Fifteen former and current Apple employees have blamed the Apple brand human resources department for not taking them seriously or retaliating against them when they reported harassment, according to the report. financial times. The British newspaper details in an article this Thursday the experiences of these women, based on interviews with them as well as with other employees of the group and confidential documents.
They describe “disappointing or counterproductive” reactions from human resources departments and retaliation in some cases. Apple did not immediately respond to a request from AFP, but told the newspaper that it was investigating these employee complaints and that it planned to modify their training.
masculine culture
In six cases, women who reported harassment were deemed poor employees and left the company, says the Financial Times. Some have been offered several months’ salary against promises not to criticize Apple in public and not to sue. Since the #MeToo movement went viral in 2017, many working women in male-dominated Silicon Valley have spoken out against macho and sexist cultures and behaviors.
One of the Apple employees quoted by the Financial Times, Megan Mohr, said she was inspired by the movement to decide to report to Human Resources, in 2018, that a colleague had taken off his shirt and taken a photo of her after a night out. of drunkenness But according to the article, the company told her that this behavior, even potentially criminal, did not violate any rules in the context of her job. She ended up resigning after 14 years with the iPhone maker.
Another employee cited by the newspaper, Jayna Whitt, recounted in a blog post how she was reprimanded for allowing a personal relationship to interfere with her work. Her relationship with a group attorney had soured and she had tried to expose her physically and emotionally abusive behavior. Apple employs 165,000 people worldwide.
In 2018, from Singapore to California, thousands of Google employees watched a work stoppage to denounce the company’s handling of sexual harassment. This summer, it was Activision Blizzard studio employees who took action against internal harassment and discrimination. And in December, six women filed a complaint against Tesla, alleging repeated incidents of sexual harassment at the automaker’s plant in California and retaliation against those who whistleblowers.
Source: BFM TV
