Disgruntled Apple Employee Reveals What's Inside

For those who just finished their schooling and are eager to join the growing workforce, working with a major technological giant like Apple is definitely a dream job. However, those dreams could easily turn into nightmare, especially for those who value their free time.

According to Business Insider, an ex-Apple employee named Ben Farrell recently quit his job at the company and penned a not-too-happy blog post about what it’s really like to work for the company.

It goes without saying that Farrell, who “spent two years in the Apple camp managing customer service improvement for their technical support contact centers,” seems very happy to no longer be working at the company.

First, Farrell found the culture at Apple to not only very demanding but also rather petty and centered around trying to get others around you to fail so you could succeed. He said:

“Sixteen hour days are filled with meetings after meetings followed by more meetings,” he writes. “Whilst this is somewhat standard in most organisations, meetings at Apple wreaked of toxic agendas designed to deliberately trip people up, make fools of the less respected and call people out. Team spirit is non existent as ‘internal customers’ attack individuals and push agendas that satisfy their morning egos. Hours upon hours were wasted in meetings to prepare for meetings in preparation for other meetings to the point where little work actually got done.”

That doesn’t sound healthy, right?

So what else did Farrell dislike about working at Apple? Here are some more relevant excerpts:

• "I found Apple to be a sheltered workshop. The common language spoken being passive aggression, sarcasm and Kool-Aid fuelled stories of ‘success’ designed to manipulate and intimidate naive workers who have never experienced corporate life outside the Apple walls. Like the Chinese emperors believed the forbidden city in Beijing was the centre of the universe and constructed their empire around it, I’m sure that some people at Apple feel the same… Is it a coincidence that the new Apple Campus looks like a giant spaceship? Maybe the plan is for everyone to drink poisoned 'kool-Aid' before ascending to the mothership… Sounds like I got out just in time."
• ”Even after-work beers were a strange affair. Drinks with colleagues revolved around the same stories told again and again as drunken management spoke of times when Apple executives made ‘strategic’ decisions to cut jobs and shut down Apple sites so swiftly and carelessly. Like boy-scouts around a campfire, employees eyes would glow and twinkle at this notion of power and embrace these stories with awe but with utter disrespect for the actions Apple has on the broader community of contractors, vendors, partners, resellers and business partners they have bent over a barrel of non-profitability."
• "Sickness, family emergencies, and even weddings are given no respect at Apple. When I started my role I missed one business trip as my wife was pregnant, fell down the stairs and had to be hospitalised – this was listed as a ‘performance issue’ on my record and brought up during a one on one with management as a major ‘miss’ on my behalf. Meetings at midnight were also common place where I was always asked to present something menial (again to be seen), however even then I wasn’t allowed to simply speak to my topic but instead I was fed scripts by management through instant message with countdowns included about how long I had left to speak ("1 min 30 secs left"… "too long…", "wrap it up"…)."

It appears that Farrel is following what Apple founder Steve Jobs said awhile ago: "– Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice."

For Farrell’s complete rant, click here.