Today I congratulated a friend on his 35th work anniversary at Apple. Those of us with some work history at Apple appreciate the accomplishment. When I left Apple in 2004, I used to joke that I could count on the fingers of one hand and have some change the people I knew who left Apple without being shown the door.
My friend at Apple thanked me for bringing him back to Apple twice "during the dark times" when Apple layoffs were a quarterly event. There are at least three others still at Apple whom I brought back after they were laid off. I was happy to do it. They were great employees and did not deserve to go in the first place.
It is rare these days that we see people who last twenty years in a career much less thirty-five years. That is even becoming the case in government. I do not think employees are less loyal. There are plenty employees that are some of the most dedicated, hardworking, and ethical employees that our country has seen.
What I have seen change over my four decades plus in the workforce are the employers who are willing to treat good employees as dispensable assets and pawns in internal power struggles. Fourteen years ago we were cleaning the house which had been our family's home for over one hundred years. I came across a letter from my Uncle Fred's employer, a railroad company. It was written in the fifties just after he had discovered that he was very sick. He had worked at the company for decades and they basically told him to take as much time as he needed to get well and his job would be waiting for him. From the letter, I got the impression they were still paying him something.
It is hard to measure that against what I saw at Apple. One of my team was recovering from a heart problem when an unscrupulous HR person tried to con her into signing a document that would have been very negative for her. Fortunately, she called me for advice. I saw another Apple employee let go just after a divorce and while in the hospital.
It is easy to dismiss this as Apple was just taking care of business. Except they were not. While you might think business decisions drive decisions on employees, it is often not the case. Companies like Apple are rife with people who have their own agendas which have little to do with the mission of the company. Like in our government, corrupt and incompetent people often get more power than they deserve. They end up making their employees miserable and fire some of them for no good reasons.
I never had a problem getting a person who was shown to be unqualified for their job to leave. However, we have given corporations and organizations so much power, that they can fire people at will for any reason or no reason. Often employees have to sign non-disclosures and non-compete agreements. It is clear all the power is in the hands of the large corporations.
Apple's Tim Cook used to enjoy seeing Apple's computer sales teams fight for the same crumbs of business. In a world where Apple has always been the small player in selling computers, never reliably cracking 10% market share, it made little sense to have Apple sales teams competing over the same business instead of trying to expand the market. It often made you feel like Apple was not even on your side. It certainly was the case for our team which was tasked with selling computers to the federal government.
After leaving Apple, I worked for a CEO who believed that you only got good efforts out of salespeople by threatening them with the loss of their jobs.
Eight years after I left Apple and as I was writing the Pomme Company, I got threatening notes from Apple's lawyers with copies of the all the confidentiality agreements that I had signed. I went ahead and published my book. The only secret that it revealed about Apple was the toxic sales culture that was encouraged by a long string of clueless executives.
I was shown the door by Apple because I took a stand against some very unethical things. One of the issues involved the unfair compensation of my employees and the other involved the improper treatment of one of Apple's best customers.
Leaving Apple made me a happier person, but finding another career after giving your body and soul to one company has been challenging. I enjoyed being part of the Apple story but like many former Apple employees, I know the company is not as shiny as its products.
I am going to post a link to this story on Twitter with #shownthedoortooearly. If you too have been a victim of corporate intrigue and lost your job for no good reason, post a comment to Twitter with #shownthedoortooearly, I would like to read your comments as I enjoy the waves along North Carolina's Crystal Coast. I am @ocracokewaves on Twitter.
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