity, harassment, and discrimination within the company. Now, they’ve followed up on that promise.
Content Warning!: The following stories and links contain details of sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse. Proceed at your own discretion.
The #AppleToo organizers released stories in relation to discrimination and harassment at the Apple company in a lengthy post on Medium on September 7, 2021. The post details anonymous, yet nonetheless troubling accounts of various employees. One such account speaks to an area manager “feeling threatened” by an employee’s competency and using screenshots of conversations about pets in a complaint to HR to paint the employee as a misogynist. The employee then claimed they were threatened into silence by management when their psychologist told them to speak to HR over the issue.
Further accounts detail sexual harassment and punishment for speaking up about it, being told by HR that there was nothing that could be done, and even an instance in which false reports of harassment were used as a weapon against one such employee.
“From the moment I was fired, I felt as though my store leader had been looking for any reason to fire me because of my race,” the final account reads. “I was devastated for a long time thinking about all the times I had overlooked the bullying I had faced from leaders and upper management during my time for fear of reprisal.”
The #AppleToo movement and website was formed out of current and prior Apple employees who had attempted to use HR avenues to report issues only for HR to fall short. The release of these stories comes directly on the back of Apple announcing its latest upcoming product showcase. The company has done little to address #AppleToo since it first appeared.
As #AppleToo likely continues to be an ongoing thing amid a number of other Apple company issues (such as the recent employee-signed letter to Tim Cook demanding change), it will be interesting to see if Apple continues to try to remain business-as-usual in the face of these stories and allegations of workplace harassment and toxicity. Stay tuned as we continue to follow the story for further updates.